"Syracufe fome years paft, had intended to do them harm ; "but that their ill-will had fallen upon their own heads, and "they had punished themselves for their violation of treaties "in a more fevere manner than the Romans could have de"fired That he had befieged Syracufe during three years, "not that the Roman people might reduce it into flavery, "but to prevent the chiefs of the revolters from continuing "it under oppreffion: That he had undergone many fatigues "and dangers in fo long a fiege; but that he thought he had "made himself ample amends by the glory of having taken "that city, and the fatisfaction of having faved it from the "entire ruin it feemed to deferve" After having placed a guard upon the treafury, and fafe-guards in the houfes of the Syracufans, who had withdrawn into his camp, he abandoned the city to be plundered by the troops. It is reported, that the riches which were pillaged in Syracufe at this time, exceeded all that could have been expected at the taking of Carthage itself. An unhappy accident interrupted the joy of Marcellus, and gave him a very fenfible affliction. Archimedes, at a time when all things were in this confufion at Syracufe, fhut up in his clofet like a man of another world, who had no regard for what paffed in this, was intent upon the ftudy of fome geometrical figure, and not only his eyes, but the whole faculties of his foul, were fo engaged in this contemplation, that he had neither heard the tumult of the Romans, univerfally bufy in plundering, nor the report of the city's being taken. A foldier on a fudden comes in upon him, and bids him follow him to Marcellus. Archimedes defired him to stay a moment, till he had folved his problem, and finished the demonftration of it. The foldier, who regarded neither his problem nor demonftration, enraged at this delay, drew his fword and killed him. Marcellus was exceedingly afflicted, when he heard the news of his death. Not being able to restore him to life, of which he would have been very glad, he applied himfelf to honour his memory to the utmost of his power. He made a diligent fearch after all his relations, treated them with great diftinction, and granted them peculiar privileges. As for Archimedes, he caufed his funeral to be celebrated in the most folemn manner, and erected him a monument amongst the great perfons who had diftinguished themselves moft at Syracufe. ARTICLE SECT. I. Tomb of ARCHIMEDES difcovered by CICERO. A RCHIMEDES, by his will, had defired his rela i ons and friends to put no other epitaph on his tomb, after his death, but a cylinder circumfcribed by a sphere; that is to fay, a globe or fpherical figure; and to fet down at the bottom the relation those two folids, the containing and the contained, have to each other. He might have filled up the bases of the columns of his tomb with relievoes, whereon the whole hiftory of the fiege of Syracufe might have been carved, and himself appeared like another Jupiter thundering upon the Romans: But he fet an infinitely higher value upon a difcovery, a geometrical demonftration, than upon all the fo-much celebrated machines of his invention. Hence he chofe rather to do himself honour with pofterity, by the discovery he had made of the relation of a sphere to a cylinder of the fame bafe and height; which is as two to three. The Syracufans, who had been in former times fo fond of the fciences, did not long retain the efteem and gratitude they owed a man who had done fo much honour to their city. Lefs than 140 years after, Archimedes was fo perfectly forgot by his citizens, notwithstanding the great fervices he had done them, that they denied his having been buried at Syracufe. It is from Cicero we have this circumstance. (a) At the time he was quæftor in Sicily, his curiofity induced him to make a fearch after the tomb of Archimedes ; a curiofity that became a man of Cicero's genius, and which merits the imitation of all who travel. The Syracufans affured him, that his fearch would be to no purpose, and that there was no fuch monument amongst them. Cicero pitied their ignorance, which only ferved to increase his defire of making that difcovery. At length, after feveral fruitless attempts, he perceived, without the gate of the city facing Agrigentum, amongst a great number of tombs in that place, a pillar almost intirely covered with thorns and brambles, through which he could difcern the figure of a fphere and cylinder. Those who have any tafte for antiquities may eafily conceive the joy of Cicero upon this occafion. He cried out, that he found what he looked for. The place was immediately ordered to be cleared, when they faw the inscription ftill (a) Cic. Tufc. Quæft. 1. v. n. 64, 66. Eupra in verb. Archim. legible, legible, though part of the lines were obliterated by time. So that, fays Cicero, in concluding his account, the greatest city of Greece, and moft flourishing of old in the ftudies of fcience, would not have known the treasure it poffeffed, if a man, born in a country it confidered almost as barbarous, had not discovered for it the tomb of its citizen, fo highly diftinguished by force, and penetration of mind. 66 We are obliged to Cicero for having left us this curious and elegant account: But we cannot eafily pardon him the contemptuous manner in which he speaks at firft of Archimedes. It is in the beginning, where intending to compare the unhappy life of Dionyfius the tyrant with the felicity of one paffed in. fober virtue, and abounding with wifdom, he fays: "I "will not compare the lives of a