While often depicted as a widespread medieval belief, the idea of a flat Earth was largely dispelled by ancient Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and Aristotle, who provided compelling observational and logical arguments for its sphericity as early as the 6th century BCE. Eratosthenes later even calculated its circumference with remarkable accuracy. While some later periods saw a decline in literacy and the re-emergence of certain localized flat Earth ideas, especially among some early Christian thinkers who interpreted biblical passages literally, the educated elite and astronomers largely maintained the understanding of a spherical Earth. Columbus, for instance, was not trying to prove the Earth was round, but rather disputing its size.