Ingenious Siegecraft: The (Staggering) Siege of Syracuse 213-212 BC

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An amphibious army under the command of the Roman proconsul Marcus Claudius Marcellus arrived at the City of Syracuse on the island of Sicily in spring of the year 213 BC. The arrival of this Roman army marked the beginning of a struggle characterized by factionalism, amphibious operations, questionable military decision making, and intricate siege weapons created by the ancient inventor and mathematician Archimedes. The siege of Syracuse was part of the Second Punic War, a war in which Carthage and Rome struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea: from Italy to Iberia, from North Africa to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Because reconstructing events from antiquity is little bit trickier compared to other time periods we covered we will provide some primary sources on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, so you can check where we got our information from. Without further ado: This is how contemporary historiography tells the story of the staggering siege of Syracuse.

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Bibliography
Briscoe, John, The Second Punic War, in: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B.C. (Cambridge Ancient History vol. 3), Cambridge 1989.
Cornell, Tim (Hg.), The Second Punic War. A Reappraisal, London 1996.
Dreher, Martin, Das antike Sizilien, München 2008.
Edwell, Peter, War Abroad: Spain, Sicily, Macedon, Africa, in: Hoyos, Dexter (Ed.), A Companion to the Punic Wars, Oxford 2011.
Gowers, Emily, Augustus and Syracuse, in: The Journal of Roman Studies, 2010, Vol. 100 (2010), pp. 69-87.
Hoyos, Dexter, MASTERING THE WEST. Rome and Carthage at War (Ancient Warfare and Civilization), Oxford 2015.
Young, C. K. Archimedes's iron hand or claw – a new interpretation of an old mystery, in: Centaurus 46 (2004), pp. 189-207.