Archimedes and the Invention of Artillery and Gunpowder

Abstract

The part that Archimedes' weapons played in the defense of Syracuse was fully attested by Polybius (Histories, 8:2:3.2-8.4) and repeated with some variations by Livy (Ab Urbe Condita, 24:34) and Plutarch (Vitae, 14:7). While some have felt that their accounts were overromanticized, more have considered that the descriptions were accurate and within the capacity of Hellenistic technology.' Later and less reliable authors added the weapon of fire-incendiary materials (Silius Italicus, Punica, 14:300-315), prototype Greek fire (Galen, De Temp, C3.2), a burning mirror (Anthemius, On Burning Mirrors), or just scientific means (Lucian, Hippias, C.2). Fire may well have been used in the siege; it was a standard weapon of the period. However, there is no authentic evidence that Archimedes made any special use of it. Nonetheless, legends of both the Greek fire and the burning mirror have survived to the present day, and belief in the latter story is still strong.2 The attribution of one other weapon to Archimedes does not appear to be so well known, yet it is much more extraordinary still-the