to fay, a globe or fpherical figure; and to fet down at the bottom the relation those two folids, the containing and the contained, have to each other. He might have filled up the bafes of the columns of his tomb with relievos, whereon the whole hiftory of the fiege of Syracuse might have been carved, and himself appeared like another Jupiter thundering upon the Romans. But he fet an infinitely higher value upon a discovery, a geometrical demonftration, than upon all the fo much celebrated machines of his invention. So that he chofe rather to do himself honour with posterity, by the discovery he had made of the relation of a fphere to a cylinder of the fame base and height; which is as two to three.

The Syracufans, who had been in former times fo fond of the fciences, did not long retain the esteem and gratitude they owed a man, who had done fo much honour to their city. Lefs than a hundred and forty years after, Archimedes was fo perfectly forgot by his citizens, notwithstanding the great fervices he had done them, that they denied his having been buried at Syracufe. It is from Cicero we have this circumftance.

At the time he was queftor in Sicily, his cu- Cic Tufc. riofity induced him to make a search after the Quæft.1.5. tomb of Archimedes; a curiofity that became n. 64, 66. a man of Cicero's genius, and merits the imitation of all who travel. The Syracufans affured him, that his fearch would be to no purpose, and that there was no fuch monument amongst them. Cicero pitied their ignorance, which only ferved to encrease his defire of making that discovery. At length, after feveral fruitlefs attempts he perceived, without the gate of the city facing Agrigentum, amongst a great VOL. X.

F 2

number

chim.

number of tombs in that place, a pillar almost entirely covered with thorns and brambles, through which he could difcern the figure of a fphere and cylinder. Thofe, who have any tafte for antiquity, may eafily conceive the joy of Eupa in Cicero upon this occafion. He cried out, that verb. Ar- he had found what he looked for. The place was immediately ordered to be cleared, when they faw the infcription ftill legible, though part of the lines were obliterated by time. So that, fays Cicero, in coucluding his account, the greatest city of Greece, and the most flourifhing of old in the ftudies of fcience, would not have known the treasure it poffeffed, if a man, born in a country it confidered almost as barbarous, had not difcovered for it the tomb of one of its citizens, fo highly distinguished by his force and penetration of mind.

We are obliged to Cicero for having left us this curious and elegant account: but we cannot easily pardon him the contemptuous manner in which he speaks at firft of Archimedes. It is in the beginning, where intending to compare the unhappy life of Dionyfius the tyrant, with the felicity of one paffed in tranquillity and moderation, and abounding with wifdom, he fays "I will not compare the lives of a Plato or an Architas, perfons of confummate learning and wifdom, with that of Diony

66

* Ita nobiliffima Græciæ civitas, quondam vero etiam doctiffima, fui civis unius acutiffimi monumentum ignoraffet, nifi ab homine Arpinare didiciffet. I

Non ergo jam cum hu-. jus vita, qua tertius, miferine, deteftabilius excogitare

nihil poffum, Platonis aut Archiæ vitam comparabo, doctorum hominum & plane fapientum. Ex eadem urbe HUMILEM HOMUNCIONEM a pulvere & radio excitabo, qui multis annis post fuit, Archimedem.

66 fius,

66

"fius, the most horrid, the most miserable,
" and the moft deteftable that can be imagined.
"I fhall have recourse to a man of his own
66 city, A LITTLE OBSCURE PERSON, who
"lived many years after him. I fhall
pro-
"duce him from his * duft, and make him
appear upon the ftage with his rule and com-
paffes in his hand." But the greateft geome-
trician of antiquity, whofe fublime difcoveries
have in all times been the admiration of the
learned; fhould Cicero have treated this mant
as a common artificer, employed in making
machines; unless it be, perhaps, because the
Romans, with whom a tafte for geometry and
fuch fpeculative fciences never gained much
ground, esteemed nothing great but what related.
to government and policy.

Orabunt caufas melius, calique meatus
Defcribent radio, & furgentia fidera dicent :
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento.
VIRGIL. En. 6

Let others better mold the running mass
Of metals, and inform the breathing brass,
And foften into flesh a marble face;
Plead better at the bar, defcribe the skies,
And when the stars defcend and when they rife;
But, Rome, 'tis thine alone with awful fway
To rule mankind, and make the world obey;
Difpofing peace and war, thy own mageftick
DRYDEN.

way.

This is the Abbe Fraquier's reflection in the Memoirs of fhort differtation he has left us upon this paffage the Acadein Cicero.

*He means the duft ufed by geometricians. F 3

my of Infcriptions, Vol. II.

SECT.

A. M.

3295.

A. M. 3520.

TH

SECT. II.

Summary of the history of Syracufe.

HE island of Sicily, with the greateft part of Italy, extended between the two feas, compofed what was called Græcia major, in oppofition to Greece properly fo called, which had peopled all those countries by its colonies.

Syracufe was the most confiderable city of Sicily, and one of the most powerfull of all Greece. It was founded by Architas the Corinthian, in the third year of the xviith Olympiad.

The two firft ages of its hiftory are very obfcure, and therefore we are filent upon them. It does not begin to be known till after the reign of Gelon, and furnishes in the fequel many great events, for the fpace of more than two hundred years. During all that time it exhibits a perpetual alternative of slavery under the tyrants, and liberty under a popular government; till Syracufe is at length fubjected to the Romans, and makes part of their empire.

I have treated all thefe events, except the laft, in the order of time. But as they are cut into different sections, and difperfed in different books, we thought proper to unite them here in one point of view, that their feries and connection might be the more evident, from their being fhewn together and in general, and the places pointed out, where they are treated with due extent.

GELON.

GELÓN.

The Carthaginians, in concert with Xerxes, A. M.. having attacked the Greeks who inhabited Si- 35 20. cily, whilft that prince was employed in making an irruption into Greece; Gelon, who had made himself mafter of Syracufe, obtained a celebrated victory over the Carthaginians, the very day of the battle of Thermopyla. Amilcar, their general, was killed in this battle. Hiftorians fpeak differently of his death, which has occafioned my falling into a contradiction. For on one fide I suppose with * Diodorus Siculus, that he was killed by the Sicilians in the battle; and on the other I fay after Herodotus, that to avoid the fhame of furviving his defeat, he threw himself into the pile, in which he had facrificed human victims.

Gelon, upon returning from his victory, re- A. M. paired to the affembly without arms or guards, 3525. to give the people an account of his conduct. He was chofen king unanimously. He reigned five or fix years folely employed in the truly royal care of making his people happy. Vol. I. p. 157, &c. Vol. III. p. 311.

HIERO I.

Hiero, the eldeft of Gelon's brothers, fuc- A. M. ceeded him. The beginning of his reign was 3543worthy of great praife. Simonides and Pindar celebrated him in emulation of each other. The latter part of it did not answer the former. He reigned eleven years. Vol. III. p. 318, &c.

*In the history of the Carthaginians.

THRA

F 4