Tom Holland

It is the worst policy imaginable to take on the Romans, even as they are kind of battered by all the losses of manpower that they've been suffering at the hands of Hannibal.

Spolia Apima, which is the greatest prize that any Roman could hope to have.

So you kill your enemy general in combat and you strip him of his armor.

And it's just tremendous glory.

And this is what Marcellus has done.

He's been consul for five times.

He's quite a cultured man.

He's a lover of Greek culture.

He will prove to be a great admirer of Archimedes.

But he's absolutely not someone to mess with.

So he's described in a later biography as a man of war with a body hewn from granite and a sword arm of devastating power.

And this is the guy in the spring of 213 who appears before the walls of Syracuse at the head of a large army of Romans, many of whom are veterans of Cannae.

So those 10,000 who had survived Cannae and who are therefore desperate for revenge.

They camp out before the walls of Syracuse.

And on the seaside, Marcellus gets on board his galley and leads a battle fleet into the harbors of the city.

So it's a kind of pincer movement.

And the Syracusans understandably are terrified.

But this is the moment when Archimedes and his war machines come into their own.

Yeah, or some fresh hellish contraption that Archimedes has come up with.

And at the same time, the Roman fleet too is getting absolutely battered.