Dirk Jan Struik on Nicomachus

“"Arithmetic Introduction" is the most complete exposition extant of Pythagorean arithmetic. It deals in great part with the same subjects as the arithmetical books of Euclid's "Elements," but where Euclid represents numbers by straight lines, Nicomachus uses arithmetical notation with ordinary language when undetermined numbers are expressed. His treatment of polygonal numbers and pyramidal numbers was of influence on medieval arithmetic, especially through Boetius.”

“Boetius wrote mathematical texts which were considered authoritative in the Western world for more than a thousand years. ...His "institutio arithmetica," a superficial translation of Nicomachus, did provide some Pythagorean number theory which was absorbed in medieval instruction as part of the ancient trivium and quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.”