For instance, Saint Augustine’s warning that Christians should beware of mathematici, that means astrologers, is typically mistranslated as a condemnation of mathematicians. During the Golden Age of Islam, especially through the ninth and 10th centuries, arithmetic saw many essential innovations building on Greek arithmetic.

His textbook Elements is extensively considered probably the most successful and influential textbook of all time. The best mathematician of antiquity is often held to be Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) of Syracuse. Other notable achievements of Greek mathematics are conic sections , trigonometry (Hipparchus of Nicaea , and the beginnings of algebra .

It deals with logical reasoning and quantitative calculation, and its growth has involved an rising diploma of idealizati...