Archimedes was born in Syracuse, a small city-state in Sicily, in 287 BC, from an aristocratic family, and was related to King Hernon of Syracuse.
Archimedes studied in Alexandria, Egypt, under euclid's student Eratosenes, who had to be a master, and Archimedes later became a very great scientist, mathematician, and philosopher in history.
Archimedes is most familiar with his principle of buoyancy and the principle of leverage, which he successfully helped King Henon determine whether there was adulteration in his crown; the principle of leverage made Archimedes a man who could pry the earth.
In addition, Archimedes was also quite successful in geometry and astronomy, but Archimedes was born in a chaotic world, and although his ingenuity could withstand an army, he eventually died and regretted.
In the time of Archimedes' life, the Italian peninsula had a very powerful empire at that time: Rome, while in North Africa there was a new state of Carthage.
The Roman Empire suffered a revolt from Carthage as it expanded, and Archimedes lived in Syracuse (the Mediterranean region), sandwiched between them, becoming a key point for the two empires to compete with each other.
There have been three famous Punic Wars between the Roman Empire and Carthage in history, the first of which the Roman Empire narrowly won and took effective control of the Mediterranean region as well as Sicily.
The first war also led to a complete and indissoluble enmity between Rome and Carthage. Rome also restricted and suppressed the development of Carthage at every turn.
In 202 BC, the great Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy, the Second Punic War broke out, and hannibal broke out of the Roman army at Lake Trasimene and cannae at the beginning of the war, achieving a significant victory;
At this time, Syracuse of Sicily saw the wind and turned to Carthage, believing that Carthage would win the war, but unfortunately Carthage eventually lost to the Roman general Marcellus.
In 213-212 BC, in retaliation for Syracuse's betrayal, Rome sent the general Marcellus to attack Syracuse by land and water. Originally planned to capture the city in 2 days, but due to the presence of Archimedes, this war that should have been a quick decision evolved into a two-year siege of the city.
It was a showdown between military might and scientific wisdom.
Although Archimedes did not have the ability to kill the enemy on the battlefield, his superb technological inventions caused the Romans to suffer a lot.
Archimedes' Claw
This is the most mysterious war machine invented by Archimedes, which frightens the enemy, similar to the modern crane, which can throw huge logs out of the city walls and smash into enemy warships, which can sink enemy warships.
Moreover, this crane also has grappling hooks, levers, pulleys, ropes and other devices, and after the grappling hook is thrown out, it can hook the enemy ship, lift it, shake it and overturn it.
Archimedes trebuchet
This machine is relatively familiar to us and can be used to throw stones, as well as bows and arrows.
Inflicts massive damage on battleships and siege soldiers.
Archimedes condenser
This invention is the familiar parabolic mirror, or convex lens, that can focus sunlight and burn wooden Roman ships.
Archimedes' installation consisted of a large number of highly polished bronze or bronze shields arranged in a parabolic arrangement, concentrating the sunlight into a strong beam. This single device caused so much damage to the Roman ships that they would rather dive than be burned.
Due to archimedes' presence, the army led by Marcellus suffered heavy losses. What began as a brief siege turned into a two-year stalemate.
However, war cannot be won by one person, the powerful Rome is always much stronger than the weak Syracuse, and the long-term war of attrition will eventually make the resistance in the city lose morale and even become lax.
In the end, Archimedes' war machine did not save Syracuse from defeat. Although they possessed archimedes' advanced technology, what they lacked was courage, so the Romans eventually won the battle.
General Marcellus himself had heard of Archimedes, admired his academic achievements, and witnessed archimedes' invention of the war machine.
So he wanted to be able to see Archimedes himself, and had no intention of killing Archimedes. After the defeat of Syracuse, General Marcellus ordered his soldiers to bring Archimedes back unscathed.
But the soldiers did not know Archimedes, so in the confusion and misunderstanding a generation of great scientist Archimedes died at the hands of an unknown soldier.
There is this statement about Archimedes' death:
Soldiers who invaded Syracuse broke into archimedes' place and saw an old man (who was 75 years old at the time) drawing circles on the ground, supposedly calculating pi, but the soldiers did not know him and killed Archimedes.
It is also said that Archimedes severely reprimanded the soldiers who broke in, do not break his circle, the soldiers were furious when they heard it, and drew their swords at each other, and Archimedes died under the sword.
General Marcellus executed the soldier after hearing of Archimedes' tragic death, buried archimedes, and placed a sculpture of a cylindrical body cut ball in honor of his achievements in geometry.
The Second Punic War ended with a full-scale victory for Rome, which caused Carthage to decline and collapse, and no longer had the ability to compete with Rome, but the Second Punic War made Carthage's general Hannibal famous and became a great military figure in history.
Because he almost led an army into the city of Rome, this has always been in the hearts of the Romans, and has always regarded Carthage as a thorn in the eye, and in the eyes of the Romans, Carthage must perish.
Especially in the 50 years after the Second Punic War, although Carthage was subject to Rome in all aspects, and its economy and military were always in the ascendant, Carthage gradually recovered after many aspects of cultivation.
This also made the Romans feel threatened, so in 149 BC, the Romans deliberately found fault, declared war on Carthage, and invaded Carthage in three years. Since then, Carthage has become history.
It is rumored that the Romans threatened to sprinkle all the lands of Carthage with salt in order to make such a place lifeless from now on, which was enough to see that the hatred of the Romans for Carthage at that time had penetrated deep into the marrow, and it was enough to see from the hearts of the Romans that their fear of Carthage was enough. In particular, Hannibal posed a threat to them in the Second Punic War.