Tom Holland

had been given this massive makeover.

And it was so spectacular and so exquisite in its consequences that the city, which is very old by this point, so unlike Alexandria, its obvious rival for the title of the most beautiful city in the Greek world,

But in a way, Syracuse has been given such an incredible makeover that it seems even more modern than Alexandria does.

So it has this kind of ancient stone theatre, which has been rebuilt, extended.

It's got new temples.

It's got gymnasia.

It's got...

Incredible marketplaces and shopping centres all over the place.

It has the world's largest altar, so massive that 450 oxen could be slaughtered on it simultaneously, and which would have provided half a million people, it's been estimated, with a very decent sized steak.

Wow.

So sort of like an Argentine restaurant.

Yeah.

Yes, huge gaucho restaurant.

It has double harbours.

It has shipyards.

And again, all of these have been comprehensively renovated and refurbished.

It has impregnable walls, which stretch 17 miles.

And a lot of these walls are snaking up and over mountainous heights.

So essentially, it's almost impossible for a besieger to invest the city.

It has an enormous fortress, the Euryalus, which is set on the highest point of the city walls and dominates the land approaches to Syracuse.