Editing History of geometry (section)

====After Archimedes====
[[Image:God the Geometer.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Geometry was connected to the divine for most [[History of science in the Middle Ages|medieval scholars]]. The [[Compass (drafting)|compass]] in this 13th-century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of [[Creation myth|Creation]].]]
After Archimedes, Hellenistic mathematics began to decline. There were a few minor stars yet to come, but the golden age of geometry was over. [[Proclus]] (410–485), author of ''Commentary on the First Book of Euclid'', was one of the last important players in Hellenistic geometry. He was a competent geometer, but more importantly, he was a superb commentator on the works that preceded him. Much of that work did not survive to modern times, and is known to us only through his commentary. The Roman Republic and Empire that succeeded and absorbed the Greek city-states produced excellent engineers, but no mathematicians of note.

The great [[Library of Alexandria]] was later burned. There is a growing consensus among historians that the Library of Alexandria likely suffered from several destructive events, but that the destruction of Alexandria's pagan temples in the late 4th century was probably the most severe and final one. The evidence for that destruction is the most definitive and secure. Caesar's invasion may well have led to the loss of some 40,000–70,000 scrolls in a warehouse adjacent to the port (as [[Luciano Canfora]] argues, they were likely copies produced by the Library intended for export), but it is unlikely to have affected the Library or Museum, given that there is ample evidence that both existed later.<ref>[[Luciano Canfora]]; ''The Vanished Library''; University of California Press, 1990. - [https://books.google.com/books?id=q6NsoT1akU4C google books]</ref>

Civil wars, decreasing investments in maintenance and acquisition of new scrolls and generally declining interest in non-religious pursuits likely contributed to a reduction in the body of material available in the Library, especially in the 4th century. The Serapeum was certainly destroyed by Theophilus in 391, and the Museum and Library may have fallen victim to the same campaign.