Selections from Julia E. Diggins, String, Straightedge, and Shadow Viking Press, New York , 1965. (Illustrations by Corydon Bell) 16. A ROYAL ROAD, AFTER ALL During the 4th century B.C., Greek geometry burst its bonds and went on to the tremendous discoveries of the "age of giants." And Greek culture, too, burst from the mainland of Hellas and spread to most of the eastern Mediterranean. Both developments were connected with the romantic figure of Alexander the Great. After Plato's time, teachers and alumni from the Academy had gone on to found schools of their own. In particular, Plato's most famous associate, the great philosopher Aristotle, had set up the Lyceum in Athens, and started the systematic classification of human knowledge. And Aristotle's most renowned pupil was the warrior king Alexander of Macedon, who tried to conquer the world. In thirteen years, Alexander extended his rule over Greece proper, and Ionia, Phoenicia, Egypt, and the vast Persian domains as far as India. Then he died, and his empire broke up. But throughout those far-flung lands, he had founded Greek cities and planted the seeds of Greek civilization-the Greek language, Greek art, and, of course, Greek mathematics. Mathematicians traveled with his armies. And there is even a | |
|
