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manorum. Eadem, si intrassent Syracusas, aut fœdiora U. C. 540. etiam, quo majus ibi avaritiæ præmium esset, facturos A. C. 214. 'fuisse.' Itaque claudendas cuncti portas, et custodiendam

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urbem censere.
Sed non ab iisdem3 omnes timere, nec
eosdem odisse: ad militare genus omne partemque magnam
plebis invisum esse nomen Romanum. Prætores optima-
tiumque pauci, quanquam inflammati vano nuntio erant,
tamen ad propius præsentiusque malum cautiores esse.
Et jam ad Hexapylum erant Hippocrates atque Epicydes:
serebanturque colloquia per propinquos popularium, qui in
exercitu erant, ut portas aperirent, sinerentque communem
patriam defendi ab impetu Romanorum. Jam, unis foribus
Hexapyli apertis, cœpti erant recipi, quum prætores inter-
venerunt. Et primo imperio minisque, deinde auctoritate,
deterrendo, postremo, ut omnia vana erant, obliti majestatis,
precibus agebant, ne proderent patriam tyranni ante satel-
litibus, et tum corruptoribus exercitus. Sed surdæ ad
hæc omnia aures concitatæ multitudinis erant, nec minore
intus vi, quam foris, portæ effringebantur: effractisque
omnibus, totum Hexapylo agmen receptum est.
Prætores

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in Achradinam cum juventute popularium confugiunt: mercenarii milites perfugæque, et quicquid regiorum militum Syracusis erat, agmen hostium augent. Ita Achradina quoque primo impetu capitur, prætorumque, nisi qui inter tumultum effugerunt, omnes interficiuntur. Nox cædibus finem fecit. Postero die servi ad pileum vocati, et carcere vincti emissi: confusaque hæc omnis multitudo Hippocratem atque Epicydem creant prætores: Syracusæque, quum breve tempus libertas affulsisset, in antiquam servitutem reciderunt.

Hæc nuntiata quum essent Romanis, ex Leontinis mota 33. sunt extemplo castra ad Syracusas. Et ab Appio legati per portum missi forte in quinqueremi erant. Præmissa qua

3 Sed non ab iisdem &c.] "They did not, however, all fear or hate the same parties."

Ad (apud) militare &c.] "With all the military body," &c.

5 Quanquam inflammati &c.] "Though exasperated by the false report, were more disposed to guard against a nearer and more immediate danger."

6 Per propinquos popularium &c.] The former of these words is the

antecedent to qui: sc. "those friends of the national (patriotic) party who were in the army."

7 Et primo imperio minisque &c.]

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U. C. 540. driremis, quum intrasset fauces portus, capitur: legati ægre A. C. 214. effugerunt. Et jam non modo pacis, sed ne belli quidem

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jura relicta erant: quum Romanus exercitus ad Olympium (Jovis id templum est) mille et quingentis passibus ab urbe castra posuit. Inde quoque legatos præmitti placuit: quibus, ne intrarent urbem, extra portam Hippocrates atque Epicydes obviam cum suis processerunt. Romanus orator 'non bellum se Syracusanis, sed opem auxiliumque afferre,' ait, et iis, qui, ex media cæde elapsi, perfugerint ad se, et 'iis, qui, metu oppressi, fœdiorem, non exsilio solum, sed 'etiam morte, servitutem patiantur. Nec cædem nefandam 'sociorum inultam Romanos passuros. Itaque si iis, qui ad 'se perfugerint, tutus in patriam reditus pateret, cædis ' auctores dedantur, et libertas legesque Syracusanis restitu'antur, nihil armis opus esse. Si ea non fiant, quicunque in mora sit, bello persecuturos.' Ad ea Epicydes, ‘Si qua 'ad se mandata haberent, responsum iis,' ait, se daturos 'fuisse: quum in eorum, ad quos venerint, manu res Syra6 cusana esset, tum reverterentur. Si bello lacessant, ipsa 're intellecturos, nequaquam idem esse Syracusas ac Leon'tinos oppugnare.' Ita legatis relictis, portas clausit. Inde terra marique simul cœptæ oppugnari Syracusæ: terra ab Hexapylo, mari ab Achradina, cujus murus fluctu alluitur. Et, quia, sicut Leontinos terrore ac primo impetu ceperant, non diffidebant, vastam disjectamque spatio urbem3 parte aliqua se invasuros, omnem apparatum oppugnandarum urbium muris admoverunt.

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Et habuisset tanto impetu' cœpta res fortunam, nisi unus homo Syracusis ea tempestate fuisset. Archimedes is erat, unicus spectator coelis siderumque; mirabilior tamen

1 Et jam non modo &c.] "By this time, indeed, all conventional forms, not of peace only, but even of war, had been abandoned."

2 Si qua ad se mandata.] "If they brought any message for them (sc. Hippocr. and Epicyd.) they would have given them an answer; and that as soon as the Syracusan government should be in the hands of that party to whom they came, they might come again."

