Little is known about the life of Diophantus. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Roman era, probably from between AD 200 and 214 to 284 or 298. Diophantus has variously been described by historians as either Greek, or possibly Hellenized Egyptian, or Hellenized Babylonian, Many of these identifications may stem from confusion with the 4th-century rhetorician Diophantus the Arab. Much of our knowledge of the life of Diophantus is derived from a 5th-century Greek anthology of number games and puzzles created by Metrodorus. One of the problems (sometimes called his epitaph) states: