self solely in his pleasures, Archimedes might have remained inactive in his closet, and all his extraordinary science would have been of no advantage to his country. What treasures of useful knowledge lie buried in obscurity, and in a manner hid under the earth, because princes set no value upon learned men, and consider them as persons useless to the state! But when in their youth they have imbibed some small tincture of arts and sciences, for the study of princes ought not to extend farther in that point, they esteem such as distinguish them. selves by learning, sometimes converse with them, and place them in honour, and by so glorious a protection, make way for valuable discoveries, the advantage of which is soon reaped by the state. Syracuse had this obligation to Hiero, which without doubt was the effect of his excellent education, for he had been bred with uncommon care and attention.

What has been said hitherto of Archimedes, and what we shall presently add upon the wonderful machines of war which were used during the siege of Syracuse, show how wrong it is to despise those sublime and speculative sciences, whose only subjects are simple and abstracted ideas. It is true, that all mere geometrical or algebraical speculations do not relate to useful things: but it is also as true, that most of those which have not that relation, conduct or refer to those that have. They may appear unprofitable, as long as they do not deviate from this merely intellectual world; but the mixed mathematics, which descend to matter, and consider the motion of the stars, the perfect knowledge of navigation, the view of objects by the assistance of telescopes, the increase of powers of motion, the nice exactitude of the balance, and other similar objects, become more easy of access, and in a manner familiar with the generality of mankind. The labour of Archimedes was long obscure, and perhaps contemned, because he confined himself to simple and barren speculations. Should we from thence conclude that it was useless and unprofitable? It was from that very source of knowledge, till then buried in obscurity, from whence originated those lights and wonderful discoveries, which displayed from their introduction a sensible and manifest utility, and inspired the Romans with astonishment and despair when they besieged Syracuse.

Hiero was great and magnificent in all things, in building palaces, arsenals, and temples. He caused an infinite number of ships of all burdens to be built for the exportation of corn, a commerce in which almost the whole wealth of the island consisted. We are told of a galley built by his order, under the direction of Archimedes, which was reckoned one of the most famous structures of antiquity. It was a whole year in building. Hiero passed whole days among the workmen, to animate them by his presence.*

This ship had twenty benches of oars. The enormous pile was fastened together on all sides with large copper bolts that weighed each ten pounds and upwards.

The inside contained three galleries or corridors, the lowest of which led to the hold by a flight of stairs, the second to apartments, and the first to soldiers' lodgings.

On the right and left side of the middle gallery, there were thirty apartments, in each of which were four beds for men. The apartments for the officers and seamen contained fifteen beds, and three great rooms for eating; the last of which, that was at the stairs, served for a kitchen. All the floors of these apartments were inlaid in different colours, with historical pieces taken from the Iliad of Homer. The ceilings, windows, and all the other parts, were finished with wonderful art, and embellished with all kinds of ornaments.

In the uppermost gallery there was a gymnasium, or place of exercise, and walks proportionate to the magnitude of the ship, with gardens and plants of all kinds, disposed in wonderful order. Pipes, some of hardened clay, and others of lead, conveyed water in every direction to refresh them. There were also arbours of ivy and vines, their roots being placed in great vessels filled

Athen. 1. iii. p. 206–209.

with earth. These vessels were watered in the same manner as the gardens. The arbours served to shade the walks.

After this came the apartment of Venus, filled with three beds. This was floored with agates and other precious stones, the finest that could be found in the island. The walls and roof were of Cyprus wood. The windows were adorned with ivory, paintings, and small statues. In another apartment was a library, at the top of which, on the outside, was placed a sun-dial.

There was also an apartment with three beds for a bath, in which were three great copper vessels, and a bathing vessel made of a single stone of various cofours. This vessel contained two hundred and fifty quarts. At the head of the ship was a great reservoir of water, which held one hundred thousand quarts, nearly 400 hogsheads.

