Syracuse's fifth democracy lasted barely two years. The city fell to Roman forces under Marcellus in 212 BC after a siege prolonged famously by Archimedes' defensive war machines — catapults and claw devices that reportedly lifted Roman ships from the water. This issue belongs to the final gasps of an independent Syracusan mint that had operated continuously for over three centuries. Marcellus wept, according to Plutarch, when he saw the city from the heights before sacking it.
Syracuse's fifth democracy lasted barely two years. The city fell to Roman forces under Marcellus in 212 BC after a siege prolonged famously by Archimedes' defensive war machines — catapults and claw devices that reportedly lifted Roman ships from the water. This issue belongs to the final gasps of an independent Syracusan mint that had operated continuously for over three centuries. Marcellus wept, according to Plutarch, when he saw the city from the heights before sacking it.