213 BC
Archimedes against the assault
Marcellus attacks the sea wall of Achradina with 60 quinqueremes. Eight of them are lashed together in pairs to carry sambucae, tall ladders with a covered platform at the top, which are raised against the wall from the sea. On land Appius Claudius attacks the walls of Epipolae near the Hexapylon, the gate on the north side of the plateau.
Archimedes Directing the Defences of Syracuse, painting by Thomas Ralph Spence, 1895Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Ralph Spence, Public domain (Archimedes Directing the Defenses of Syracuse.jpg)
Archimedes has prepared engines for every range. Catapults strike the ships while they are still far off, and smaller engines and archers shoot through loopholes in the wall when they come close. Cranes swing out over the wall and drop heavy stones on the sambucae, and an iron claw on a beam seizes ships by the bow, lifts them and lets them fall.
The claw of Archimedes lifting a Roman ship, wall painting by Giulio Parigi, about 1600Wikimedia Commons, Giulio Parigi, Public domain (Parigi griffe.jpg)
Both assaults fail. Marcellus gives up the attempt to storm the city and turns the siege into a blockade. He leaves Appius in command of the lines and campaigns against the towns of Sicily that have gone over to Carthage.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 8, 3 to 7.
- Livy, History of Rome, book 24, 33 to 34.
- Plutarch, Life of Marcellus.
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