Antiquity’s Most Bizarre Siege: the Siege of Syracuse
One man against the entire Roman Empire
History is full of bizarre tales, unusual events, and staggering legends, where myth and reality often merge and become one. One such fascinating story is the siege of Syracuse by the Romans. When someone first reads the works of Roman historians, such as Livy, and Polybius, regarding the siege, they get the feeling that they are submerged into a majestic, fantasy world, far away from the “boring” reality of the historical records. In fact, it resembles more like an event taken straight from the lore of Star Wars, than from actual, human history.
Much like George Lucas’s favorite universe, we have a mighty and evil militaristic empire (as seen by the Greek perspective), equipped with unnumbered legions of soldiers, and a plethora of terrifying war machines. We also have a small bastion of hope, a heroic city, where the last defenders of a once-powerful kingdom reside, ready to stand alone against the evil that approaches. The world is full of majestic machines and tremendous war engines, true mechanical miracles, whose sight makes even the bravest warriors tremble in terror. Armored tanks, canons, gigantic claws which can tear an entire ship into pieces, gargantuan towers, catapults, even laser guns blasting whole fleets in flames are described in the historical sources! And finally, we have the “Greek Yoda,” a wise, but at the same time weird and mysterious old man, whose mind bears the secrets of an ancient Force, which grants him the power to move the entire Earth, as long as he has a place to stand.
Let’s learn more about the staggering siege of Syracuse, and the mysterious man, who fought and won an entire empire!
Prelude
In the year 213 BCE the whole Mediterranean was submerged into a dreadful war, between the two superpowers of Antiquity, the Romans and their arch-nemesis, the Carthaginians. Much like in the Cold War, the entire known world back then was obliged to choose a side in the conflict. Anyone who was not lucky enough to dwell in the vast forests of Germania, or the hot Sahara desert, was forced to make the toughest decision of his life.
Of course, life could be worse! Imagine if you were a small, weak kingdom, located right in the middle between those two powerful and extremely dangerous giants, and both of them offered you the same deal “ally with me, or be exterminated.” This was exactly what Syracuse had to cope with…
During the First Carthaginian War (264–241) Syracuse joined the Romans. Fortunately for them, they sided with the winners. The tyrant of Syracuse, Hiero II hoped to gain control over the island of Sicily, as a gift for his unwavering loyalty. Imagine his surprise, when the Romans gave him instead a few kilometers of land and then proceeded to take over the entire island for themselves! Who would indeed have predicted, that a major power would act like that…
Syracuse, once the most powerful Greek force in the whole world, became now a weak vassal kingdom of Rome, surrounded at all sides by “friendly enemies,” who would instantly crush them if they made one wrong move. For them, the situation would get much worse…
The Second Punic War Begins
In the year 218 BCE, a new war between Rome and Carthage broke out, and soon a now-famous Carthaginian general, named Hannibal Barca, crossed the Alps and decisively defeated the entire Roman army, crushing them in three different battles and reaching Rome’s doorstep. This outcome shocked the entire world and caused a swift turn of the balances that had been established.
Back in Sicily, by the time the war started, the island had been stabilized under Roman rule, except for the tiny kingdom of Syracuse. There, the Greek population was divided into two groups, one supporting the Romans, and one the Carthaginians. When the pro-Roman tyrant Hiero II died in 215, his young grandson, Hieronymus, took the throne. Being only 15, the new king could be easily controlled and manipulated. Both Rome and Carthage were aware of that. Whoever managed to control the boy, would automatically gain control over Sicily. The question was whom the teenage ruler would choose to ally with.
The answer came after the battle of Cannae in 216 BCE when Hieronymus send an envoy to side with Hannibal (Polybius, 2010, 389). Much like many former Roman allies, he was not willing to risk the wrath of Carthage, for which was almost certain at the time that they would be the winner of this conflict.
Being an excellent general, Hannibal recognized the golden opportunity to gain control over Sicily and sent Hieronymus two of his most trusted generals, the brothers Epicydes and Hippocrates (Polybius, 2010, 389–90). This was a wise choice and a powerful strategic move. The brothers were of mixed origin, having a Greek father and a Carthaginian mother (Livy, 2006, 201). Their family had been exiled from Syracuse three generations earlier by the tyrant Agathocles and found a new home in Carthage (Polybius, 2010, 390). Being half-Greeks they could easily gain the trust of the divided Syracusans and expand their influence to them.
