Syracufans the first notice of the taking of Leontium, affuring them, at the fame time, that Marcellus had put to the fword all that were able to bear arms; and while they were under great confternation at this news, he came fuddenly upon the city, and made himself mafter of it.

Hereupon Marcellus marched with his whole army and encamped before Syracufe; but, before he attempted any thing against it, he fent ambaffadors with a true account of what he had done at Leontium. As this information had no effect with the Syracufans, who were entirely in the power of Hippocrates *, he made his attacks both by fea and land; Appius Claudius commanding the land-forces, and himself the fleet, which confifted of fixty galleys of five banks of oars, full of all forts of arms and miffive weapons. Befides thefe, he had a prodigious machine, carried upon eight galleys faftened together, with which he approached the walls, relying upon the number of his batteries and other inftruments of war, as well as on his own great character. But Archimedes defpifed all this, and confided in the fuperiority of his engines, though he did not think the inventing of them an object worthy of his ferious ftudies, but only reckoned them among the amufements of geometry. Nor had he gone so far, but at the preffing inftances of king Hiero, who entreated him to turn his art from abftracted notions to matters of fenfe, and to make his reasonings more intelligible to the generality of mankind, applying them to the ufes of common fenfe.

The first that turned their thoughts to mechanics, a branch of knowledge which came afterwards to be fo much admired, were Eudoxus and Archytas, who thus gave a variety and an agreeable turn to geometry, and

* Hieronymus being affaffinated, and the commonwealth re ftored, Hippocrates and Epicydes, Hannibal's agents, being of Syracufan extraction, had the address to get themselves admitted into the number of prætors. In confequence of which, they found means to embroil the Syracufans with Rome, in fpite of the oppofition of such of the prætors as had the interest of their country at heart.

confirmed certain problems by fenfible experiments, and the use of instruments, which could not be demonstrated in the way of theory. That problem, for example, of two mean proportional lines, which cannot be found out geometrically, and yet are fo neceffary for the folu tion of other queftions, they folved mechanically, by the affiftance of certain inftruments called mefolabes, taken from conic fections. But when Plato inveighed against them with great indignation, as corrupting and debafing the excellence of geometry, by making her de scend from incorporeal and intellectual to corporeal and fenfible things, and obliging her to make use of matter which requires much manual labour, and is the object of fervile trades; then mechanics were feparated from geometry, and, being a long time despised by the philofopher, were confidered as a branch of the military art.

Be that as it may, Archimedes one day afferted to king Hiero, whofe kinfman and friend he was, this propofition, that with a given power he could move any given weight whatever; nay, it is faid, from the confidence he had in his demonftration, he ventured to affirm, that if there was another earth besides this we inhabit*, by going into that, he would move this whereever he pleased. Hiero, full of wonder, begged of him to evince the truth of his propofition, by moving fome great weight with a small power. In compliance with which, Archimedes caused one of the king's galleys to be drawn on shore with many hands and much labour; and having well manned her, and put on board her ufual loading, he placed himself at a distance, and without any pains, only moving with his hand the end of a machine, which confifted of a variety of ropes and pullies, he drew her to him in as smooth and gentle a manner as if the had been under fail. The king, quite aftonished when he saw the force of his art, prevailed with Archimedes to make for him all manner of engines and machines which could be used either for attack or

* Tzetes gives us the expression which Archimedes made use of, τω 68, και χαρισίων. ταν γαν κινησει πασαν. E

Vol. II.

defence in a fiege. Thefe, however, he never made ufe of, the greatest part of his reign being bleft with tranquillity; but they were extremely ferviceable to the Syracufans on the prefent occafion, who, with fuch a number of machines, had the inventor to direct them.

When the Romans attacked them both by sea and land, they were ftruck dumb with terror, imagining they could not poffibly refift fuch numerous forces and fo furious an affault. But Archimedes foon began to play his engines, and they shot against the land-forces all forts of miffive weapons, and ftones of an enormous fize, with fo incredible a noise and rapidity, that nothing could ftand before them; they overturned and crushed whatever came in their way, and spread terrible diforder throughout the ranks. On the fide towards the fea were erected vaft machines, putting forth on a fudden, over the walls, huge beams with the neceffary tackle*, which ftriking with a prodigious force on the enemy's galleys, funk them at once; while other fhips, hoisted up at the prows by iron grapples or hooks †, like the beaks of cranes, and fet on end on the ftern, were plunged to the bottom of the fea; and others again, by ropes and grapples, were drawn towards the fhore, and after being whirled about, and dashed against the rocks that projected below the walls, were broken to pieces, and the crews perifhed. Very often a fhip lifted high above the fea, fufpended and twirling in the air, prefented a most dreadful spectacle. There it fwung till the men were thrown out by the violence of the mo

