Archimedes was a mathematician.
Archimedes . Other mathematical achievements include deriving an accurate approximation of pi , defining and investigating the spiral bearing his name , and creating a system using exponentiation for expressing very large numbers . Mathematicians from Alexandria read and quoted him , but the first comprehensive compilation was not made until by Isidore of Miletus in Byzantine Constantinople , while commentaries on the works of Archimedes written by Eutocius in the sixth century AD opened them to wider readership for the first time . The relatively few copies of Archimedes ' written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance , while the discovery in 1906 of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results .