Creative Writing Project
It was night, and the moon was shining
brightly over Syracuse, the Greek city-state. It was dark and quiet, except
for Archimedes' house that was made of mud-covered bricks and some wood,
where he was at work. This was not unusual for Archimedes to stay up late
working on his inventions, but he had been working on his latest subject
of study for many nights. He had taken up a great love for the defense of
his home, by creating his burning mirrors, which were massive mirrors that
would redirect the sunlight to burn Roman ships that were trying to invade
Syracuse by sea. He would occasionally work consecutive nights on his defensive
strategies. His working tonight would mean that he wouldn't have slept for
at least four to five nights consecutively.
The conflict between Rome and Syracuse had been going on since the beginning
of the first Punic War. During the First Punic War, Rome forced Syracuse,
led by Hiero II, to sign an alliance, which called for Syracuse to pay tribute
and provide grain to the Romans. When Hannibal led the Carthaginians to
many victories against the Romans, many Syracusans were led to believe that
they were allies with the wrong side. After Hiero II died, Hieronymos succeeded
Hiero as leader of Syracuse. Hieronymos then started to negotiate with Hannibal.
This action of Hieronymos led the pro-Roman faction to assassinate him.
This action resulted in a long, bloody war in Syracuse between the pro-Carthaginians
and pro-Romans. The pro-Carthaginians won the war and Hippokrates and Epikydes,
two brothers who were of mixed Carthaginian and Syracusan background, took
control of Syracuse. This led the Romans to send Marcus Cladius Marcellus
to Syracuse to try and deal with the situation. When he reached Syracuse,
he took drastic measures, including killing 2,000 Carthaginian sympathizers.
This is why the Romans were going to attack Syracuse. Only, the Syracusians
did not know when they would attack.
Archimedes had worked out all of the kinks in his burning mirrors defensive
strategy invention. He had worked out all of the mathematical issues and
equations to be able to exactly ignite the Roman ships or any other things
that went in the path of his great death machine.
The Syracusan soldiers enjoyed it when Archimedes came to the field and
would scurry around the mountains and fields setting up his inventions,
because of the joy he shared with all of them when his inventions worked.
Now, Archimedes was setting up a small model of his burning mirrors along
a small stream and placed a small boat made out of wood in the stream and
set it in the current. He saw the small boat go down the stream and then
set up the mirrors to burn the boat. The sun's rays were redirected and
the mirrors worked, igniting the small model of a Roman ship. Archimedes
yelled, "Heurkea!" which means, "I have found it." He
then gaily jumped up and down because he was so excited that his invention
had worked. Now his master plan of defensive strategies were in order with
the burning mirrors to supplement Archimedes's cranes that would pick up
invading ships and turn over his foe's ships. He also had many other inventions
that would assist the soldiers in defending their homeland, which were now
in place.
Archimedes was a good selection for his position of director of defense,
because he was very witty and was a very good warrior.
Archimedes continued to set up his burning mirrors over the next days with
the help of the soldiers. The defense of Syracuse looked to be very stable,
but looks can be deceiving.
Archimedes was getting more nervous as the attack was said to be coming.
He would look over his plans for hours and hours, only occasionally stopping
to have a little bit of cereal, a typical breakfast food that was made out
of wheat. He knew that his inventions would not falter, but he was worried
about how his soldiers would fight. He was afraid that the Roman soldiers
would be more prepared and better taught to fight than his Syracusan solders,
because of Rome's the long-standing tradition of being a very strong empire.
The next day, Archimedes went all throughout Syracuse to see how his soldiers
were preparing. Archimedes checked everything at least three times and everything
he checked dismissed his fears of a meltdown in the big battle that was
looming. However, tomorrow was the annual celebration of the goddess Artemis.
The Romans wouldn't attack on that day just out of honor. Would they?
That night after Archimedes had checked over all of the military, he was
fearful once again. But he did not fear the inability of his soldiers, but
more for the military taking off the next day for the celebration. He was
worried that the Romans would not take any mercy on the celebration and
attack without soldiers guarding Syracuse. Archimedes did not sleep once
again.
The day of the celebration had arrived, but after Archimedes had not slept,
he stayed in his two-floor house, which had some windows to let in the light.
His house was right next to a very small one-floor home in which some of
the poorer citizens of Syracuse dwelled. He heard a scream and figured that
something small had happened. He then heard many more screams of terror.
He could not figure what frightened the citizens, so he went out to the
street to see what was happening, but could not see anything. He proceeded
to go back into his home, where he had diligently been working on his dearly
beloved mathematics, which out of everything he did in his life, gave him
the most joy. Once he had started doing his mathematics again, Archimedes
heard footsteps at his doorway. When he looked up, he saw a Roman foot soldier
at his door. His worst dreams had come true. The Romans had attacked on
the day when Syracuse would have no soldiers defending it. The Romans did
not show any mercy to the Syracusians. Archimedes felt that he should have
known better than to have believed that the Romans would respect their celebration.
When the foot soldier told Archimedes to leave the home so that he could
loot it, Archimedes was angered and refused to leave saying that he could
not be interrupted because he was working on mathematics. This statement
of Archimedes then angered the Roman soldier, who then proceeded to drive
his spear through Archimedes. One of the greatest minds ever was dead. His
blood gushing out of his body and staining his short-sleeved tunic that
was one of the most typical pieces of clothing in Greek communities in the
Hellenistic time period.
All of the work that Archimedes had put into defense of Syracuse was for
no good. The city was now in the hands of the Romans, but more importantly,
Archimedes was dead, lying over his desk full of mathematical equations
and plans of how to defend Syracuse, both of which seemed less important
now the great Archimedes was dead.