The theorem of Pythagoras, Euclid's Elements, Archimedes' method to find the volume of a sphere: all parts of the invaluable legacy of ancient mathematics. Its discoveries and insights continue to amaze and fascinate the modern reader. However, ancient mathematics was also about counting and measuring, surveying land and attributing mystical significance to the number six.

The discoveries and insights of ancient mathematicians continue to inspire, amaze and fascinate the modern reader. From the theorem of Pythagoras to Euclid's "Elements', much of what we know today was built on the legacy of the ancients.
This volume is the first genuinely accessible survey of the discipline in all its brilliance and diversity. It covers the period between the fifth-century BCE to the sixth-century CE and such topics as mathematics and politics in classical Greece, the formation of mathematical traditions, and mathematics and Christianity. Also included are segments on...

This book is at once an analytical study of one of the most important mathematical texts of antiquity, the Mathematical Collection of the fourth-century AD mathematician Pappus of Alexandria, and also an examination of the work's wider cultural setting. This is one of very few books to deal extensively with the mathematics of Late Antiquity. It sees Pappus' text as part of a wider context and relates it to other contemporary cultural practices and opens new avenues to research into the public understanding of mathematics and mathematical disciplines in antiquity.