they had no other refource than to reduce the great number of people in the city by famine, in cutting off all provifions that might be brought to them either by fea or land. During the eight months in which they laid fiege to the city, there were no kind of ftratagems which they did not invent, nor any actions of valour left untried, almoft to the affault itself, which they never dared to attempt more. So much force, upon fome occafions, have a single man, and a single science, when rightly applied. Deprive Syracufe of only one old man, the great ftrength of the Roman arms must inevitably take the city; his fole presence arrests and difconcerts all their defigns. We here fee, which I cannot repeat too often, how much intereft princes have in protecting arts, favouring the learned, animating academies of fcience by honourable diftinctions and actual rewards, which never ruin or impoverish a state. I fay nothing in this place of the birth and nobility of Archimedes: he was not indebted to them for the happiness of his genius, and profound knowledge. I confider him only as a learned man, and an excellent geometrician. What a lofs had Syracufe fuftained, if to have faved a fmall expence and penfion, fuch a man had been abandoned to inaction and obfcurity! Hiero was far from behaving in that manner. He knew all the value of our geometrician; and it is no vulgar merit in a prince to understand that of other men. He placed it in honour; he made it useful; and did not stay, till occafion or neceffity obliged him to do fo: which would have been too late. By a wife forefight, the true character of a great prince and a great minister, in the the very * arms of peace he provided all that was neceffary for fupporting a fiege, and making war with fuccefs; though at that time there was no appearance of any thing to be apprehended from the Romans, with whom Syracufe was allied in the ftricteft manner. Hence were feen to arise in an inftant, as out of the earth, an incredible number of engines of every kind and fize, the very fight of which were fufficient to strike armies with terror and confufion. There is, amongst these machines, of which we can scarce conceive the effects, matter to tempt us to call their reality in question, if it were allowable to doubt the evidence of writers, fuch, for inftance, as Polybius, an almoft cotemporary author, who treated facts entirely recent, and fuch as were well known to all the world. But how can we refuse our consent to the united authority of Greek and Roman hiftorians, in regard to circumstances, of which whole armies were witneffes, and experienced the effects; and which had fo great influence in the events of the war? What paffed in this fiege of Syracufe, fhews how high the antients had carried their genius and art, in befieging and fupporting fieges. Our artillery, which fo perfectly imitates thunder, has not more effect than the engines of Archimedes, if they have fo much. A burning-glafs is spoken of, by the means of which Archimedes is faid to have burnt part of the Roman fleet. That must have been an extraordinary invention; but as no antient author mentions it, it is, no doubt, a modern tradition, without any foundation. Burning-glaf * In pace, ut fapiens, aptarit idorea bello. Horat. E 3 fes A. M. 3791. fes were known to antiquity; but not of that kind, which indeed feem impracticable. After Marcellus had refolved to confine himfelf to the blockade of Syracufe, he left ApAnt. J. C. pius before the place with two thirds of the arLiv. 1. 24. my, advanced with the other into the island, and n. 35, 36. brought over fome cities into the Roman intereft. 213. At the fame time Himilcon, general of the Carthaginians, arrived in Sicily with a great army, in hopes of reconquering it, and expelling the Romans. Hippocrates left Syracufe with ten thousand foot and five hundred horfe to join him, and carry on the war in concert againft Marcellus. Epicydes remained in the city, to command there during the blockade. The fleets of the two people appeared at the fame time on the coaft of Sicily; but that of the Carthaginians feeing itself weaker than the other, was afraid to hazard a battle, and foon failed back for Carthage. Marcellus had continued eight months before Syracufe with Appius, according to Polybius, when the year of his confulfhip expired. Livy places the expedition of Marcellus in Sicily, and his victory over Hippocrates in this year, which neceffarily fell out in the fecond year of the ficge. And indeed Livy has given us no account of this fecond year, because he had afcribed to it what paffed in the first. For it is highly improbable, that nothing memorable happened in it. This is the conjecture of Mr. Crevier, profeffor of rhetorick in the college of Beauvais, who has lately published a new edition of Livy, with remarks, with which I am convinced the publick will be well fatisfied. The firft volume of this work appeared fome months ago, in the front of which there is a long preface worthy of being read. Marcellus employed a great part of the fecond year of the fiege in feveral expeditions in Sicily. In his return from Agrigentum, upon which he had made an ineffectual attempt, he came up with the army of Hippocrates, which he beat, and killed above eight thousand men. This advantage kept thofe in their duty, who had entertained thoughts of going over to the Carthaginians. After the gaining of this victory he returned against Syracufe, and having difmiffed Appius for Rome, who went thither to demand the confulfhip, he put Crifpinus into his place. Plut. in Marcel p. 308, 309. In the beginning of the third campaign, Mar- A. M. cellus, almost abfolutely despairing of being able 392. Ant. J. C. to take Syracufe; either by force, becaufe Ar- 212. chimedes continually oppofed him with invin- Liv. 1. 25. cible obstacles; or famine, as the Carthaginian n. 23, 31. fleet, which was returned more numerous than before, eafily threw in convoys, deliberated whether he should continue before Syracuse to push the fiege, or turn his endeavours against Agrigentum. But before he came to a final determination, he was inclined to try whether he could not make himself mafter of Syracufe by fome fecret intelligence. There were many Syracufans in his camp, who had taken refuge there in the beginning of the troubles. A slave of one of these fecretly carried on an intrigue, into which fourscore of the principal perfons of the city engaged, who came in companies to confult with him in his camp, concealed in barks under the nets of fishermen. The confpiracy was upon the point of taking effect, when a perfon named Attalus, in refentment for not having been admitted into it, difcovered E 4 the J the whole to Epicydes, who put all the confpirators to death. This enterprize having mifcarried in this manner, Marcellus found himself in new difficulties. Nothing came into his thoughts but the grief and fhame of raising a siege, after having confumed fo much time, and sustained the lofs of fo many men and ships in it. An accidental event prefented him a refource, and gave new life to his hopes. Some Roman veffels had taken one Damippus, whom Epicydes had fent to negotiate with Philip king of Macedon. The Syracufans expreffed a great defire to ranfom this man, and Marcellus was not averfe to it. A place near the port Trogilus was agreed on for the conferences, concerning the ranfom of the prifoner. As the deputies went thither feveral times, it came into a Roman foldier's thoughts to confider the wall with attention. After having counted the ftones, and examined with his eye the measure of each of them, upon a calculation of the height of the wall, he found it to be much lower than it was believed, and concluded, that with ladders of a moderate fize it might be easily scaled. Without lofs of time he related the whole to Marcellus. The general is not always the only wife man in an army a private foldier may fometimes furnish him with important hints. Marcellus did not neglect this advice, and af fured himself of its reality with his own eyes. Having caufed ladders to be got ready, he took the opportunity of a festival, which the Syracufans celebrated for three days in honour of Diana, during which the inhabitants gave themfelves up entirely to rejoicing and good cheer. At the time of night when he conceived, that the Syracufans, after their debauch, began to grow |