in his works. Some
attribute this to his natural genius, others say that his
indefatigable industry made his work seem as though it had been done
without labour, though it cost much. For no man by himself could find
out the solution of his problems, but as he reads, he begins to think
that he could have discovered it himself, by so smooth and easy a road
does he lead one up to the point to be proved. One cannot therefore
disbelieve the stories which are told of him: how he seemed ever
bewitched by the song of some indwelling syren of his own so as to
forget to eat his food, and to neglect his person, and how, when
dragged forcibly to the baths and perfumers, he would draw geometrical
figures with the ashes on the hearth, and when his body was anointed
would trace lines on it with his finger, absolutely possessed and
inspired by the joy he felt in his art. He discovered many beautiful
problems, and is said to have begged his relatives and friends to
place upon his tomb when he died a cylinder enclosing a sphere, and to
write on it the proof of the ratio of the containing solid to the
contained.

XVIII. Such was Archimedes, who at this time rendered himself, and as
far as lay in him, the city, invincible.

During the blockade Marcellus took Megara, one of the most ancient of
the Greek cities in Sicily, and also captured Hippokrates' camp at
Acrillae, with a destruction of more than eight thousand of his men,
attacking them just as they were planting the palisades of the
rampart. He overran a great part of Sicily, induced cities to revolt
from Carthage, and beat all forces that opposed him. As time went on,
he took prisoner one Damippus, a Spartan, as he was sailing out of
the harbour of Syracuse. The Syracusans desired to ransom this man,
and Marcellus, in the course of many negotiations and conferences
about him, noticed that a certain tower was carelessly guarded, and
that men might be introduced into it secretly, as the wall near it was
easy to climb. Having, from his frequent journeys to confer with the
besieged near this tower, gained a good idea of its height, he
prepared scaling-ladders, and waited till the Syracusans were engaged
in celebrating the feast of Artemis, and given up to drinking and
amusement. Not only did he gain the tower unobserved, but was able to
occupy the whole circuit of wall with his troops, and to break into
the Hexapylon.[16] When the Syracusans began to discover their
position and muste