3 Vastam disjectamque spatio urbem.] A reference to a map will show that the ground-plan of Syracuse resembled a long irregular triangle; the base of which was the sea-wall of Acradina, and the apex the fortress of Euryālus. This was the third siege of Syracuse; it had

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Junctæ

A. C. 214.

inventor ac machinator bellicorum tormentorum operumque, U. C. 540. quibus ea, quæ hostes ingenti mole agerent, ipse perlevi momento ludificaretur. Murum per inæquales ductum colles, (pleraque alta et difficilia aditu, summissa quædam, et quæ planis vallibus adiri possent) ut cuique aptum visum est loco, ita omni genere tormentorum instruxit. Achradinæ murum, qui, ut ante dictum est, mari alluitur, ex quinqueremibus Marcellus oppugnabat. Ex ceteris navibus sagittarii funditoresque, et velites etiam, quorum telum inhabile ad remittendum imperitis est, vix quemquam sine vulnere consistere in muro patiebantur. Hi, quia' spatio missilibus opus est, procul muro tenebant naves. aliæ binæ ad quinqueremes, demptis interioribus remis, ut latus lateri applicaretur, quum exteriore ordine remorum velut una navis agerentur, turres contabulatas machinamentaque alia quatiendis muris' portabant. Adversus hunc navalem apparatum Archimedes variæ magnitudinis tormenta in muris disposuit. In eas, quæ procul erant, naves saxa ingenti pondere emittebat: propiores levioribus, eoque magis crebris, petebat telis: postremo, ut sui vulnere intacti tela in hostem ingererent, murum ab imo ad summum3 crebris cubitalibus fere cavis aperuit; per quæ cava pars sagittis, pars scorpionibus modicis ex occulto petebant hostem. Quæ propius quædam subibant naves3 quo interi

engines of all sorts, as they seemed to suit the several localities." The wall mentioned here was that enclosing the city on the eastern side, and erected by the elder Dionysius. Diodorus says (xiv. 18.) that it was completed in twenty days to the length of thirty stadiæ (4 miles) by the incessant labour of more than 60,000 men. Plutarch speaks of Archimedes as having devoted himself almost exclusively to pure and mixed mathematics, and says that his military engines were merely the toys of his idle hours. The circumstances of the discovery of his tomb by Cicero are, of course, too well known to need repetition.

6 Quorum telum inhabile &c.] "Whose weapons were inconvenient for the unpractised to throw back.”

7 Hi, quia &c.] "These anchored at a distance from the wall, because missiles require a flight."

8 Junctæ aliæ binæ ad quinque remes.] "Two others lashed to each of the quinqueremes;" as to make one float of three ships.

SO

If, with some commentators, we
omit ad, we must translate "others
lashed together two by two (by
twos, in pairs)." Polybius men.
tions eight as the number of galleys
thus lashed together. It will, of
course, be perceived, that the con-
trivance resembled that of our mo-
dern pontoons. The machine thus
constructed was technically called
a Sambuca.

9 Velut una navis.]
editions, velut naves,
single ships."

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Or, in some

as so many

Quatiendis muris.] “For loosening the walls."

2 Murum ab imo ad sumтит &c.] He pierced the wall, from the base to the summit, with numerous loop-holes about a cubit long.

3 Quæ propius-subibant naves &c.] "Such of the galleys as came nearer, in order to be inside the range of the engines, an iron grapple attached to a strong chain from a lever projecting over these, after taking hold on the prow, brought back to the ground by a heavy counterpoise of lead, used

A. C. 214.

U. C. 540. ores ictibus tormentorum essent, in eas tollenone super murum eminente ferrea manus firmæ catenæ illigata quum injecta proræ esset, gravi libramento plumbi recellente ad solum, suspensa prora, navim in puppim statuebat: dein, remissa subito, velut ex muro cadentem navim cum ingenti trepidatione nautarum ita undæ affligebat, ut, etiamsi recta reciderat, aliquantum aquæ acciperet. Ita maritima oppugnatio est elusa, omnisque vis est eo versa, ut totis viribus. terra aggrederentur. Sed ea quoque pars eodem omni apparatu tormentorum instructa erat, Hieronis impensis curaque per multos annos, Archimedis unica arte. Natura

to set the galley on the stern by elevating the prow." In this complicated sentence-if its present form be genuine-we have three ablatives abs.; and the only possible

nom. to statuebat is manus.

4 Dein, remissa &c.] "And then, being suddenly let fall, dashed the galley upon the water, to the great consternation of the crew, in such a manner that, even though it fell in its proper position, it must ship a quantity of water."