Much to Hannibal’s joy, Hieronymus was soon murdered and a civil war broke out, in which the majority of the public sided with the two brothers, allowing them to gain absolute control over the kingdom. They even succeeded in procuring their election as generals, replacing the Greeks Andranodorus and Themistus (Livy, 2006, 225). United under a firm hand, the Syracusans declared war on Rome and marched to capture the neighboring city of Leontini to the north.
This action, however, wasn’t a simple one to carry out. One does not simply declare war on Rome. The Romans knew the strategic importance of the island and were not keen on losing it. Sicily was located right in front of their doorstep, and yet, far from direct Roman reach. If not careful, the Carthaginians could re-establish their dominance and suddenly provide Hannibal, who in the meantime continued ravaging southern Italy, a safe place to resupply his forces and plan his next moves. So, in few words, losing Sicily to Carthage meant that Hannibal would be provided with the tools to win the war and possibly end Rome’s existence.
Wishing to prevent this, the Romans made a series of moves to strengthen their political and military influence over the island. They moved two legions in Sicily to guard the population and wipe out any remaining Punic influences (Livy, 2006, 207). They also sent one of their most experienced and capable generals, Marcus Claudius Marcellus along with propraetor Appius Claudius, to regain control and destroy the small, rebellious Greek kingdom.
Marcellus arrived at Leontini in 213 BCE and managed to easily defeat the Syracusan forces. But he made a crucial mistake. When he found out that 2.000 Roman deserters had sided with the Syracusans and after the battle were taken captive, he executed all of them (Plutarch, 1955, 467–9). For anyone familiar with the Roman military’s justice system, this act was normal. The army was known for its overly strict punishments, and especially for desertion, the punishment was instant death. But this brutal act shocked the natives of Sicily and alienated him from his Greek allies, who were not used to such cruelty.
Soon rebellions broke out in various cities of Sicily. The Romans had to put out multiple fires and they were running out of time. Moreover, Epicydes and Hippocrates managed to escape from Marcellus’ grip and re-organized the Syracusan army. Epicydes moved to the city and started preparing it for the long siege that would soon follow. Meanwhile, Hippocrates with the rest of his army roamed the countryside, successfully making more cities rise in rebellion. Marcellus knew that he would be able to stabilize Sicily only if he could conquer the city of Syracuse.
In the autumn of 213 BCE, 18.000 Romans encircled the city and began what would be a one-and-a-half year-long siege. Marcellus was confident that his disciplined forces would take over the city within a matter of five days (Polybius, 2010, 402). Little did he know that Epicydes and the Syracusans had a secret weapon behind their walls, one which would cause severe problems in the Roman army. This weapon was Archimedes, Antiquity’s greatest inventor.
Archimedes
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and inventor. Not much is known about his life, other than his father was an astronomer, that he was probably related to the deceased tyrant Hiero II (Plutarch, 1955, 473), and that he spent his youth studying in Alexandria — the scientific and educational heart of the western world at the time. One friend of Archimedes wrote his biography, but unfortunately for us, his work is lost. The Roman historians cannot illuminate more his mysterious life, because most of them chose to focus more on his military inventions and how these were deployed against the Romans, than providing us with more information about their enigmatic inventor [1].
Archimedes was one of the most famous men of his time, and Epicydes knew his incredible abilities. Word had spread all over the Mediterranean about the mysterious man who managed to move an entire ship by himself, using just a set of levels (Plutarch, 1955, 473), and built the largest ship the world had ever seen up to this day! He decided to use Archimedes’ talent and deploy him to manage the city’s defense system, following the same path as Hiero II had done, when he asked the genius inventor to build war machines to counter any possible invader. Archimedes let his imagination fly free and designed the most bizarre, yet deadly and effective war machines mankind had ever seen!
The Siege
When the order for the attack came, Marcellus divided his forces into two parts. The army under the command of Appius Claudius Pulcher would attack the city’s northern walls, after releasing a barrage of artillery fire to them. At the same time the mighty Roman fleet, consisting of 60 quinqueremes [2], under the command of Marcellus himself, would attack the maritime walls on the eastern side (Polybius, 2010, 403). Being excellent mechanics themselves, the Romans had built gigantic siege towers, which placed on their ships’ fronts! Onagers, catapults, and ballistae would release a rainstorm of projectiles against the city, while the soldiers would march on the walls under the protection of galleries [3]. From all these machines, the most fearful was the Sambuca.