All round the ship on the outside were Atlasses of six cubits, or nine feet, in height, which supported the sides of the ship: these Atlasses were at equal distances from each other. The ship was adorned on all sides with paintings, and had eight towers proportioned to its size; two at the head, two at the stern, and four in the middle, of equal dimensions. Upon these towers were parapets, from which stones might be discharged upon the ships of an enemy that should approach too near. Each tower was guarded by four young men completely armed, and two archers. The inside of them was filled with stones and arrows. Upon each side of the vessel, well strengthened with planks, was a kind of rampart, on which was an engine to discharge stones, made by Archimedes; it threw a stone of three hundred weight, and an arrow of twelve cubits or eighteen feet, to the distance of a stadium, or one hundred and twenty-five paces. The ship had three masts, at each of which were two machines to discharge stones. There were also hooks and masses of lead to throw upon such as approached. The whole ship was surrounded with a rampart of iron, to keep off those who should attempt to board it. All around were iron graplings, (corvi,) which being thrown by machines, grappled the vessels of the enemy, and drew them close to the ship, from whence it was easy to destroy them. On each of the sides were sixty young men, completely armed, and as many about the masts, and at the machines for throwing stones.

Though the hold of this ship was extremely deep, one man sufficed for clearing it of all water, with a machine made in the nature of a screw, invented by Archimedes. An Athenian poet of that name made an epigram on this superb vessel, for which he was well paid. Hiero sent him one thousand of medimni of corn as a reward, and caused them to be carried to the port of Pyræus. The medimnis, according to Father Montfaucon, is a measure that contains six bushels. This epigram has been handed down to us. The value of verse was known at that time in Syracuse.

Hiero, having found that there was scarcely any port in Sicily capable of containing this vessel, where it could lie at anchor without danger, resolved to make a present of it to king Ptolemy,* and sent it to Alexandria. There was at that time a great dearth of corn throughout all Egypt.

Several other transports of less burden attended this great ship. Three hundred thousand quarters of corn were put on board them, with ten thousand great earthen jars of salted fish, twenty thousand quintals, or two millions of pounds of salt meat, twenty thousand bundles f different cloths, without including the provisions for the ships crews and fficers.

To avoid too much prolixity, I have retrenched some part of the description which Athenæus has left us of this great ship.

I could have wished that, to have given us a better idea of it, he had mentioned the exact dimensions of it. Had he added a word upon the benches of oars, it would have cleared up and determined a question, which, without it, must for ever remain doubtful and obscure.

Hiero's fidelity was put to a very severe trial, after the bloody defeat of the Romans in the battle of Cannæ, which was followed by an almost universal de

*There is reason to believe that this was Ptolemy Philadelphus.

fection of their allies. But the wasting of his dominions by the Carthaginian troops, which their fleet had landed in Sicily, was not capable of changing him. He was only afflicted to see that the contagion had spread even to his own family. He had a son named Gelon, who married Nereis the daughter of Pyrrhus, by whom he had several children, and among others Hieronymus, of whom we shall soon speak. Gelon, despising his father's great age, and setting no value on the alliance of the Romans, after their last disgrace at Cannæ, had declared openly for the Carthaginians. He had already armed the multitude, and solicited the allies of Syracuse to join him; and would perhaps have occasioned great troubles in Sicily, if his sudden and unexpected death had not intervened. It happened so opportunely, that his father was suspected of having promoted it. He did not survive his son long, and died at the age of ninety years, infinitely regretted by his people, after having reigned fifty-four years.

ARTICLE II

THE REIGN OF HIERONYMUS, THE TROUBLES ARISING from it, and THE SIEGE AND TAKING OF SYRACUSE.

SECTION 1.—HIERONYMUS, GRANDSON of hiero, SUCCEEDS HIM. HE IS KILLED IN A CONSPIRACY.

THE death of Hiero occasioned great revolutions in Sicily. The kingdom was fallen into the hands of Hieronymus his grandson, a young prince, incapable of making a wise use of his independency, and far from possessing strength to resist the seducing allurements of sovereign power. Hiero's apprehensions that the flourishing condition in which he left his kingdom, would soon change under an infant king, suggested to him the thought and desire of restoring their liberty to the Syracusans. But his two daughters opposed that design with all their influence, from the hope that the young prince would have only the title of king, and that they should have all the authority, in conjunction with their husbands, Andranadorus and Zoippus, who held the first rank among his guardians. It was not easy for an old man of ninety to hold out against the caresses and arts of those two women, who besieged him day and night, to preserve the freedom of his mind against their pressing and assiduous insinuations, and to sacrifice with courage the interests of his family to those of the public.