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Livy makes no mention of a legend, to which subsequent historians make several allusions. Zonaras, writing in the 12th century, says, that Archimedes, catching the sun's rays on a mirror, by the thick ness (i. e. the convexity) and polish of which they were concentrated, kindled a flame in the air, and projected it with full force on the ships anchored within a certain range.' Tzetzes also, who lived about the same time, says, that "when the Roman galleys were within bow-shot of the walls, Archimedes employed a sort of hexagonal speculum, with other smaller reflectors of twentyfour facettes each, set at proper distances, and moved on hinges and metal plates. The large reflector was so placed opposite the sun, that its plane was bisected by the meridian of summer and winter: and a great fire was kindled which consumed the Roman fleet." A propos of these statements, it is recorded, that a mathematician of the sixth century, named Proclus, at the siege of Constantinople, set the Thracian fleet on fire by means of brass reflectors. These feats of science

were pronounced impossible by philosophers, until their practicability was demonstrated by the experiments of Buffon. (Transactions of Academy of Paris, 1747.) On this subject Gib

bon says; "A tradition has prevailed, that the Roman fleet was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse by the burning glasses of Archimedes; and it is asserted, that a similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic vessels in the harbour of Constantinople. A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many smaller and moveable polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun; and a consuming flame was darted to a distance of 200 feet. The truth of these two extraordinary facts is invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians;" (i. e. of Polybius and Livy in the former case, and of Marcellinus in the latter;) "yet, the admirable experiments of a French philosopher have demonstrated the possibility of such a mirror." All this notwithstanding, the existence of the tradition coupled with our present knowledge of the possibility of the fact, would seem to verify the remark of Schlegel, that "the great progress and the discoveries of which philosophy occasionally boasts, are no more than discoveries that had been already made by others, hundreds and thousands of years before, in other forms and other languages." It is recorded, that, when Famagusta was besieged by the Turks in 1571, an Italian, named Maggi, defended it in the same way.

etiam juvabat loci, quod saxum, cui imposita muri funda- U. C. 540. menta sunt, magna ex parte ita proclive est, ut non solum A. C. 214. missa tormento, sed etiam quæ pondere suo provoluta essent, graviter in hostem inciderent. Eadem causa ad subeundum arduum aditum instabilemque ingressum præbebat. Ita, consilio habito, quum omnis conatus ludibrio esset, absistere oppugnatione, atque obsidendo tantum arcere terra marique commeatibus hostem placuit.

Per

Interim Marcellus, cum tertia fere parte exercitus ad recipiendas urbes profectus, quæ in motu rerum ad Carthaginienses defecerant, Helorum atque Herbessum, dedentibus ipsis, recipit. Megara' vi capta diruit ac diripuit ad reliquorum, ac maxime Syracusanorum, terrorem. idem fere tempus et Himilco, qui ad Pachyni promontorium classem diu tenuerat, ad Heracleam, quam vocant Minoam, quinque et viginti millia peditum, tria equitum, duodecim elephantos exposuit: nequaquam cum quantis copiis9 ante tenuerat ad Pachynum classem. Sed, postquam ab Hippocrate occupatæ Syracusæ erant, profectus Carthaginem, adjutusque ibi et ab legatis Hippocratis, literisque Hannibalis, qui venisse tempus aiebat Siciliæ per summum decus repetendæ, et ipse haud vanus præsens monitor1 facile perpulerat, ut, quantæ maximæ possent, peditum equitumque copiæ in Siciliam trajicerentur. Adveniens Heracleam, intra paucos dies inde Agrigentum recipit: aliarumque civitatum, quæ partis Carthaginiensium erant, adeo accensæ sunt spes ad pellendos Sicilia Romanos, ut postremo etiam, qui obsidebantur Syracusis, animos sustulerint; et, parte copiarum satis defendi urbem posse rati, ita inter se munera belli partiti sint, ut Epicydes præesset custodia urbis, Hippocrates, Himilconi conjunctus, bellum adversus consulem Romanum gereret. Cum decem millibus peditum, quingentis equitibus nocte per intermissa custodiis loca profectus, castra circa Acrillas urbem ponebat. Munientibus supervenit Marcellus, ab Agrigento2 jam occupato,

5 Quum omnis conatus &c.] "As every attempt proved a failure.”

6 Helorum. The ruins of this town, on the river from which it took its name, are now called muri ucci. They stand a short way inland from Cape Passaro.

7 Megara.] Livy writes this name both singular and plural. The latter is the original form.

8 Heracleam.] Stood on the coast between Agrigentum (Girgenti) and Selinus.

9 Nequaquam cum quantis copiis

&c.] "A force by no means equal
to (i. e. much larger than) that with
which," &c.

1 Ipse haud vanus præsens mo-
nitor.] "By his own personal and
impressive advice."

2 Ab Agrigento &c.] "On his way back from Agrigentum which was now occupied, after being disappointed in a hasty march thither to anticipate the enemy." The present city of Girgenti stands on the height known as the Monte Camico, which formed the citadel

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