Edited sentence: According to Plutarch, at the age of 75, while drawing mathematical formulas in the dust, he was run through with a spear by a Roman soldier.All surviving records of pre-Greek mathematics show the use of inductive reasoning, that is, repeated observations used to establish rules of thumb.Ancient Rome left little evidence of any interest in pure mathematics.Greek mathematicians, by contrast, used deductive reasoning.Greek mathematics was much more sophisticated than the mathematics that had been developed by earlier cultures.Some say the greatest of Greek mathematicians, if not of all time, was Archimedes (287—212 BC) of Syracuse.The Ancient Greek contribution to mathematics, generally considered to be one of the most important, greatly expanded both the method and the subject matter of mathematics.The Greeks used logic to derive conclusions from definitions and axioms