Archimedes

Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, engineer and inventor from Syracuse in Sicily. His surviving works transformed geometry, statics and hydrostatics, and later tradition associated him with the principle of buoyancy, the law of the lever and ingenious mechanical devices. During the Roman siege of Syracuse he reportedly designed defensive machines that delayed capture. He was killed by a Roman soldier in 212 BC despite orders that his life should be spared.

Gillian Bradshaw’s The Sand-Reckoner is the best-known modern historical novel centred on Archimedes, presenting him as a young mathematician balancing intellectual curiosity with the demands of court and war. He also appears in fiction about the Second Punic War and the siege of Syracuse. Novelists must bridge the gap between his difficult technical writings and the colourful anecdotes preserved by later authors, many of which cannot be independently verified.