This was a giant, wooden platform-like ladder, which was placed on the deck of two ships, which were bound together to form a large wooden base (Polybius, 2010, 403). The ladder was then directed by a series of ropes to the enemy’s walls. Once there, four mechanics were charged to stabilize the ladder, so that the enemy soldiers were not able to detach it (Polybius, 2010, 403). After that, the soldiers were ready to run on the narrow platform and reach the walls with ease. The sambuca was the pride of Roman engineering, a weapon, whose purpose was to take over cities.
The attack began and the Romans started marching against the city. As Appius’ soldiers crossed a specific distance, the sound of pulling ropes echoed from inside the stone walls. A terrible crack followed, along with a long whistle. Then a rainstorm of large stones, rocks, and burning arrows fell down on the Romans. Inside the city, the Syracusans fired their own onagers and catapults. The Romans realized that they weren’t the only ones with advanced artillery…
Back to the maritime walls, Marcellus’ fate wasn’t more fortunate. The ships started approaching the walls, with their siege towers and the sambukae ready for use and their soldiers eager to fight. Suddenly, like god Helios himself sided with the Greeks, the Roman ships started erupting into flames! The wooden towers were set ablaze, while hundreds of Romans were burnt alive or drowned as they were trying to get out of the flames. According to some sources Archimedes had placed gigantic mirrors (or bronze shields) on the walls to attract the rays of the sun and then used them as a giant magnifying glass, concentrating the heat on the Romans ships, therefore setting them on fire.
At the same time, large spherical projectiles were fired at them by the use of steam canons, called “hatmoteleboleis” (ατμοτηλεβόλα). The ships that managed to reach the walls had no better luck either. As soon as they approached the walls gigantic metallic claws rose from above. The claws managed to capture the ships in their grip and then raise them to the air with the aid of cranes (Plutarch, 1955, 475). Once reaching a certain height, they released the ships only to fall onto piles of coastline rocks, which broke them apart like wooden toys (Polybius, 2010, 404–05)! Witnessing this terrible sight even the iron Roman discipline quickly turned over to mass hysteria. Indeed, for the Romans, it seemed as if the Olympian Gods had allied with the Syracusans and sent the mythical Titans and the beasts of Poseidon to aid them!
After these failed attempts to take the city, Marcellus retreated and called a war council. He was indeed in a very hard place. His soldiers’ morale was shattered. According to Plutarch (1955, 479), only the site of Archimedes in the walls was enough to send waves of terror to them! Who knew what other terrible surprises the old man hid inside the walls for them… Instead of attacking and losing again to this mad genius, the Roman general decided to blockade the city and starve them to the point of surrender (Polybius, 2010, 405). The navy would blockade the city by the sea, while the army of Apius by land. Meanwhile, Marcellus himself with a part of the land army would invade the rest of mainland Sicily and try to subdue the rebels (Polybius, 2010, 406).
This was a risky plan. The Romans were alone in hostile territory with few supplies and no reinforcements. The Senate had promised to send two other legions to Marcellus, but no one could assure him that they would arrive on time. By the time they would reach Syracuse, the whole Roman army could be laid in ruins. To make the matters worse, in the winter of 213 BCE, the Carthaginians sent a large army, 28.000 men strong under the command of Himilco with the mission to take back Sicily, aid Syracuse, and destroy the Romans (Livy, 2006, 234). The force had already taken Agrigentum and now they were marching against Marcellus’ forces. Meanwhile, Hippocrates and the Syracusan army continued ravaging the countryside, and a fleet of 50 Carthaginian quinqueremes under admiral Bomilcar managed to surpass the naval blockade and enter the city’s port with supplies.
The situation was dire for the Romans. Autumn was over, their supplies were running out, the reinforcements were nowhere to be seen, and there was a giant combined force of Greeks and Carthaginians who marched against them! Marcellus knew that only a miracle could save him. Before the winter of 213 BCE was over, Sicily would fall in Carthage and Hannibal, who in the meantime was camping with his forces in south Italy, would have his valuable supplies and reinforcements. To paraphrase the words of Livy, “one might well have thought that the theatre of war had shifted from Italy, and was now focused on Sicily” (2006, 235).
The Tragic End
Marcellus hoped for a miracle. This miracle finally came, not in the form of a supernatural event, or a lucky incident, but in the form of complete incapability and lack of strategic skills on behalf of general Himilco. The Carthaginian commander had met with Hippocrates, who pressured him to attack the Roman camp. As soon as the attack started, Epicydes and the defenders of Syracuse would unite with them, and together they would crash the Roman army, while Bomilcar would crush their fleet. Hippocrates’ plan had high prospects of being successful. But Himilco hesitated.