Plato or an Architas, per"fons of confummate learning and wifdom, with that of Dionyfius, the most horrid, the most miferable, and the "most deteftable that can be imagined. I shall have re"courfe to a man of his own city, A LITTLE OBSCURE "PERSON, who lived many years after him. I fhall pro"duce him from his ‡ duft, and bring him upon the stage "with his rule and compaffes in his hand." Not to mention the birth of Archimedes, whofe greatnefs was of a different clafs, the greateft geometrician (of antiquity, whofe fublime difcoveries have in all ages been the admiration of the learned, fhould Cicero have treated this man as little and obfcure as a common artificer, employed in making ma'chines? unless it be, perhaps, because the Romans, with whom a tafte for geometry and fuch fpeculative fciences never gained much ground, eftcemed nothing great but what related to government and policy. Orabunt caufas melius, cœlique meatus Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento. Let others better mold the running mafs Ita nobiliffima Græciæ civitas, quondam vero etiam doctiffima, fui civis unius acutiffimi monumentum ignoraffet, nifi ab homine Arpinate didiciffet. Non ergo jam cum hujus vita, qua tetrius, miferius, deteftabilius excogitare nihil poffum, Platonis aut VIRGIL. En. 6. Plead Plead better at the bar, defcribe the fkies, DRYDEN. } (x) This is the Abbe Fraguier's reflection in the fhort dif fertation he has left us upon this paffage of Cicero. SECT. II. Summary of the hiftory of Syracufe. HE island of Sicily, with the greateft part of Italy, ex Trending between the two feas, compofed what was called Græcia Major, in oppofition to Greece properly fo called, which had peopled all thofe countries by its colo nies. Syracufe was the moft confiderable city of Sicily, and one of the most powerful of all Greece. (y) It was founded by Architas the Corinthian, in the third year of the seventeenth Olympiad. The two firft ages of its history are very obfcure, and therefore we are filent upon them. It does not begin to be known till after the reign of Gelon, and furnishes in the fequel many great events, for the space of more than 200. years. During all that time it exhibits a perpetual alternative of flavery under the tyrants, and liberty under a popular. government; till Syracufe is at length fubjected to the Romans, and makes part of their empire. I have treated all thefe events, except the laft, in the order of time. But as they are cut into different fections, and dispersed in different books, we thought proper to unite them here in one point of view, that their feries and connection might be the more evident, from their being shewn together and in general, and the places pointed out, where they are treated with due extent. (x) GELON. The Carthaginians, in concert with Xerxes, having attacked the Greeks who inhabited Sicily, whilt that prince was employed in making an irruption into Greece; Gelon, who had made himself mafter of Syracufe, obtained a celebrated victory over the Carthaginians, the very day of the battle of Thermopyla. Hamilcar, their general, was killed in this battle. Hiftorians fpeak differently of his death, which has occafioned my falling into a contradiction. For on one (x) Memoirs of the academy of infcriptions, Vol. II. (y) A. M. 3295. (x) A. M. 3520. fide fide I fuppofe, with Diodorus Siculus, that he was killed by the Sicilians in the battle; and on the other I fay, after Herodotus, that to avoid the fhame of furviving his defeat, he threw himself into the pile, in which he had facrificed human victims. (a) Gelon, upon returning from his victory, repaired to the affembly without arms or guards, to give the people an account of his conduct. He was chofen king unanimously. He reigned five or fix years folely employed in the truly royal care of making his people happy. Book II. part 2.-B. VII. ch. 2. fect. 1. (b) HIERO I. Hiero, the eldeft of Gelon's brothers, fucceeded him. The beginning of his reign was worthy of great praife. Simonides and Pindar celebrated him in emulation of each other. The latter part of it did not answer the former. He reigned eleven years. Book VII. ch. 2. fect. 1. 2d div. (c) THRASIBULUS. Thrafibulus his brother fucceeded him. He rendered himself odious to all his fubjects, by his vices and cruelty. They expelled him the throne and city, after a reign of one year. B. VII ch. 2. fect. 1. 3d. divifion. Times of liberty. (d) After his expulfion, Syracufe and all Sicily enjoyed their liberty for the space of almost fixty years. An annual festival was inftituted to celebrate the day upon which their liberty was re-established. Syracufe attacked by the Athenians. (e) During this interval, the Athenians, animated by the warm exhortations of Alcibiades, turned their arms against Syracufe; this was in the fixth year of the Peloponnefian war. How fatal the event of this war was to the Athenians, may $ be feen, B. VII. ch. end of fect. 6. DIONYSIUS the elder. The reign of this prince is famous for its length of thirty-eight years; and ftill more for. the extraordinary events with which it was attended. Book II. part 1. ch. 1.-B. I. part 2. ch. 1. (g) Dionyfius the younger. Dionyfius, fon of the elder Dionyfius, fucceeded him. He contracts a particular intimacy with Plato, and has frequent converfations with him; who comes to his court at the request of Dion, the near relation (a) A. M. 3525. (b) A. M. 3532. (d) A. M. 3524. (e) A. M. 3588. ^(ƒ) A. M. 3598. In the hiftory of the Carthaginians. of (c) A. M. 3543. (g) A. M. 3632, |