In the end, Archimedes’s brilliance was unable to save Syracuse. Frustrated in their initial attack, the Romans divided their forces, leaving part of their army to surround Syracuse and starve it into submission, while the remainder of their troops bypassed the city and subdued the rest of Sicily. Archimedes was still in Syracuse when it finally fell to the Romans, and he died there. As legend has it, he was deeply engrossed in a theoretical problem when the city fell and barely noticed the chaos and violence all around him. Plutarch’s account of his death was meant to shed light on both Archimedes’ character and that of the Roman commander Marcellus. As you read, pay particular attention to Marcellus’s reaction to Archimedes’s death. What importance should we attach to his grief at the death of a determined adversary?

But what distressed Marcellus most of all was the death of Archimedes. As fate would have it the philosopher was by himself, engrossed in working out some calculation by means of a diagram, and his eyes and his thoughts were so intent upon the problem that he was completely unaware that the Romans had broken through the defences, or that the city had been captured. Suddenly a soldier came upon him and ordered him to accompany him to Marcellus. Archimedes refused to move until he had worked out his problem and established his demonstration, whereupon the soldier flew into a rage, drew his sword, and killed him. According to another account, the Roman came up with a drawn sword and threatened to kill him there and then: when Archimedes saw him, he begged him to stay his hand for a moment, so that he should not leave his theorem imperfect and without its demonstration, but the soldier paid no attention and dispatched him at once. There is yet a third story to the effect that Archimedes was on his way to Marcellus bringing some of his instruments, such as sundials and spheres and quadrants, with the help of which the dimensions of the sun could be measured by the naked eye, when some soldiers met him, and believing that he was carrying gold in the box promptly killed him. At any rate it is generally agreed that Marcellus was deeply affected by his death, that he abhorred the man who had killed him as if he had committed an act of sacrilege, and that he sought out Archimedes’s relatives and treated them with honour.

Source: Ian. Scott-Kilvert, trans., Makers of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch (London: Penguin Books, 1965), pp. 104–105. Copyright © Ian Scott-Kilvert, 1965. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.

Questions to Consider