Part of book IV of the Collection is devoted to the three classical problems of antiquity: the quadrature of the circle, the duplication of the cube, and the trisection of an angle. After reproducing the “solutions” of the various ancient geometers, Pappus virtually stated that the problem were impossible of solution under the terms in which they had been formulated by the Greeks, for they did not belong among the “plane problem,” nor among problems solvable by straightedge and compass: