"Archimedes... does not attempt to argue for or against this hypothesis, he merely objects to the unmathematical idea of there being a certain ratio between a point, which has no magnitude, and the surface of a sphere. Of course the meaning of Aristarchus is clear enough, that if we suppose the earth to move round the sun in a large orbit, the distance of the fixed stars must be immensely great as compared with that of the sun, as our motion round the latter would otherwise produce apparent displacements parallax] among the stars, if they are at different distances from the centre of the world, or at any rate, if they are on the surface of a sphere, make the stars in the neighbourhood of the ecliptic appear to close up or spread out according as the earth is at the part of its orbit farthest from them or nearest to them. This is indeed a very startling hypothesis to meet with so far back as the third century before our era... It would almost seem that there was nothing more to say; that Aristarchus had merely thrown out this suggestion or hypothesis without devoting a book or essay to its discussion, and the fact, that his book on the distance of the sun does not contain anything on the subject, tends to confirm this impression."