SOURCE: "The Time of Euclid," in Introduction to the History of Science, 1927. Reprint by Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1975, pp. 149-64.

In the following excerpt, first published in 1927 and reprinted in 1975, Sarton offers a brief overview of the scientific developments taking place during the first half of the third century B.C., the time in which Euclid flourished.

I. Survey of Science in First Half of Third Century B.c.

1. The period which we are now going to consider is widely different from the previous one. In the fourth century Athens was the greatest intellectual center of the world; by the beginning of the third century that center had already moved to Alexandria. Strictly speaking, the new period does not coincide with the first half of the third century, but began a little earlier, some time after the advent of the Ptolemies in Egypt. It can not have...