c. 250 BCEReputable sourceWell documented
Archimedes
On the timeline · around c. 250 BCE · Ancient Mathematics
What happened
Archimedes of Syracuse, often ranked among the greatest mathematicians of all time, calculated remarkably accurate approximations of pi, found the areas and volumes of curved shapes using methods that anticipated integral calculus, and laid the foundations of mathematical physics with his work on levers and buoyancy.
Why it matters
Archimedes pushed ancient mathematics to its height and came within reach of the calculus that would not be fully developed for another nineteen centuries — a peak of ingenuity rarely matched before the modern era.