ABSTRACT
The present chapter can be read as a refl ection arising from the working conditions of the historian of ancient mathematics. In contrast to colleagues working on the early modern or modern age, the historian of the ancient world generally has very few documents to rely on. In addition, these sources were often produced decades, or even centuries, apart. Owing to complex historical processes usually diffi cult to investigate, these sources, unlike many other documents from the past dealing with similar topics, happen to have survived. 2 The historian has to work with them even though at best, if at all, they can only be placed in a rarifi ed historical context. These conditions demand that historians devote maximal attention to methods allowing them to derive the greatest possible amount of information from these rare documentary resources. Whereas the issue of how to make sources speak is of interest for historians generally, in relation to ancient history it is a matter of vital importance.
