Greco-Roman Mathematics History

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Starting around 200 B.C. and continuing for the next two centuries or so, the Romans started building a Mediterranean empire that included many of the former Greek city-states, capturing, among many other cities, Syracuse in 212 B.C., Corinth in 146 B.C., and Alexandria in 48 B.C. The various wars did result in a disruption in Greek mathematical research, although afterwards several notable mathematicians arose.

Even though the Mediterranean world was ruled by the Romans, the Roman west was generally disinterested in theoretical mathematics, and most work of significance was still Greek in character and came from the Greek east. The intellectual heart of the empire was at Alexandria, where, over the centuries, several first-rate mathematicians such as Hero, Ptolemy, Diophantus, and Hypatia worked.

48 B.C.
Julius Caesear captures Alexandria; the Library of Alexandria may have been destroyed at this time.
46 B.C.
Julius Caesar gives the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes the task of reforming the calendar.
50 A.D.
Hero does work in the fields of physics, mathematics, and mechanics.
150 A.D.
Ptolemy writes the Almagest which dealt with his theory of planetary motion.
ca. 250 A.D.
Diophantus formulates methods of solving Diophantine equations.
300 A.D.
Pappus compiles and comments on many theorems.
390 A.D.
Theon (335–400) and his daughter Hypatia (355–415) collaborate on mathematical and astronomical work.
391 A.D.
The Serapeum at Alexandria is destroyed.
415 A.D.
Hypatia is murdered.
470 A.D.
Proclus (411–485) teaches mathematics at the Platonic Academy in Athens and writes mathematical commentaries such as his Commentary on Euclid.
529 A.D.
Roman Emperor Justinian closes the Platonic Academy.

After the third century A.D., interest in mathematics and science declined. This decline may have been caused by the persecution of some pagan philosophers, or it may have been that men who previously would have studied philosophy or science instead wrote Christian literature. Furthermore, the Empire-wide economic decline that started in the third century resulted in fewer upper-class people who were able to spend their time doing mathematics.

After the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529, which in a way marks the end of a tradition founded over 1,100 years previously by Thales, there is virtually no significant mathematical work in Christian Europe for almost a millennium, until 1494 when Luca Pacioli, a Tuscan monk, wrote Summa de Arithmetica. Perhaps the sole exception to this stagnation is Fibonacci's work in the 13th century. The continuation of the Greek scientific tradition is found in the Arab world.

You may also be interested in the Ionic number system, or in Roman numerals.

Mathematics timeline

Sources used (see bibliography page for titles corresponding to numbers): 14.