Before Chrift 201. 10 1 



newing the war : fo that this treaty of peace was in all refpeds worfe 

 than a total fubjugation. 



Such was the calamitous termination of the war of Hannibal, which 

 later writers, willing to forget the fraudulent declaration of war and 

 adual hoftilities of the Romans foon after the firft peace, call the fe- 

 cotid* Punic war ; a war, which being carried on mofllyby land, would 

 be quite foreign to the plan of this work, if any other but the greateft 

 commercial community of the antient world had been engaged in it f . 



At the commencement of Hannibal's war his brother Mago made 

 himfelf mafter of Genua. [Liv. L. xxxviii, c 46.] This, if I miftake 

 not, is the earlieft notice of this famous city, which Strabo, whenever he 

 has occafion to mention it, calls the emporium of the Ligurians, and 

 which afterwards rofe to fuch diftinguilhed commercial pre-emience 

 in the middle ages. 



In the fcale of commercial dignity Syracufe might perhaps contend 

 with Corinth or Alexandria for the rank next to Carthage. This opu- 

 lent city, which, during the life of its obfequious king, Hiero, had 

 been fpared by the Romans, was reduced during the war of Hanni- 

 bal. What is deferving of notice in the hiftory of its fiege, is the de- 

 fence made by the wonderful abilities of Archimedes, who, himfelf, 

 more powerful than an army, baffled every attempt of the Roman fleet 

 and army. He dafhed their fhips and mofl formidable engines in pieces 

 by diicharging from the lofty walls ftones of between 500 and 600 

 pounds weight upon them. Some he lifted by their heads, keeping 

 their fterns dipping in the water, and, after fufpending them for fome 

 time, fuddenly let them go, whereby they were filled with water, over- 

 fet, or deftroyed. On the land fide he overwhelmed the Roman army 

 with fhowers of fi:ones and darts, and feizing the foldiers with hooks, 

 hoifted them aloft in the air, as a terror to their ailoniihed companions, 

 who were more difmayed by the fcience of this one man than by the 

 force of great armies. \_Polyh. L. viii, cc. 5 et feqq.\ -After a fiege of 

 eight months,' Syracufe, wafted by plague and famine, and betrayed by 

 one of its own governors, was taken by the Romans (a''. 211). Though 

 Marcellus, who happened to be a man of fome humanity, as well as po- 

 licy, had given Arid: orders to preferve Archimedes, he was maflacred 

 by a foldier, who miftook his box of inftruments for a golden treafure. 



Archimedes did not confine the benefit of his inventions to Sicily : 

 the fcrew-pump, known by his name, wherein water rifes by defcend- 



* It was the third war between the Romans and be : but unfortunately we are deprived of the mofl: 



Carthaginians. valuable part of his works, the thirty-five books, 



f For the wars of the Carthaginians with the which contained the hiftory of his own times, of 



Romans I have generally followed Polybius, who which we pofTefs only a few detached fragments, 



13 much older than any other writer upon the fub- which are, however, of very great ufe in confirming 



jeft now extant, and as faithful as a writer, receiv- or correfting the accounts of later writers. 

 ing his materials from the Romans, can poffibly i 



