"There is here, as in all great Greek mathematical masterpieces, no hint as to the kind of analysis by which the results were first arrived at; for it is clear that they were not discovered by the steps which led up to them in the finished treatise. If the geometrical treatises had stood alone, Archimedes might seem, as Wallis said, "as it were of set purpose to have covered up the traces of his investigations, as if he has grudged posterity the secret of his method of inquiry, while he wished to extort from them assent to his results.""
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Thomas Little Heath, A Manual of Greek Mathematics (1931)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_mathematics
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Ancient Greek mathematics
Ancient was developed from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD by Greek speaking peoples along the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. The period following Alexander the Great is sometimes referred to as Hellenistic mathematics. The word "mathematics" itself derives from the ancient Greek μάθημα (mathema), meaning "subject of instruction". The use of generalized mathematical theories and proofs is the key difference between Greek mathematics and those of preceding civilizations.
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