Re: Caesar Archimedes I
Archimedes.Plutonium@dartmouth.edu (Archimedes Plutonium)
26 Jun 1997 05:11:33 GMT
Tonight I was entertained with the movie TWELFTH NIGHT with Helena
Carter as Olivia. Handsome women she is.
"Care's an enemy to life."
I do not know about others, but I am getting tired of hearing the
word "beseech". A great improvement of Shakespeare plays would be to
find some other word for "beseech". So corny.
I am going to stop workin on all of these plays and save them for a
future time. And I like the route of this play for it begs of
creativity. I have no idea where this play is going but a wonderful
cornucopia of rich history to feed upon. No one man shall be Caesar.
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/juliuscaesar/juliuscaesar.ht
ml
This play is beginning to look like a song that interwoven with several
different songs. I forget what such a song is called. Such as Parsley
Sage Rosemary and Thyme and the songs all come together at the end.
Act 1, Scene 2
A public place in Siracusa, Ancient Greek times
and the life of Archimedes 1st, mingled with my reincarnated life
(photon soul). I will call myself either Archimedes 2nd or AP.
Flourish. Enter
Archimedes 1st
Work on the engineering of the machinery of defence for the City!
Siracusan worker:
Peace, ho! king of engineering speaks.
Archimedes 1st :
Engineering will save us! [Aside speaking to myself: aye, though
I be in my 70s years, and could have fleed, my olden age, we all must
die, so go out in a spectacle. My engineering will hold us fast, but
the weakness are these fellow humans. My physics is strong, but the
nerve of humanity in times of stress is weak and falls off these
Siracusan walls like the leaves off trees 'fore winter.
Inner ear of Archimedes II
Forget not, in your speed, AP,
To touch Carnotite; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse.
AP
I shall remember:
When mining for carnotite or uraninite, it is perform'd.
Archimedes I to the soldiers of Siracusa :
Set on; and leave no detail of engineering out.
Flourish
Soothsayer
Archimedes!
Archimedes I :
Ha! who calls?
Soldier :
Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
Archimedes I :
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Archimedes!' Speak; Arcimedes is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.
Archimedes I :
What man is that?
Soldier :
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Archimedes I :
Set him before me; let me see his face.
Women with mirror shield :
Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Archimedes.
Archimedes I :
What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.
Archimedes II
Quantum dreamer; I was, let me not leave it pass.
Women 2 of mirrors :
Will you go see the order of the course?
Women 200 of mirrors :
Not I.
Women 2 of mirrors :
I pray you, do.
Steven Weinberg :
Then, Einstein, I have much mistook your passion;
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Albert, can you see your face?
Albert Einstein
No, Steven; for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection, by some other things.
Steven Weinberg
'Tis just:
And it is very much lamented, Einstein,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in experiment,
Except immortal Atomic theory, speaking of Einstein
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Einstein had his eyes.
Einstein
Into what dangers would you lead me, Weinberg,
That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?
Steven Weinberg
Therefore, good Einstein, be prepared to hear:
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of.
And be not jealous on me, gentle Einstein:
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you know
That I do fawn on men and hug them hard
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.
Flourish, and shout
Women 300 of mirrors :
What means this shouting? I do fear, the Romans
214BC besieging Siracusa by Marcus Marcellus
Soldier :
Ay, do you fear it?
Then must I think you would not have it so.
Archimedes I :
I would have Gelon flee; yet I love him well.
But wherefore does engineering hold me here so long?
What is it that I should impart the world with?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently,
For let the Proton gods so speed me as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.
Hieron I died 467BC tyrant of Syracuse Sicily from 478 to 467BC.
Hieron became ruler of Syracuse upon the death of Gelon
Hieron II died 216 BC tyrant from 270 to 216 BC, in 214BC besieged by
the Romans Marcus Marcellus
Archimedes 287-212BC Sicily. Pheidias, the astronomer, the adopting
father of me and my brother, Hieron II king of Syracuse. I left the
politics to my brother, King Hieron II whilst I did my mechanics.
My brother Hieron, King of Syracuse took his name from the old king
Hieron I. I took my name from the fact that I was chief Architect,
builder of inventions. We had no engines back then so Engineer was not
a word to use.
