In 330 B.C., Alexander the Great, the Greek military leader, conquered Mesopotamia. The period from 300 B.C. to the birth of Christ is called Seleucid after the Greek general who first took control of the region following the death of Alexander in 323 B.C. However, the flowering of Greek mathematics had already taken place, and from the time of Alexander until the seventh century A.D., when the Arabs arrived on the scene, the Greek influence predominated in the Near East. Most of what the Babylonians contributed to mathematics predates the Seleucid period.