Flourishing Circa 295 B.C.E.
Mathematician

Uncertain Biography. Although Euclid is one of the more identifiable and enduring writers in classical antiquity by giving his name to a branch of geometry—Euclidean—little is known about his life. Only two biographical details can be established: he was intermediate between Plato (died circa 347 B.C.E.) and Archimedes (born circa 287 B.C.E.); and he taught in Alexandria in Egypt. Earlier scholars believed that Euclid came after Archimedes because Euclid's Elements 1.2 is cited in Archimedes' work, but the passage is regarded as an interpolation. Mathematical commentator Pappus of Alexandria (flourishing 320 C.E.) records that Apollonius lived in Alexandria with Euclid's students and this time period was probably between 246 and 221. One anecdote reveals the only personal detail, recorded by the Lycian Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus, who tells us that King Ptolemy (which Ptolemy is not stated) asked...