To prevent as far as possible the evils he foresaw, he appointed him fifteen guardians, who were to form his council; and earnestly desired them, at his death, never to depart from the alliance with the Romans, to which he had inviolably adhered for fifty years, and to teach the young prince to tread in his steps, and to follow the principles in which he had, till then, been educated.

The king dying after these arrangements, the guardians whom he had appointed for his grandson immediately summoned the assembly, presented the young prince to the people, and caused the will to be read. A small number of people, expressly placed to applaud it, clapped their hands, and raised acclamations of joy. All the rest, in a consternation equal to that of a family who had lately lost a good father, kept a mournful silence, which sufficiently expressed their grief for their recent loss, and their apprehension of what was to come. His funeral was afterwards solemnized, and more honoured by the sorrow and tears of his subjects, than the care and regard of his relations for his memory."

* A. M. 3789. Ant. J. C. 215. Liv. 1. xxiii. n. 30. Movissetque in Siciliares, nisi mors, adeo opportuna ut patrem quoque suspicione adspergeret, aman. tem eum multitudinem, solicitantemque socios, absumsisset.-Liv.

Puerum, vix dum libertatem, nedum dominationem, modice laturum.-Liv. Non facile erat, nonagesimum jam agenti annum, circumcesso dies noctesque muliebribus blanditiis, liberare animum, et convertere ad publicam privatam curam.-Liv.

Funus sit regium, magis amore civium et caritate, quam cura suorum celebre.-Liv.

The first care of Andranadorus, was to remove all the other guardians, by telling them plainly that the prince was of age to govern for himself.

He was at that time nearly fifteen years old; so that Andranadorus, being the first to renounce the guardianship held by him in common with many colleagues, united all their power in his own person. The wisest arrangements made by princes at their death, are often little regarded, and seldom executed afterwards.

The best and most moderate prince in the world, succeeding a king, so well beloved by his subjects as Hiero had been, would have found it very difficult to console them for the loss they had sustained. But Hieronymus, as if he had strove by his vices to make him still more regretted, no sooner ascended the throne, than he made the people sensible how much all things were altered.* Neither king Hiero, nor Gelon his son, during so many years, had ever distinguished themselves from the other citizens by their habits, or any other omaments. Hieronymus was presently seen in a purple robe, with a diadem on his head, and surrounded by a troop of armed guards. Sometimes he affected to imitate Dionysius the tyrant, in coming out of his palace in a chariot drawn by four white horses. All the rest of his conduct was suitable to this equipage; a visible contempt for all the world, haughty and disdainful in hearing, and affectation of saying disobliging things; so difficult of access, that not only strangers, but even his guardians, could scarcely approach him; a refinement of taste in discovering new methods of debauch; a cruelty so excessive, as to extinguish all sense of humanity. This odious disposition in the young king terrified the people to such a degree, that even some of his guardians, to escape his cruelty, either put themselves to death, or condemned themselves to voluntary banishment.†

Only three men, Andranadorus and Zoippus, both Hiero's sons-in-law, and Thraso, had a great freedom of access to the young king. He listened a little more to them than to others; but as the two first openly declared for the Carthaginians, and the latter for the Romans, that difference of sentiments, and frequent warm disputes, drew upon them that prince's attention.

About this time a conspiracy against the life of Hieronymus was discovered. One of the principal conspirators, named Theodotus, was accused. Being put to the torture, he confessed the crime as to himself; but all the violence of the most cruel torments, could not make him betray his accomplices. At length, as if no longer able to support the pains inflicted on him, he accused the king's best friends, though innocent, among whom he named Thraso, as the ring-leader of the whole enterprise; adding, that they should never have engaged in it, if a man of his influence had not been at their head. The zeal he had always expressed for the Roman interests, rendered the evidence probable; and he was accordingly put to death. Not one of the accomplices, during the torture of their companion, either fled or concealed himself; so much did they rely upon the fidelity of Theodotus, who had the fortitude to keep the secret inviolable.

