ARCHIMEDES AND SYRACUSE
Along with his contributions listed above, Archimedes also helped the people of his home, Syracuse. Syracuse is where Archimedes was born, where he lived for most of his life, and where he was killed. Archimedes helped Syracuse defend itself from being invaded by opposing countries and empires for many years. He did this with many war tactics that he invented, such as burning mirrors (shown above). In this tactic, huge mirrors were positioned in a way that light from the sun reflected off of them and concentrated a powerful beam of sunlight that was redirected at enemy ships. This act would set the ships on fire. The Syracusians won many victories this way, without a battle. Also, many other victories were won with Archimedes's war tactics.
Syracuse was a Greek city-state. It was known as the center of Greek culture. Archimedes lived in Syracuse for most of his life. It was also the home of other great Greek cultural figures such as Arschylus, Pindar, and Theocritus, who all live before Archimedes's time. Syracuse, the great city-state, defeated Athens in 414 B.C. However in 212 B.C., Syracuse suffered a great loss, which included the death of one of the greatest minds ever in the world.