catapults so ingeniously constructed as to be equally serviceable at long or short ranges, machines for discharging showers of missiles through holes made in the walls, and others consisting of long moveable poles projecting beyond the walls which either dropped heavy weights upon the enemy's ships, or grappled the prows by means of an iron hand or a beak like that of a crane, then lifted them into the air and let them fall again[1]. Marcellus is said to have derided his own engineers and artificers with the words, "Shall we not make an end of fighting against this geometrical Briareus who, sitting at ease by the sea, plays pitch and toss with our ships to our confusion, and by the multitude of missiles that he hurls at us outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?[2]"; but the exhortation had no effect, the Romans being in such abject terror that "if they did but see a piece of rope or wood projecting above the wall, they would cry 'there it is again,' declaring that Archimedes was setting some engine in motion against them, and would turn their backs and run away, insomuch that Marcellus desisted from all conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope in a long siege[3]."
If we are rightly informed, Archimedes died, as he had lived, absorbed in mathematical contemplation. The accounts of the exact circumstances of his death differ in some details. Thus Livy says simply that, amid the scenes of confusion that followed the capture of Syracuse, he was found intent on some figures which he had drawn in the dust, and was killed by a soldier who did not know who he was.[4] Plutarch gives more than one version in the following passage. "Marcellus was most of all afflicted at the death of Archimedes; for, as fate would have it, he was intent on working out some problem with a diagram and, having fixed his mind and his eyes alike on his investigation, he never noticed the incursion of the Romans nor the capture of the city. And when a soldier came up to him suddenly and bade him follow to
- ↑ Polybius, Hist. VIII. 7—8; Livy XXIV. 34; Plutarch, Marcellus, 15—17.
- ↑ Plutarch, Marcellus, 17.
- ↑ ibid.
- ↑ Livy XXV. 31. Cum multa irae, multa auaritiae foeda exempla ederentur, Archimedem memoriae proditum est in tanto tumultu, quantum pauor captae urbis in discursu diripientium militum ciere poterat, intentum formis, quas in puluere descripserat, ab ignaro milite quis esset interfectum; aegre id Marcellum tulisse sepulturaeque curam habitam, et propinquis etiam inquisitis honori praesidioque nomen ac memoriam eius fuisse.
