ellus plundered the captured town
and attacked the portions not yet taken, and with time and labor but
after all successfully he conquered the remainder of Syracuse. The
Romans when they became masters of these districts killed many
persons, among them Archimedes. He was constructing a geometrical
figure and hearing that the enemy were at hand he said: [Sidenote:
(FRAG. 56^32?)] "Let them come at my head, but keep their distance
from my figure!" He was little perturbed when a hostile warrior
confronted him, and by his words, "Fellow, stand away from my figure,"
he irritated the man and was cut down.

[Sidenote: B.C. 211 (_a.u._ 543)] Marcellus for his capture of
Syracuse and his conciliation of most of the rest of Sicily received
high praise and was appointed consul. They had nominated Torquatus,
who once had put his son to death. He declined, however, saying:
[Sidenote: cp. FRAG. 32^6] "I could not endure your blunders, nor you
my punctiliousness," whereupon they elected Marcellus and Valerius
Laevinus.

IX, 6.--After Marcellus left Sicily, Hannibal sent a troop of cavalry
there and the Carthaginians despatched another. They won several
battles and acquired some cities. And if the praetor Cornelius
Dolabella had not come upon the scene, they would have subjugated all
Sicily.

Capua was at this time taken by the Romans. It availed nothing that
Hannibal marched upon Rome in order to draw away from Capua the forces
besieging it, although he traversed Latium, came to the Tiber, and
laid waste the suburbs of the city. The people of Rome were
frightened, but still they voted that one of the consuls[31] should
remain at Capua while the other defended them. It was Claudius who
remained at Capua, for he had been wounded: Flaccus hastened to Rome.

[Footnote 31: Possibly an error on the part of Zonaras for
_proconsuls_.]

Hannibal kept making raids all the time before their eyes and doing a
great amount of harm, but for some time they were satisfied to
preserve their possessions within the walls. When, however, he reached
the point of assaulting the city and their armies at once, they risked
the proverbial cast of the die and made a sortie. They were already
engaged in skirmishing when [Sidenote: (FRAG. 56^33?)] AN
EXTRAORDINARY STORM ACCOMPANIED BY AN INCONCEIVABLY STRONG WIND AS
WELL AS THUNDER, HAIL, AND LIGHTNING, BROKE FROM A CLEAR SKY, so that
both were glad enough to flee as if by mutual consent back to the
place