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Chapter 6
Diophantus of Alexandria
and Arithmetica
Diophantus of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician who lived in
Alexandria, Egypt, probably from sometime between 200 and 214 AD to
sometime between 284 and 298 AD. Diophantus’s age of 84 years can be
determined from the solution to a linear equation given in an inscription
(a mathematical poem) on his tomb. e English translation is as follows:
God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for sixth part of his life;
when a twelh was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled
for him the light of marriage aer a seventh, and in the h years
aer his marriage he granted him a son. Alas! Late-begotten ...