A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



sel was thus raised erect upon its stern, the machine 

 itself was held immovable; but, the chain being sud- 

 denly loosened from the beak by the means of pulleys, 

 some of the vessels were thrown upon their sides, 

 others turned with the bottom upwards ; and the great- 

 est part, as the prows were plunged from a considerable 

 height into the sea, were filled with water, and all that 

 were on board thrown into tumult and disorder. 



"Marcellus was in no small degree embarrassed, " 

 Polybius continues, "when he found himself encoun- 

 tered in every attempt by such resistance. He per- 

 ceived that all his efforts were defeated with loss ; and 

 were even derided by the enemy. But, amidst all the 

 anxiety that he suffered, he could not help jesting upon 

 the inventions of Archimedes. This man, said he, 

 employs our ships as buckets to draw water : and box- 

 ing about our sackbuts, as if they were unworthy to 

 be associated with him, drives them from his company 

 with disgrace. Such was the success of the siege on 

 the side of the sea." 



Subsequently, however, Marcellus took the city by 

 strategy, and Archimedes was killed, contrary, it is 

 said, to the express orders of Marcellus. "Syracuse 

 being taken," says Plutarch, "nothing grieved Mar- 

 cellus more than the loss of Archimedes. Who, being 

 in his study when the city was taken, busily seeking 

 out by himself the demonstration of some geometrical 

 proposition which he had drawn in figure, and so ear- 

 nestly occupied therein, as he neither saw nor heard 

 any noise of enemies that ran up and down the city, 

 and much less knew it was taken : he wondered when 

 he saw a soldier by him, that bade him go with him 



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