'A Fearful Kindling of Fire'

Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BCE) was the greatest mind of the ancient world. Except for a brief time studying in Egypt, he spent his whole life in Syracuse, the city-state on the southeastern side of Sicily.

When Rome won the First Punic War (264–241 BCE) Sicily became a part of the Roman Empire. King Hiero II remained ruler of Syracuse only by paying tribute to Rome.

In 215 BC, Hiero died. His successor, Hieronymus, switched Syracuse’s allegiance to Cartridge. Therefore, when the Second Punic War began in 214 BCE, Rome sent General Marcus Claudius Marcellus to retake the city.

Hieronymus asked Archimedes to do the impossible: invent machines that would defend Syracuse against the might of Rome.

Archimedes delivered.

Catapults

Archimedes created catapults that threw 500-pound stones at advancing Roman ships and soldiers.

Archimedes’ catapults wreaked havoc on the Roman legions. According to the Greek writer and philosopher Plutarch:When Archimedes began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down incredible noise and violence; against which no man could stand; for they knocked down those upon whom they fell in heaps; breaking all their ranks and files.

Plutarch, Parallel Lives-Marcellus

Polybius also recorded that the defenders could also alter the range of the weapons. Other historians also recorded how Archimedes built the defenses of the city that included smaller and smaller weapons until the invaders faced ‘The Scorpion,’ a small catapult installed at holes in the wall that fired iron darts, forcing the Romans to endure a constant barrage of projectiles while advancing.

The Claw of Archimedes

For the navy Archimedes had two surprises: the Claw of Archimedes and his legendary ‘heat ray.’

The Claw of Archimedes was a type of crane equipped with a grappling hook. Using a pulley system, the claw would drop the hook into a Roman vessel, hoist it in the air, and plunge it back into the sea, causing the ship to capsize.

Livius describes the Claw of Archimedes:

As for the ships which came closer, in order to be inside the range of his artillery, against these an iron grapnel, fastened to a stout chain, would be thrown on to the bow by means of a swing-beam projecting over the wall. When this sprung backward to the ground owing to the shifting of a heavy leaden weight, it would set the ship on its stern, bow in air. Then, suddenly released, it would dash the ship, falling, as it were, from the wall, into the sea, to the great alarm of the sailors, and with the result that, even if she fell upright, she would take considerable water.

Titus Livius, The History of Rome XXIV.34

‘Burning Mirrors’

Perhaps the most ingenious (and controversial) of Archimedes’ inventions was his ‘heat ray,’ or ‘burning mirrors.’ It seems to have been a series of glass or mirrors that concentrated sunlight, much like a magnifying glass. Twelfth Century scholar John Tzetzes of Byzantium (1110–1180) in The Book of Histories described the scene:

When Marcellus withdrew them [his ships] a bow-shot, the old man [Archimedes] constructed a kind of hexagonal mirror, and at an interval proportionate to the size of the mirror he set similar small mirrors with four edges, moved by link and by a form of hinge, and made it the center of the sun’s beams — its non-tide beam, whether in summer or in mid-winter. Afterwards, when the beams were reflected in the mirror, a fearful kindling of fire was raised in the ships, and at the distance of a bow-shot he turned them into ashes.

Tzetes, The Book of History (Chiliades), Book II, Lines 118–128

Some historians doubt the existence of the ‘heat ray,’ but there is no doubt that the weapons of war invented by Archimedes kept the Romans at bay for over two years.

Archimedes’ war machines forced Marcellus to lay siege and attempt to starve the city into submission.

Conclusion

Eventually, while the city was distracted during a religious festival, the Romans managed to breach the sea walls of Syracuse in two places and take the city.

The Romans realized the value of Archimedes and General Marcellus ordered him to be taken alive.

Archimedes was known for his single-mindedness when working on a problem. Sometimes his assistants resorted to physically carry him to the bath when he neglected his hygiene. Legend says that here Archimedes’ particular single-minded personality caught up with him. Again, Plutarch:

But nothing afflicted Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes, who was then, as fate would have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having fixed his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation, he never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken. In this transport of study and contemplation, a soldier, unexpectedly coming up to him, commanded him to follow to Marcellus; which he declining to do before he had worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier, enraged, drew his sword and ran him through. … Certain it is that his death was very afflicting to Marcellus; and that Marcellus ever after regarded him that killed him as a murderer; and that he sought for his [Archimedes’] kindred and honored them with signal favors.”

Plutarch, Parallel Lives-Marcellus

Perhaps the soldier did not know who he was, or perhaps he killed Archimedes to avenge the Romans who had died from his war weapons.

It is said that Archimedes was buried in Syracuse, but it is not certain because Marcellus spent another eight months laying siege and eventually destroying the city. Cicero, later as quaestor (magistrate) in Sicily, claims to have found and restored Archimedes’ tomb, paying tribute to the greatest intellect of the ancient world.