Apollonius of Perga Apollonius was a great mathematician, known by his contempories as " The Great Geometer, " whose treatise Conics is one of the greatest scientific works from the ancient world. Most of his other treatise were lost, although their titles and a general indication of their contents were passed on by later writers, especially Pappus of Alexandria. As a youth Apollonius studied in Alexandria ( under the pupils of Euclid, according to Pappus ) and subsequently taught at the university there. He visited Pergamum, capital of a Hellenistic kingdom in western Anatolia, where a university and library