Euclid
325 BCE – 270 BCE Greek mathematician
The mathematician whose Elements defined geometry for two thousand years.
- Religion
- Greek polytheism assumed but undocumented; almost nothing of his personal life is known.
- Affiliations
- Worked at Alexandria under the Ptolemies. No secret society.
Euclid gathered and organized Greek geometry into the Elements, building every result from a handful of axioms. This deductive method became the model for rigorous reasoning across mathematics and science. His text was a standard schoolbook into the twentieth century.
In the timeline
- 301 BCE Euclid's Elements and the axiomatic method central figure