Some Suggestions and Authorities.
Before you leave this passage, try to notice some of the following points, and if possible consult some of these authorities:—
(i.) Read (e.g. in Church and Brodribb’s translation) Livy’s account of the siege of Syracuse by Marcellus, 214-212 B.C., Book xxiv. cap. 34; Book xxv. caps. 23-31.
(ii.) Freeman’s History of Sicily. Notice especially the admirable plan of Syracuse illustrating the siege by Nicias.
Or Sicily—‘Story of the Nations’ Series.
(iii.) Some good Life of Archimedes. The Encyclopaedia Britannica supplies a good short life and refers to Cicero’s finding the Tomb of Archimedes, and to the still extant work of Archimedes on the Sphere and the Cylinder.
(iv.) For Cicero’s Quaestorship in Sicily, 75 B.C., consult some Life of Cicero, e.g. Forsyth’s, pp. 38-58, where reference is made to this incident.
(v.) For the Tusculanae Disputationes (conversations between Cicero and a friend at his Tusculan villa, the subject of which is the chief essentials of happiness) consult the admirable introduction to the edition by T. W. Dougan, Camb. Press.
[18.] Var. lect. ad portas Achradinas.