"When the Romans took over, they dumbed things down" Without reading the cited book, the case doesn't seem to have been made for this. "then we have the first

"When the Romans took over, they dumbed things down" Without reading the cited book, the case doesn't seem to have been made for this. "then we have the first four books by Apollonius on conic sections—the more elementary ones—but the other three have been lost" Maybe the 4th volume was just wrong, or an index, or so highly valued it was separated from the other 3. Or maybe the rich hand side of the bookshelf got rot. Is there any more to this?