Diophantus was a Greek mathematician sometimes known as 'the father of algebra' who is best known for his Arithmetica(a Greek text about mathematics), MANY ARE NOW LOST!! Diophantus of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Διόφαντος ὁ Ἀ λεξανδρεύς; born sometime between AD 201 and 215; died aged 84 sometime between AD 285 and 299). Diophantus coined the term παρισ ὀ της (parisotes) to refer to an approximate equality. Diophantus was the first Greek mathematician who recognized fractions as numbers

The Arithmetica is the major work of Diophantus and the most prominent work on algebra in Greek mathematics. Of the original thirteen books of which Arithmetica consisted only six have survived, though there are some who believe that four Arab books discovered in 1968 are also by Diophantus Some Diophantine problems from Arithmetica have been found in Arabic sources.

Diophantus was forgotten in Western Europe during the so- called Dark Ages. The portion of the arithmetica that survived was, like all ancient Greek texts transmitted to the early modern world, copied by, medieval Byzantine scholars. In 1463 German mathematician Regiomontanus wrote: “No one has yet translated from the Greek into Latin the thirteen books of Diophantus, in which the very flower of the whole of arithmetic lies hidden....” Arithmetica was first translated from Greek into Latin by Bombelli in 1570, but the translation was never published. However, Bombelli borrowed many of the problems for his own book Algebra. Diophantus is often called “the father of algebra" because he contributed greatly to number theory, mathematical notation Diophantus is also known to have written on polygonal numbers, a topic of great interest to Pythagoras

Little is known about the life of Diophantus. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, probably from between AD 200 and 214 to 284 or 298. Here lies Diophantus,' the wonder behold. Through art algebraic, the stone tells how old: 'God gave him his boyhood one-sixth of his life, One twelfth more as youth while whiskers grew rife; And then yet one-seventh ere marriage begun; In five years there came a bouncing new son. Alas, the dear child of master and sage After attaining half the measure of his father's life chill fate took him. After consoling his fate by the science of numbers for four years, he ended his life.' Here is one of his problems...: He died at 84