Arkhimedes

In the catalogue of those endued with sovereign power it had for its votaries Dion the Syracusian, Julianos the Roman, and Khosroes, the Persian emperor; among the leaders of armies it had Chabrias and Phokion, those brave generals of the Athenians; among mathematicians, those leading stars of science, Eudoxos, Arkhimedes, and Euklides; among biographers, the inimitable Plutarchos; among physicians, the admirable Galenos; among rhetoricians, those unrivalled orators, Demosthenes and Cicero; among critics, that prince of philologists, Longinos; and among poets, the most learned and majestic Virgilius?[…]In the next place, it is necessary to speak concerning the qualifications requisite in a legitimate student of the philosophy of Platon, previous to which I shall just notice the absurdity of supposing that a mere knowledge of the Greek tongue, however great that knowledge may be, is alone sufficient to the understanding the sublime doctrines of Platon; for a man might as well think he can understand Arkhimedes without a knowledge of the elements of geometry, merely because he can read him in the original.

That records Plutarch’s view of engineering, not Arkhimedes’. Plutarch is also wrong: Arkhimedes ‘deigned’ to write a work On sphere-making (which is lost), and The Method (which was rediscovered in 1906). Arkhimedes developed some of his mathematics using a mechanical method, based on the lever principle, by which he could discover mathematical results, which he then set about proving. Moreover, it is highly significant that Arkhimedes wrote about his method.

Ultimately, in 211, Syrakuse fell from within, by treachery, and Arkhimedes died with many of his compatriots when Roman troops poured into the city.