Polybius, Histories
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Book 8 - Chapter 3a

1
<head lang="la">II. Res Siciliae</head><w lemma="%2Aou%28%2Ftws">Οὕτως</w> <w lemma="oi%28">οἱ</w> <w lemma="plei%2Fous">πλείους</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="a%29nqrw%2Fpwn">ἀνθρώπων</w> <w lemma="to%5C">τὸ</w> <w lemma="koufo%2Ftaton">κουφότατον</w> <w lemma="h%28%2Fkista">ἥκιστα</w> <w lemma="fe%2Frein">φέρειν</w> <w lemma="du%2Fnantai">δύνανται</w>, <w lemma="le%2Fgw">λέγω</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="siwph%2Fn">σιωπήν</w>. [<foreign lang="la">Cod. urb. fol. 102 med. margo; v. Liv. XXIV, 24, 2.</foreign>]
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Walbank Commentary

Overview
8.2.0 - 8.7.0
<p rend="Plain Text">The Siege of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a></p> <p rend="Plain Text"> The Sicilian events from which this extract came evidently covered the period from Hieronymus' death in 214 to the end of 213; see above, pp. 2 and 3, and below 37 n. For the events related here see Livy, xxiv. 33. 9–35. 1 (based on P.; cf. Klotz, Livius, 113 ff.). 3. 2–7. 9 is also in Anon. de obsid. tol. 200–241 (326–7 Thvenot). § 1 is largely the epitomator's wording. P. evidently draws on a good source, well able to cope with the technical details of the siege; its identity is unknown. <milestone unit="page" n="69">[69]</milestone> </p>
Specifics
8.3.1 - 8.3.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold">'<w lang="el-GR">Ἐπικύδης τε καὶ Ἱπποκράτης</w>:</emph> see vii. 14 b n.; on their rise to power see Livy, xxiv. 23. 5–32. 9. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">προσπεπτωκυίας . . . τῆς Ἱερωνύμου . . . καταστροφῆς</w>:</emph> this was in 214, hence the present reference probably derives from the epitomator. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Ἄππιον Κλαύδιον ἀντιστράτηγον</w>:</emph> cf. 1. 7 n.; he was propraetor in 214, the year before the siege of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a> opened. The attribution of the land forces to him and the fleet to marcellus is inaccurate; both were under Marcellus' overriding command (cf. 1. 7 n.). On P.'s use of <w lang="el-GR">ἀντιστράτηγος</w> see xv. 4. 1 n. Crake, Phoenix, 1969, 215, argues that, as well as misunderstanding Ap. Claudius' relationship to Marcellus, P. may have got his status wrong; Livy has no reference to any prorogatio of Ap. Claudius' command, and he was probably not propraetor in 214, but legatus to Marcellus (so too Broughton, i. 260–1). Until Marcellus arrived, he would however continue de facto in his command. </p>
8.3.2 - 8.3.2
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">κατὰ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν Ἑξαπύλων τόπους</w>:</emph> cf. Livy, xxiv. 33. 9, 'inde terra marique simul coeptae oppugnari Syracusae, terra ab Hexapylo, mari ab Achradina, cuius murus fluctu adluitur'. The Hexapyla (or Hexapylon) was a gate in the wall built by Dionysius along the north edge of Epipolae, the plateau overlooking <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a> (Diod. xiv. 18. 3–4, xvi. 20. 2; Plut. Dion, 45. 5, as emended by Ziegler); it formed the focus of Marcellus' subsequent penetration and seizure of Epipolae (cf. 37. 11; Livy, xxv. 24. 1–7). On its site, which is certainly the modern Scala Graeca, where the road leads down from Epipolae to the north, see P. Orsi, Not. d. scav. 1893, 171; Freeman, History of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicily&groupId=973&placeId=1724">Sicily</a>, iv. 501–3; Holm, Gesch. Sic. iii. 359–60; Parke, JHS, 1944, 100; photographs nos. 1 and 34 in K. Fabricius, Das antike Syrakus (Klio, Beiheft 28, Leipzig, 1932). Holm argues that the six gates of the Hexapyla stood one behind the other, but such an arrangement would be unparalleled. Probably, as Orsi thought, they formed an 'unica linea bastionata'. Such a line can be paralleled in the Tripylon, which was once the western entrance to Epipolae, just north of Euryalus (see A. W. Lawrence, JHS, 1946, 100–1, for plan and restoration: the Tripylon, later converted into a double gateway, is marked M). My colleague, Dr. E. W. Marsden, regards it as probable that the wall with five towers at the western end of Euryalus was originally used as a Tetrapylon (no. 29 on Mauceri's plan reproduced by Lawrence). Such analogies support Orsi's view of the character of the Hexapyla. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τῆς Ἀχραδίνης κατὰ τὴν Σκυτικὴν . . . στοάν</w>:</emph> Fabricius (loc. cit. 20–30) has shown that the fortified quarter of Achradina lay on the mainland immediately north of the Little Harbour, and embracing the modern suburbs of S. Lucia and S. Antonio, which are wholly in the plain and well to the south of the famous quarries. The Shoemakers' Colonnade is not otherwise known; but there was a <w lang="el-GR">σκυτικὴ πλατεῖα</w> at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apamea&groupId=340&placeId=660">Apamea</a> (IGR, iv. 790), and Holleaux (tudes, iii. 117) compares the stoa which Antiochus, son of Seleucus I, had built at Miletus for the use of merchants (OGIS, 213, l. 10). The attack from the sea must have been launched on the north side of the Little Harbour. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς . . . τῆς κρηπῖδος</w>:</emph> 'down to the quay'; for this meaning of <w lang="el-GR">κρηπίς</w> cf. v. 37. 8. <milestone unit="page" n="70">[70]</milestone> </p>
