hage was slipping from her.

In Sicily, which had once been hers, and even now contained many towns
which were her allies, a strong Roman party had arisen. Syracuse in the
south was besieged by Appius Claudius by land and by Marcellus by sea,
and its defence is one of the most famous in history. The Greek
engineer, Archimedes, invented all sorts of strange devices new to the
ancient world. He made narrow slits in the walls, and behind them he
placed archers who could shoot through with deadly aim, while they
themselves were untouched. He taught the smiths in the city how to make
grappling irons, which were shot forth from the ramparts and seized the
prows of the ships. By pressing a lever the vessels were slowly raised
till they stood nearly upright, when the grapplers were opened, and the
ships fell back with a splash that generally upset the crew into the
sea, or were filled with water and sunk to the bottom. Of course you
must remember that these were not great vessels with four masts like our
old East Indiamen, but were long, high boats, worked by banks of oars,
the shortest row being, of course, the lowest, nearest the water.

After a while the Romans got so frightened, not knowing what Archimedes
might do next, that they thought every end of loose rope that was lying
about hid some machine for their destruction. For a long while the
engineer kept the enemy at bay, but in the end the power of Rome
conquered; the beautiful marble palaces were ruined, and the paintings
and statues which had been the glory of Syracuse were carried to Rome.

* * * * *

Just at this time news from Spain became more and more gloomy for the
Carthaginians. The young Scipio, who had saved his father's life nine
years before at the battle of the Ticinus, was, at the age of
twenty-six, made commander-in-chief in the peninsula. Though never a
great soldier, Scipio was a good statesman, and had the gift of winning
men to his side. Multitudes of natives flocked to his standard, and many
important places fell into his hands; and in his hour of victory he was
merciful, and caused his captives as little suffering as possible. In
the words of the people themselves, 'he had conquered by kindness.'

Seeing that for the time, at any rate, all was lost in Spain, Hasdrubal
set out with an army to join his brother Hannibal. In Auvergne, in the
centre of Gaul, where he spent the winter, large numbers of Gallic
tribes join