He waited for weeks for the Romans to make their first move, something which of course they were not going to do because they were neither stupid nor crazy! This hesitation allowed the Romans to buy valuable time. Being an experienced commander Marcellus started to take advantage of the situation. He attacked the nearby Sicilian villages and cities that had joined the Carthaginians and massacred hundreds of civilians. These terrible atrocities were seen as a necessary evil to put down the rebels (Livy, 2006, 239). The Roman brutality led thousands of Sicilians and Greeks to side with the Carthaginians. Yet still, Himilco wasn’t willing to attack.
Finally, the most predictable thing happened: the Roman reinforcements arrived. It was at this time that Himilco finally woke up from his long slumber and decided to act. He took his army and rushed to meet the reinforcements before they reached Marcellus. However, in a comical act of stupidity and incapability, he took the wrong road and missed them. He might have missed the Romans, but won the prize of the “Worst General Carthage ever had…”
The united Romans were too much of a challenge for Himilco. He, along with his forces, retreated to Agrigentum for the winter, while Bomilcar was also forced to retreat (Livy, 2006, 239). Syracuse was left undefended. The Carthaginian retreat and Himilco’s incapability had a huge impact on the Syracusans. The Greek citizens once again split between pro and anti roman supporters. Epicydes tried to enforce order with no results.
When the spring of 212 BCE finally came and the military operations were soon to restart, he decided to allow the Syracusans to forsake for a few days the terrible war that raged outside their walls and celebrate their annual spring festival in honor of goddess Artemis (Polybius, 2010, 428). This was a strategic move to uplift the spirits and release the tension that had been created. However, it was too late for that… While the celebrations were taking place, a group of pro-Roman Syracusans, managed to inform Marcellus that the city was left undefended (Polybius, 2010, 428). When night came and the whole city fell into a deep sleep, exhausted by the celebrations, a group of Roman soldiers managed to climb the walls and enter the city. In the next morning the majority of the town, except for the maritime regions of Ortygia and Achradina, had fallen into Roman hands…
When news about Syracuse’s fall reached Himilco, he tried to take back the city. However, he was defeated multiple times. A plague in his army’s camp managed to wipe out the remaining Carthaginian forces. Both Himilco and Hippocrates lost their lives because of the plague (Livy, 2006, 289). Realizing that all hope was lost Epicydes abandoned Syracuse together with Bomilcar and sailed back to Carthage (Livy, 2006, 290). The remaining defenders surrendered.
Marcellus allowed his exhausted soldiers to plunder the rich city, without harming its citizens, an order which was not always followed. While the looting took place one Roman soldier killed Archimedes, the man who was responsible for most of the roman casualties. There are two versions of his death. The most famous one, which is mentioned here, is that while the whole city was looted, Archimedes was sitting on the shore, drawing geometrical shapes in the sand. He didn’t even notice that the Romans entered the city (Plutarch, 487)!
Marcellus had given an order to bring Archimedes alive and unharmed to him. Undoubtedly he wished to use this extraordinary man for Rome’s interests. When a Roman soldier commanded Archimedes to come with him, he denied by saying that he was unable to leave, before finishing his shapes (Plutarch, 487–8) [4]. Infuriated by this disobedience the soldier killed him. His famous last words were “Don’t mess with my circles” or “μην μου τους κύκλους τάραττε.”
Epilogue
The greatest mind of Antiquity, the old man about whom Polybius wrote that “if he was removed of Syracuse, the Romans would have had every hope of capturing the town from the beginning” (Polybius, 2010, 406) laid dead, along with his home city. The destruction of Syracuse ended the 600 hundred year period of Greek and Punic influence in Sicily and southern Italy. The siege of Syracuse, and the stabilization of Sicily, which soon followed, was a pivotal point in the turn of the Second Carthaginian War in Rome’s favor. We can, with great confidence, state that without Sicily the Romans had high chances of losing the war entirely.
The siege of Syracuse had major historic and strategic importance, but today is remembered only for the amount of crazy, sci-fi weapons that were involved. It comes to great disappointment to know that the most famous of them, could be just a product of fantasy, or misinformation. For example, the famous steam cannons of Archimedes were mentioned for the first time by Leonardo DaVinci, thousands of years after the siege. Da Vinci states that he was inspired to build a steam cannon, by Archimedes, who invented this device during the siege of Syracuse (Gurstelle, 2017). Besides this account, no others sources are linking Archimedes with the device.
