The Siege of Syracuse

by Dan Armstrong

It's the end of the third century before Christ. The city-state of Syracuse is a critical seaport in Rome's second war with Carthage. One of the ancient world's most beautiful cities, it is also the home of the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes. When Syracuse comes under Carthaginian control in 214 B.C., the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus storms the city with 40,000 soldiers and 60 warships, only to be confronted by the most sophisticated weapons the world has ever seen, all built and designed by Archimedes. The Roman army is turned back as though toy soldiers three separate times. Unwilling to concede, Marcellus blockades the city by land and sea, determined to starve Syracuse into submission no matter how long it takes. Timon Leonidas, an orphan of the war, is Archimedes' slave during the last three years of the mathematician's life and through the duration of the siege. Timon tells the story of a city held hostage from the perspective of a young Greek, privy to the political intrigue that boils around his master. When Syracuse finally falls, Marcellus' first concern is to secure its greatest asset, the aging mathematician. In one of the most poignant moments in all of history, a Roman soldier, certain the scientist is casting a hex, strikes Archimedes down as he sketches out a geometry problem. In his last moments, Archimedes gives his cherished slave a gift more powerful than any weapon used in the siege, but with the promise that it can only be revealed to save his life-a promise that becomes Timon's fate to break.

Genres: Historical Fiction

418 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. If adding books to this author, please use Dan^^Armstrong.

Reviews

[Jane]

Engrossing 1st volume of a trilogy set in the 2nd Punic War [200s B.C.] told through the eyes of a boy, Timon, captured and taken from Croton on the Italian peninsula as a slave to Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Because of his knowledge of geometry and mathematics taught to him by his father, a follower of Pythagoras, he becomes an attendant to Archimedes, the famous geometer, mathematician, and engineer, who lives in a tower on the island of Ortygia, just off the Syracuse coast. Archimedes is an old man, brilliant and eccentric but with failing vision, so Timon becomes his "eyes" and sometimes hands. Although fulfilling duties in the kitchen he becomes more like an apprentice to Archimedes than a slave. Through political machinations, Carthage controls Syracuse in the persons of two evil brothers, so Romans begin a two-year-long siege. Archimedes' war machines: ballistae, catapults, something called a "claw" and finally a series of bronze mirrors that concentrates a beam of sunlight on Roman ships and sets them afire. Timon has helped the scientist build them. Timon also goes through the pain of first love. Marcellus, the Roman general, through patience and persistence, wins the siege and then is appalled upon seeing the dead body of Archimedes, with whom he had hoped to converse. He appreciates Timon's talents and the boy, now young man, is taken under the wings of Marcellus and Marcus, his son. Timon will be leaving Syracuse and going to Rome with them. He will be taking with him a glass bead and magnifying crystal, which could be used as a "burning glass" and in concert with the bead a magnifier of great distances-- telescope, as it were.

Fascinating all through, about a period in history I knew little about. I liked the diagrams illustrating various geometrical and optics concepts Archimedes explains to Timon. Also, Archimedes explains Eratosthenes' theory of a spherical Earth. He illustrates the heliocentric theory of the solar system by the 3-D model he had constructed in his workshop. Characters were well fleshed out, especially Timon and Archimedes. The novelist made the death scene perfectly plausible. The people with whom Timon worked in the kitchen were well done, even Hektor, the head chef. In spite of his bawdiness and crudity, Hektor turned out to be a heroic figure, attempting to defend his female kitchen workers and Timon. Small quibbles: anachronisms: tomatoes thrown at an actor in a play, potatoes, and a few "okay"s. I'm surprised in spite of the generally good proofreading, these were not noticed. I'm eager to follow the rest of the trilogy.

Highly recommended.