Archimedes was quite a character in his native Syracuse, where he was born and died long before the time of Christ. Archimedes was of great importance not because he was a great mathematician but because he was the great inventor of many weapons of war that protected Syracuse from invasion by the Romans.
He lived on a very prosperous island called Syracuse, with abundant wheat the Romans wanted to have in order to fight the hunger of their people. For years they were planning how to invade the city but they could not penetrate it. This had all the Roman soldiers and rulers on the verge of madness because they could not penetrate the fortress of Syracuse.
The Romans wanted to invade the island and could not succeed because Archimedes' inventions prevented them from penetrating it. The inhabitants of Syracuse created a fortress with the intervention of Archimedes, on top of a mountain. And this had been for years the frustration of Romans for the many failed attempts, it was simply an impenetrable fortress for them.
The great Archimedes is considered the greatest mathematician of all times but in his time mathematics did not matter as much to the inhabitants as the great engineering inventions he made to protect his city.
He was so excited by his drawings and calculations that he usually lost his sense of time, space and forgot about himself. To the point that he was tricked into taking a bath because his mind would not allow him to stop working on his experiments until they were finished.
He based the explanation on the principle of the lever. He once said "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world".
He created a device that was like a claw and had the shape of an arm that at its end had a hook with which he lifted the ships from the bow and made them wreck when they were too close to the wall to climb it.
He was the creator of many siege weapons during the approximately 8 months that lasted the war of invasion on the city of Syracuse.
There is a drawing that recreates the "Archimedes heat ray" that shows how a ray of sunlight was used while placing a mirror directed towards it. The mirror caught a ray of sunlight that was then directed to the sails of Roman ships causing them to burn.
He also increased the use of the catapult, a small machine that propelled a heavy object and launched it so far that it would pierce enemy ships.
He is also said to have invented a steam cannon - he was thousands of years ahead of his time in creating the first cannon according to some scriptures found. The heavy object was launched and propelled as far as steam would allow.
When Syracuse could finally be invaded by the Romans the soldiers had orders from the commanding general Marcellus not to harm Archimedes.
Meanwhile, Archimedes was immersed in a new invention and didn’t realize that the Roman soldiers were destroying the city. As the soldiers didn’t know him and Archimedes only had thoughts for the work he was creating, he did not pay attention to the soldier who, seeing that he didn’t respond to his orders to surrender, killed him. Thus the Romans lost the opportunity to have this great mathematician and inventor with them.
This is one of the hypotheses surrounding the death of Archimedes during the siege of the Romans in the Second Punic War.
The great Archimedes was buried and forgotten until a Roman orator, Cicero, found his tomb very close to Syracuse and in a bad state.
Most of the students nowadays does not really value mathematics because it wont be of use when you apply for a job. For example algebra, geometry and the likes. Without knowing that these could possibly awaken ones ability to create such great inventions. Thanks for this article. I have also read your article about the Goddess Hera where I actually got my first daughters name Gheia Eraine. From the Goddess of Earth Geia and Goddess of Marriage Era/Hera...I like greek methology just that I havent been able to buy any books with their story.