Review
"[Apollonius's Conics] is one of the greatest scientific books of antiquity." "[Apollonius was a] giant, not simply as compared with men of antiquity, but even with men of all times. ... [T]he ingenuity that enabled him to discover so much with imperfect tools [i.e., lacking the arts of analytic and projective geometry] is truly admirable...such achievements pass our imagination, they are almost weird." --George Sarton, from An Introduction to the History of Science and A History of Science
If we want to read for ourselves authors like Kepler and Newton, or if we want to understand the significance of the Cartesian mathematics that has shaped the world we live in and shapes our minds as wellóeither way, whether to understand the past in its own terms or to understand the present as a deliberate transformation of the pastówe need to study Apollonius." --Harvey Flaumenhaft Dean, St. John's College, Annapolis
Product Description
The Conics of Apollonius (3rd Century BCE) is the culmination of the brilliant geometrical tradition of ancient Greece. With astonishing virtuosity, and with a storyteller's flair for thematic development, Apollonius leads the reader through the mysteries of these intriguing curved lines, treated as objects of pure mathematics. His work in turn provided a basis for the very differently conceived investigations of modern mathematicians and scientists such as Viète, Descartes, Kepler, and Newton. Reading the Conics is an unparalleled adventure into the highest reaches of human intellectual achievement. This is a completely new edition of Taliaferro's translation of the first three books of Apollonius's Conics, with all new diagrams. It is the only English translation of these books other than Heath's out-of-print version which is a modernized retelling rather than a true translation. Conics Books I--III were formerly included in Volume 11 of the Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, but the work is no longer included in that series and has been out of print. We made many corrections to the old edition's text, translation, and notes. The book features all new diagrams, an index, a bibliography, and an introductory essay by Harvey Flaumenhaft. Design and layout make it easy to read and work with, with diagrams repeated on every spread, adequate space for notes, and high quality paper to prevent show-through.

阿波罗尼俄斯的《阿尔戈英雄纪》问世于古希腊化时代，是古希腊时代除了两部“荷马史诗”之外唯一完整保存下来的长篇叙事诗。这是一部集古代西方文明之大成的经典，是古希腊叙事诗创作历史上的顶峰。这座里程碑的影响深远，古罗马文学家乃至其后所有的叙事诗人们在学习“荷马”的榜样进行写作时，都要参照《阿尔戈英雄纪》对“荷马史诗”的理解和发展。
这部叙事诗讲述的是，在神意指?下，以伊阿宋为首的一群希腊英雄，历经千难万险，在敌国公主美狄亚的帮助下，夺取金羊毛，又九死一生返回希腊的故事。
《阿尔戈英雄纪》自公元前3世纪问世以来，一直被奉为西方文明当之无愧的经典，不过却从未被引入中国。本书是《阿尔戈英雄纪》第一部中泽本，并直接翻译自古希腊文，译者还对全书进行了全面、详细的注释。

希腊数学家阿波罗尼奥斯著。作者与欧几里得、阿基米德常被合称为古希腊亚历山大前期的三大数学家。本书原共8卷，卷Ⅰ～Ⅳ的希腊文本及卷Ⅴ～Ⅶ的阿拉伯文本保存了下来，最后一卷佚失，但其中一些内容的思想方法可以从帕波斯的著作中给出的一些引理中看到。
在阿波罗尼奥斯之前，圆锥曲线的数学性质至迟在公元前4世纪中期即已为希腊人所研究。阿基米德曾不加证明地叙述了圆锥曲线论的一些基本命题。当时，我们今天所谓的抛物线、双曲线和椭圆是用垂直于锥面一母线的平面来割该圆锥所产生的。相应于直角、钝角和锐角圆锥分别就得到抛物线、双曲线和椭圆。但阿波罗尼奥斯采用了截然不同的方法。他只依据同一个圆锥的截面便得到三种圆锥曲线。这种新方法与旧方法相比有许多优点。首先，所有三种曲线都可以用面积贴合的方法来表示，而旧方法只有在抛物线情形才有可能。用现代术语，阿波罗尼奥斯是把三种曲线的方程归于一个坐标系，该坐标系分别以曲线的一已知直径和该直径一端点的切线为坐标轴。它带来了第二种优点：由阿波罗尼奥斯得到曲线的方法立即可进行斜交贴合，而旧方法只允许直交贴合，用现代术语即曲线的坐标可换为任一直径及其切线。正因如此，《圆锥曲线论》开创了对圆锥曲线的现代研究。
该书第Ⅰ卷首先给出了圆锥曲线的定义，在介绍了圆锥曲线的基本性质之后，证明了关于共扼直径的一些简单事实。第Ⅱ卷开头给出了双曲线渐近线的作法和性质，然后引入双曲线的共轭，并证明它与所给双曲线具有相同的渐近线，之后说明如何求一圆锥曲线的直径。第Ⅲ卷论述关于切线与直径所成图形的面积的一些定理，并论述了极点和极线的所谓调和性质。第Ⅳ卷介绍极线的其他性质，讨论了各种位置的圆锥曲线之间可能有的交点的数目，这一点是前人没有论述过的。总之，前4卷除个别内容之外基本上是前人成果的集大成，只是在论述上更加全面和一般。其余几卷则是更加深入的研究。第Ⅴ卷有许多新颖和独特之处，论述了从一特定点到圆锥曲线所能作的最长和最短的线。第Ⅵ卷讲述合同圆锥曲线、相似圆锥曲线及圆锥曲线弓形，指出如何在一给定的直角圆锥上作出与一已知圆锥曲线相等的圆锥曲线。第Ⅶ卷介绍了有心圆锥曲线两共扼直径的性质，并把这些性质与轴的相应性质进行比较。第Ⅷ卷的内容大概是关于怎样求出有心圆锥曲线的直径，使其满足一定条件。
《圆锥曲线论》一书是古代关于圆锥曲线研究的登峰造极之作，它将圆锥曲线的性质网罗殆尽，几乎包括了我们今天所知的关于圆锥曲线的直径、轴、中心、渐近线等的一切性质（虽然它没有提及抛物线的焦点），使得后人几乎没有再研究的余地。在这方面直到17世纪才有所突破，对它的研究大大促进了解析几何学的诞生。