The death of Thraso, who was the sole support of the alliance with the Romans, left the field open to the partizans of Carthage. Hieronymus despatched ambassadors to Hannibal, who sent back a young Carthaginian officer of illus trious birth, also named Hannibal, with Hippocrates and Epicydes, natives of Carthage, but descended from the Syracusans by their father. After the treaty with Hieronymus was concluded, the young officer returned to his general; the two others continued with the king, by Hannibal's permission. The conditions of the treaty were, that after having driven the Romans out of Sicily, of which they fully assured themselves, the river Himera, which almost divides the island,

Vix quidem ulli bono moderatoque regi facilis erat favor apud Syracusanos, succedenti tantæ caritati Hieronis. Verum enimvero Hieronymus, velut suis vitiis desiderabilem efficere vellet avum, primo statim conspectu, omnia quam disparia essent ostendit.-Liv.

Hunc tam superbum apparatum habitumque convenientes sequebantur contemptus omnium hominum, superbæ aures, contumeliosa dicta, rari aditus non alienis modo, sed tutoribus etiam; libidines Dova, intu mans crudelitas.-Liv

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should be the boundary of their respective dominions. Hieronymus, puffed up by the praises of his flatterers, demanded, even some time after, that all Sicily should be given up to him, leaving the Carthaginians Italy for their part. The proposal appeared idle and rash; but Hannibal gave very little attention to it, having no other view at that time, than of drawing off the young king from the party of the Romans.

Upon the first rumour of this treaty, Appius, prætor of Sicily, sent ambassadors to Hieronymus, to renew the alliance made by his grandfather with the Romans. That proud prince received them with great contempt; asking them, with an air of raillery and insult, what had passed at the battle of Cannæ; that Hannibal's ambassadors had related incredible things respecting it; that it was easy to know the truth from their mouths, and thence to determine upon the choice of his allies. The Romans made answer, that they would return to him when he had learned to treat ambassadors seriously and with respect; and after having cautioned, rather than desired, him not to change sides too rashly, they withdrew.

At length his cruelty, and the other vices to which he blindly abandoned himself, drew upon him an unfortunate end. Those who had formed the conspiracy mentioned before, pursued their design; and having found a favourable opportunity for the execution of their enterprise, killed him in the city of the Leontines, on a journey he made from Syracuse into the country.

Here is a remarkable instance of the difference between a king and a tyrant ; and that it is not in guards or arms the security of a prince consists, but in the affection of his subjects. Hiero, from being convinced that those who have the laws in their hands for the government of the people, ought always to govern themselves by the laws, behaved in such a manner, that it might be said the law, and not Hiero, reigned. He believed himself rich and powerful, for no other end than to do good, and to render others happy. He had no occasion to take precautions for the security of his life; he had always the surest guard about him, the love of his people; and Syracuse was afraid of nothing so much as of losing him. Hence he was lamented at his death, as the common father of his country. Not only their mouths but hearts were long after filled with his name, and incessantly blessed his memory. Hieronymus, on the contrary, who had no other rule of conduct than violence, regarded all other men as born solely for himself, and valued himself upon governing them, not as subjects but slaves, led the most wretched life in the world, if to live were to pass his days in continual apprehension and terror. As he trusted no one, no person placed any confidence in him. Those who were nearest his person were the most exposed to his suspicions and cruelty, and thought they had no other security for their own lives, than by putting an end to his. Thus terminated a reign of short duration, but abounding with disorders, injustice, and oppression.

Appius, who foresaw the consequence of his death, gave the senate advice of all that passed, and took the necessary precautions to preserve that part of Sicily which belonged to the Romans. They, on their side, perceiving that the war in Sicily was likely to become important, sent Marcellus thither, who had been appointed consul with Fabius, in the beginning of the fifth year of the second Punic war, and had distinguished himself gloriously by his successes against Hannibal.*

When Hieronymus was killed, the soldiers, less out of affection for him, than a certain natural respect for their kings, had thoughts at first of avenging his death upon the conspirators. But the grateful name of liberty with which they were flattered, and the hope that was given them of the division of the tyrant's treasures among them, and of additional pay, with the recital of his horrid crimes and shameful excesses, altogether appeased their first heat, and changed their disposition in such a manner, that they left the prince's body without interment, for whom they had just before expressed so warm a regret.

VOL. IV.

* A. M. 3790. Ant. J. C. 214. Liv. 1. xxiv. n. 21-35.

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