The advent of quadratic equations antedates the dawn of the Christian era by about two millennia. The study of conics, however, did not get under way until the fourth century prior to the birth of Christ. The first writer on this subject, Menaechmus, used the parabola and hyperbola in duplicating the cube. Several years later Euclid wrote a treatise on conic sections. This work was continued by Apollonius, whose investigations added much to the existing knowdedge of the subject.