68 § 18 The Domain of Analysis

of the angle, where the postulates admitted by the geometer may not
enable the actual construction of the object, although it is considered to
exist.
Euclid's Data codifies the basic definitions and fundamental theorems
required for analysis of problems. Line segments, areas, circles, circular
segments, and angles are 'given in magnitude' when their equals can be
constructed (11' 0 pi. oao 8a d. Similarly a ratio whose equal can be
constructed is 'given'. Rectilineal figures, when figures similar to them can
be constructed, are 'given in shape' (or 'in species'). 'Given in position',
applied to points, lines, and other drawn objects, is defined as "always
occupying the same place" (a not entirely satisfactory description). The
propositions that follow each assert that, if various objects are assumed
given, then a certain consequent object is given (that is, determined). For
example, proposition 25: "If two (straight) lines given in position intersect,
the point at which they intersect is given in position." Or proposition 90:
"If from a given point a straight line is drawn tangent to a circle given in
position (and magnitude), the (line) drawn is given in position and
magnitude." This example shows that being 'given' does not always entail
being unique (but there must be only a finite number of solutions). The
proofs use the established arguments of synthetic geometry (as in the
Elements), together with the foregoing propositions within the Data.
Necessarily there are some steps that are not well defined, as in proposition
25, where the argument is that if the intersection is not given, it can be
'shifted', and therefore one of the two straight lines will 'shift', in
contradiction with the assumptions. But essentially the Data establishes a
large number of theorems about the constructibility of objects, which are
extremely valuable in the analysis of a problem.
An illustration of the complete solution of a problem, with analysis
and synthesis, is the first proposition (1.1.1) of Apollonius's Cutting off of a
Ratio, translated in Appendix 3. The analysis begins by assuming the
existence of the sought object, and by various constructions and arguments
of the kind proved in the Data arrives at the conclusion that the sought
object is given. Furthermore, Apollonius derives from the analysis a
'diorism' for the problem, namely a condition that one of the given objects
(in this instance a ratio) must satisfy for the problem to have its unique
solution.
Not surprisingly, the Data turns out to be the very first treatise in
Pappus's list of works in the 'Domain of Analysis'. The remainder
apparently were to provide help at a more advanced level. One of them,
Euclid's Porisms, seems to have been in character rather like the Data, but
with much more complex hypotheses. 1 6 6 With the exception of

1 6 6 See Essay B.
 § 18 The Domain of Analysis 69

Apollonius's Conics, the remainder of the books in Pappus's list were

collections of either problems or locus theorems. The five problem books
were all by Apollonius: the Cutting off of a Ratio, the Cutting off of an Area,
the Determinate Section, the N euses, and the Tangencies. Only the first of
these works survives intact (in Arabic), but their general character appears
to have been uniform.' 6 7 Apollonius chose for each a single problem or
group of related problems, and gave an analysis, synthesis, and (where
necessary) diorism of every conceivable case as determined by the various
possible mutual relationships of the objects assumed given. This
thoroughness inevitably made the books very long and monotonous, while
the problems chosen for solution were sometimes not very interesting in
themselves. On the other hand, they are the kind of problems to which
more complicated problems might often be reducible by analysis. It
appears, therefore, that Apollonius himself must have had a programmatic
purpose in writing these works, and that the idea of a 'Domain of Analysis'
may have originated with him. The books of loci also have a manifest
utility in analysing problems. Each locus theorem proved that some object
(usually a point) that satisfied certain conditions with respect to given
objects lies on a given object (usually a straight or curved line, or a
surface). Hence if the same point simultaneously exhibits two independent
locus properties, it will be at the intersection of two given lines, and so will
itself be given. The locus books in the 'Domain of Analysis' were
ApoUonius's Plane Loci (loci that are straight lines and circles), Aristaeus's
Solid Loci (conic sections), Euclid's Loci on Surfaces (probably surfaces of
spheres, cylinders, and cones), and Eratosthenes's 'loci with respect to
means' (in his book On Means), of which we know nothing.' 68 Apollonius's
Conics seems oddly out of place in the 'Domain of Analysis'. While it is
true that parts of its eight books are devoted to problems related to conics,
much of the work is devoted to proofs of properties of the conic sections that
would be of little immediate use in applications to general problems.
Pappus hints in 7.29 that the Conics was in the 'Domain' primarily as a
preparation for Aristaeus's earlier collection of loci, since that work did not
prove all the basic theorems concerning conic sections that it depended on.
Pappus is our only substantial source of knowledge of the 'Domain of
Analysis'. It was known later, for about A.D. 500 Marinus mentions it,
and in the next century Eutocius quotes a theorem in Apollonius's Plane

, 6 7 See Essay A.

, 68 For Apollonius's book, see Essay A section §8; for the others, Essay
C.