Another beloved and highly known weapon, the heat rays of Archimedes, which lit whole fleets into flames, are also most likely a myth. Much like the steam cannons, no contemporary historical source mentions the heat rays. The author Lucian was the first to mention them in his works, somewhere 400 years after the siege took place.
There are numerous experiments regarding the practical use of Archimedes’ laser weapon. All of them were successful in setting a wooden ship on fire by the use of mirrors. But a large amount of time and weather conditions, which are required for the weapon to be used, make it simply impractical on the field of battle. The Syracusans could simply release a storm of burning arrows or flammable projectiles to the ships and accomplish the same results. Also, we tend to forget another fact, which is vital for the reliability of these stories. The Romans were excellent mechanics, who for a large period of time were specialized in siege warfare. If Archimedes did indeed invented such incredible and effective weapons like steam cannons or heat rays, the Romans would undoubtedly adapt them to their arsenal, just like they adopted the use of cataphracts, horse archers, the gladius, and other similar weapons and technologies from other nations.
Whether the heat rays or the steam cannons were indeed a product of fantasy or actual historical reality remains a mystery. The only one who knew the answer was the genius inventor of these wonderful machines, whose grave was soon forgotten and left to be swallowed by the mists of time. The death of Archimedes and the destruction of Syracuse, one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, is a great example of how dreadful the concept of war truly is. No matter the rich and sophisticated culture that was hidden in the walls of the city, no matter the technological miracles of Archimedes, the city was plundered, the greatest scientific mind of antiquity was murdered and destruction was the only thing left standing…
Footnotes
[1] Thankfully, we can extract some valuable information about Archimedes’ personality, as well as the level of his scientific knowledge by utilizing his surviving personal notes and letters. Having personally studied some of these notes, I can support with confidence that Archimedes was the Einstein of his time! In his personal texts, which are a combination of mechanical and mathematic problems and puzzles, he tends to solve one problem in three different ways (a geometrical, a mathematic, and a mechanic)! His mathematic puzzles, which he intentionally created to challenge his fellow mathematicians, can still baffle even modern-day scientists. As one of my university lecturers once said “Archimedes has the tendency to offer a solution, which you are not able to find out by yourself, but once you finally do, is so simple and yet genius, that you are just left there, wondering how you haven’t think of it from the beginning.”
[2] Large, military ships equipped with five rows of oars on each side.
[3] Large, wooden structures, which resembled portable cabins with wheels, inside of whom were hidden soldiers, to protect from enemy projectiles.
[4] There is a hypothesis based on the various historical anecdotes, regarding Archimedes’ bizarre and sometimes alien character. Of course, as historians, we tend to take these pieces of information with a pinch of salt, but they all seem to include, with almost no exceptions, a sometimes antisocial, or weird behavior. From what we know, Archimedes’ servants used to force him to eat or take a bath, because he simply tended to forget to do them. Once in the bathtub, he would draw geometrical shapes, and numbers, using the aromatic oils as ink and use the walls, the bathtub, and even his own body as paper! This bizarre behavior, which is presented also in the Roman chronicles regarding his death, could have been exaggerated, but could also be signs of autism. The fact that the ancient sources mention that he was unable to follow the Roman soldier and save his life because he needed to finish his shapes, might stand as proof for this statement (Julie, 2007). This theory might also explain his unnatural scientific talent. Like many autistic people, Archimedes might have possessed incredible mathematic knowledge, while at the same time being unable to function socially. Of course, this is just a hypothesis, with no way to be further supported, but it is worth being mentioned.
Bibliography
Polybius, Paton, W.R., (2010), The Complete Histories of Polybius, Digireads.com Publishing
Plutarch, Perrin, B., (1955), Plutarch's Lives, Harvard University Press
Livy, Yardley, J., C., (2006), Hannibal’s War, Oxford World’s Classics Series, Oxford University Press
Gurstelle, W., (2017), How to build a steam-powered cannon invented by Da Vinci, available at https://www.popsci.com/diy-steam-powered-cannon/, (last access: 24/06/2021)
Julie, L., (2007), Was Archimedes Autistic?, available at https://www.autism-blog.net/2007/12/was-archimedes-autistic.html, (last access: 24/06/2021)