What inoft haraffed the Romans was a fort of crow with two claws, faftened to a long chain, which was let down by a kind of lever. The weight of the iron made it fall with great violence, and drove it into the planks of the galleys. Then the befieged, by a great weight of lead at the other end of the lever, weighed it down, and confequently raised up the iron of the crow in proportion, and with it the prow of the galley to which it was faftened, finking the poop at the fame time into the water. After this the crow letting go its hold all on a fudden, the prow of the galley fell with fuch force into the fea, that the whole veffel was filled with water, and funk.

tion, and then it split against the walls, or funk on the engine's letting go its hold. As for the machine which Marcellus brought forward upon eight galleys, and which was called fambuca, on account of its likeness to a mufical inftrument of that name, whilft it was at a confiderable distance from the walls, Archimedes difcharged a ftone of ten talents weight *, and after that a fecond and a third, all which ftriking upon it with an amazing noife and force, fhattered and totally disjointed it.

Marcellus, in this distress, drew off his galleys as fast as poffible, and fent orders to the land-forces to retreat likewife. He then called a council of war, in which it was refolved to come close to the walls, if it was poffible, next morning before day; for Archimedes's engines they thought, being very strong, and intended to act at a confiderable diftance, would then discharge themselves over their heads; and if they were pointed at them when they were fo near, they would have no effect. But for this Archimedes had long been prepared, having by him engines fitted to all diftances, with fuitable weapons and fhorter beams. Befides, he had caused holes to be made in the walls, in which he placed fcorpions that did not carry far, but could be very faft difcharged; and by these the enemy was galled, without knowing whence the weapon came.

When, therefore, the Romans were got close to the walls undiscovered, as they thought, they were welcomed with a shower of darts, and huge pieces of rocks, which fell as it were perpendicularly upon their

It is not eafy to conceive how the machines formed by Archimedes could throw ftones of ten quintals or talents, that is, twelve hundred and fifty pounds weight, at the fhips of Marcellus, when they were at a confiderable distance from the walls. The account which Polybius gives us is much more probable. He fays, that the ftones that were thrown by the balife made by Archimedes were of the weight of ten pounds. Livy feems to agree with Polybius. Indeed, if we fuppofe that Plutarch did not mean the talent of an hundred and twentyfive pounds, but the talent of Sicily, which fome fay weighed twenty-five pounds, and others only ten, his account comes more within the bounds of probability.

heads; for the engines played from every quarter of the walls. This obliged them to retire; and when they were at fome distance, other shafts were shot at them in their retreat from the larger machines, which made terrible havock among them, as well as greatly damaged their fhipping, without any poffibility of their annoying the Syracufans in their turn. For Archimedes had placed most of his engines under covert of the walls; fo that the Romans being infinitely diftreffed by an invifible enemy, seemed to fight against the gods.

Marcellus, however, got off, and laughed at his own artillery-men and engineers. "Why do not we leave off contending," said he, "with this mathematical Briareus, who fitting on the shore, and acting as it were but in jeft, has shamefully baffled our naval affault; and, in ftriking us with fuch a multitude of bolts at once, exceeds even the hundred-handed giants in the fable?" And, in truth, all the reft of the Syracufans were no more than the body in the batteries of Archimedes, while he himself was the informing foul: All other weapons lay idle and unemployed; his were the only offenfive and defenfive arms of the city. At last the Romans were fo terrified, that if they faw but a rope or a stick put over the walls, they cried out that Archimedes was levelling fome machine at them, and turned their backs and fled. Marcellus, feeing this, gave up all thoughts of proceeding by affault, and leaving the matter to time, turned the fiege into a blockade.

Yet Archimedes had fuch a depth of understanding, fuch a dignity of fentiment, and fo copious a fund of mathematical knowledge, that though in the invention of these machines he gained the reputation of a man endowed with divine rather than human knowledge, yet he did not vouchsafe to leave any account of them in writing; for he confidered all attention to mechanics, and every art that minifters to common ufes, as mean and fordid, and placed his whole delight in those intellectual speculations which, without any relation to the neceffities of life, have an intrinfic excellence arifing from truth and demonstration only. Indeed, if mecha