8.3.3 - 8.3.3
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">γέρρα</w>:</emph> 'wicker-work screens', Latin plutei. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">μία ψυχὴ . . . ἀνυστικωτέρα</w>:</emph> cf. 7. 7; Livy, xxiv. 34. 1, 'nisi unus homo Syracusis ea tempestate fuisset'. Cf. Marvell, Horatian Ode, 'So much one man can do, that doth both act and know'. For the sentiment cf. i. 35 n.; it is a favourite theme in P. Archimedes was the son of the Syracusan astronomer Pheidias, and was born in c. 287 (Tzetzes, Chil. ii. 35, 105). He visited <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alexandria&groupId=1063&placeId=1868">Alexandria</a>, and subsequently maintained close relations with Conon, Dositheus, and probably Eratosthenes, but remained in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a>, where he was a friend and kinsman of Hiero II. His main distinction was in theoretical mathematics, but his screw <w lang="el-GR">(κοχλίας)</w> is also famous. His works are edited with a Latin translation by Heiberg (1910–15, ed. 2); see too E. J. Dijksterhuis, Archimedes, Copenhagen, 1956. The engines he devised for the defence of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a> caught the imagination of antiquity and are widely described; cf. Plut. Marc. 14–17; Livy, xxiv. 34. 1–16; and for the exaggerated tradition, in which, for example, Archimedes burns up the whole Roman fleet with a burning-glass, Zon. ix. 4; Tzetzes, Chil. ii. 103–28. </p>
8.3.4 - 8.3.4
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">διὰ τὸ κεῖσθαι κύκλῳ τὸ τεῖχος κτλ</w>.:</emph> 'owing to the fact that the wall extends in a circle along high ground with overhanging crags'. It is clear from Appius' attack at the Hexapyla that P. is referring to the Dionysian walls round Epipolae, though these enclosed far more than the city proper, which lay south of the plateau. This wall in fact follows the line of the ridge on the north and south sides: see Fabricius, loc. cit., photographs 1, 10, 13, 15, and 37. The <w lang="el-GR">τόποι ὡρισμένοι</w> are such points as Scala Graeca, which allow easier access to the terrain of Epipolae, quite apart from the presence of artificial defences. </p>
8.3.5 - 8.3.5
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἐντὸς τῆς πόλεως</w>:</emph> used generally to include what stood within the Dionysian wall. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς κατὰ θάλατταν ἐπιπορευομένους</w> :</emph> as well as against those attacking by land. Attacks by sea are mentioned now as if as an afterthought. Paton's version, 'both within the city and also to guard against an attack from the sea', will not do, as it draws an illogical distinction between the preparations within the city and those made to cope with naval attacks. Schweighaeuser saw the difficulty and suggested (probably unnecessarily) that some such words as <w lang="el-GR">πρὸς τοὺς κατὰ γῆν</w> had fallen out after <w lang="el-GR">ἐντὸς τῆς πόλεως</w>. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ὥστε μηδὲν . . . τοὺς ἀμυνομένους</w>?:</emph> 'so that there was no need for the defenders to busy themselves with improvizations'. </p>
8.3.6 - 8.3.6
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τῷ συνάπτοντι τείχει . . . ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνατολῶν</w> :</emph> 'the wall adjoining the Hexapyla to the east'. This will be to the east of Scala Graeca, where the Dionysian wall takes a turn to the north, and the approach is easier. </p>
Addenda & corrigenda
8.3.1 - 8.3.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold">3. 1. <w lang="el-GR">Ἄππιον Κλαύ?διον ἀντιστράτηγον</w>:</emph> Crake, Phoenix, 1969, 215, argues that, as well as misunderstanding Ap. Claudius' relationship <milestone unit="page" n="777">[777]</milestone> to Marcellus, P. may have got his status wrong; Livy has no reference to any prorogatio of Ap. Claudius' command, and he was probably not propraetor in 214, but legatus to Marcellus (so too Broughton, i. 260–1). Until Marcellus arrived, he would however continue de facto in his command. </p>

Commentary