Archimedes
He was the famous Greek mathematician who is said to have run down the streets of Syracuse naked yelling loud “Eureka! Eureka!” all the way for he had just the discovered the principle of buoyancy while taking a bath. But he was not just a mathematician, he was also a competent engineer, physicist, philosopher, inventor and astronomer among many more. Infact, he was one of the leading scientist who made his impact in the classical Greek era of the overall human civilization. His major contributions in science include some of the profound advances in physics. Moreover, his tactical mind along with his mechanical engineering genius helped Syracuse put on a strong offense when the Roman came knocking down their doors.
He was considered to be the greatest mathematician of the ancient Greek era, and he definitely makes it to the list of one of the greatest mathematics genius to have ever lived. His precise calculations led to remarkably accurate approximation of the value of Pi. He also defined the geometry and volumes of different shapes such as the sphere and cylinder.
Leonidas I
Leonidas I was the famous Spartan king whose heroics on the bloodfest battle of Thermopylae was the stuff that legends are made up of. At a time when every single spartan citizen was built for battle, their daily routine pretty much covered up by rigorous fighting and training since early childhood – Leonidas was destined to glory when the Persian came knocking on the doors of ancient Greece. It was said that Leonidas, one of the sons of king Anaxandridas II of Sparta, was believed to be a descendant of Heracles (more popularly known as Hercules), possessing much of his strength and capabilities.
Leonidas left a notable mark on the face of history with his impressive leadership against the might of Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae. His unbelievable last stand against all odds have been passed on to generations by the writings of famous Greek historian Herodotus. He told the story of 300 Spartan and 700 Thespians defending Sparta from a Persian invasion of “2 million” strong army for three days. Yes modern historians do put that number around 250,000 Persians, but the show of utmost bravery Leonidas and his men put up defending at the small pass of Thermopylae is used, to this very day, as a pinnacle example of how training, experience and tactical use of terrain can be used to maximize the potential of even the smallest of forces.
Euclid
One of the earliest known mathematicians to have ever lived, Euclid of Alexandria was often regarded as the “father of Geometry”. Due to lack of earlier documentations, and the fact that most of the documents on the life of Euclid happen to have perished with time, a very little is known about his life. But he was mentioned by ancient Greek philosopher Proclus in this report aptly named “Summary of Greek mathematicians”. According to this, Euclid was an influential and active mathematician involved in the library of Alexandria, and that he lived in the time when Ptolemy I was around, which was much earlier than the era of another famous Greek – Archimedes.
Regardless of all the confusion that still remain unresolved to this day, his contributions have had a great impact in the subsequent history of geometry and mathematics as a whole. His main work is the Elements, which gave birth to basic geometry in its concept and essence. Originally written in a set of 13 books, his famous work is used even today as a textbook in mathematics and comes second only to bible in terms of number of reprints sold. His collection of definitions, postulates, proposition and proofs created the base of mathematics that we are learning these days.
Aristotle
There were three pillars that laid the foundation to what we know as the western philosophy at present age – Aristotle was the youngest of them. A famous Greek philosopher and polymath, he gained all his knowledge and wisdom under the mentorship of Plato and later on made the likes of Alexander the Great. When it comes to being the quintessential figure in the history of western philosophy, he had indeed surpassed his master Plato, being the first person to create a comprehensive system of western philosophy, encompassing several essential aspects and virtues.
Apart from revolutionizing the concepts of morality and aesthetics, logic, science, politics and metaphysics, he was also known as avid writer who covered a number of topics on poetry, theater, music, rhetoric and many more. His views on physical science had an enormous influence on the scholarship of the middle ages, and their impact lasted as late as the age of Renaissance, where the concepts were replaced by the Newtonian physics. Some of his now popular concepts and assumptions in zoology were so far off for the science of the ancient ages and many centuries to come that those observations were proved to be accurate as late as in the 19th century.
