The Elements Extended

Mathematics in western culture assumed a variety of forms in the time period just beyond Euclid. Certain metric notions, as well as geometries of a new kind, were to make a faint appearance. Before the golden era receded, the works of Apollonius of Perga, Nicomedes, Heron, Menelaus, and possibly Diophantus had emerged. Still farther along, during the later Greek era (300-500), commentators reflected on the glories of Greek mathematics in the years gone by. Such notables as Pappus, Theon, Hypatia, and Proclus were the discoverers and the writers of the declining years of Greek mathematics. However, the studies initiated by them were to prove the basic elements for monumental developments in the years to follow. They were the great anticipators of rigorous, modern era explorations.