The Sand Reckoner addressed to Gelon , son of Hieron.
Mt. Etna rising 3263 meters strong seismic activity, is an active
volcano was north.
Archimedes engineered stone catapults, engineered crane like beaks and
iron claws to seize and grapple ships and sinking them
Archimedes 287-212 B.C.
Throughout the siege Archimedes invented ingenious war machines,
catapults to hurl stones, ropes, pulleys, hooks to raise and smash the
enemy ships devices to set fire to the ships. Ultimately Syracuse fell
through a "fifth column". In the sack of the city Syracuse, Archimedes
was slain by a Roman soldier. I had the greatest price on my head. But
why should I care, I was 75 years old and better to go out in glory.
Archimedes I : I was friends with Conon of Alexandria and Eratosthenes
of Cyrene. I sent many of my manuscripts to Dositheus. I sent some to
Zeuxippus and to Gelon. I wanted to preserve them for prosperity and
so disseminate and hope some survive. The cover of one of my
manuscripts showed that the volume of the sphere is two-thirds that of
the enveloping cylinder.
Archimedes I : My most original contribution was physics, a
mathematical theory of mechanics: (1) Law of the Lever (2) Centers of
Mass Equilibrium (3) Hydrostatic Pressure.
The only other Mechanics extant was the thoroughly incorrect Mechanics
of Aristotle. I was fighting the "Confederacy of Dunces" in physics
back then against the followers of Aristotle and Plato. In math I was
fighting the "Confederacy of Dunces" against the followers of Plato.
Archimedes I : I hold the greatest admiration and respect of Eudoxus,
Euclid, Democritus, and my rival Apollonius. Us five had kindred
spirits. Us five were the greatest thinkers of old. The kings of
thought.
Polybius: Invented Archimedean screw a devise for raising water from a
low level to a highter one. Archimedes discovered the fundamental
principle of hydrostatics. The dual nature of his genius both a
practical engineer to theoretical physics.
Leibniz : "He who understands Archimedes will admire less the
achievements of the foremost men of later times."
Polybius: "were merely the diversions of geometry at play"
Plutarch : And yet Archimedes possessed such a lofty spirit, so
profound a soul, and such a wealth of scientfific theory, that,
although his inventions had won for him a name and fame of superhuman
sagacity, and regarded the work of an engineer as nearest to Atom god.
Vitruvius: Archimedes the great master of mechanics, the great
engineer, the architect.
AP: Chariots of Fire heard the music first in another life while
Archimedes. the horns sounded as the Romans approached it was the the
opening lines of CHARIOTS OF FIRE. play "See the Conquering Hero
Comes" for the Chariots of Fire was a variation of. Throw out the false
prophets from the its altar cyclotrons, from its temples science
classes, from its planet.
Plutarch : Upon this Marcellus moved with his whole army to Syracuse,
and encamping near the wall, sent ambassadors into the city to relate
to the Syracusans the truth of what had been done in Leontini. When
these could not prevail by treaty, the whole power being now in the
hands of Hippocrates, he proceeded to attack the city both by land and
by sea. The land forces were conducted by Appius: Marcellus, with
sixty galleys, each with five rows of oars, furnished with all sorts of
arms and missiles, and a huge bridge of planks laid upon eight ships
chained together, upon which was carried the engine to cast stones and
darts, assaulted the walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence
of his preparations, and on his own previous glory; all which however,
were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines.
These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of any
importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with King
Hiero's desire and request, some little time before, that he should
reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculation in science,
and by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use,
bring it more within the appreciation of the people in general.
Eudoxus and Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed
and highly-prized art of mechanic, which they employed as an elegant
illustration of geometrical truths, and as means of sustaining
experimentally, to the satisfaction of the senses conclusions too
intricate for proof by words and diagrams. As, for example, to solve
the problem, so often required in constructing geometrical figures,
given the two extremes, to find the two mean lines of a proportion,
both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid of instruments,
adapting to their purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But
what with Plato's indignation at it, and his invectives against it as
the mere corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry, which
was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied objects of
pure intelligence to recur to sensation, and to ask help (not to be
obtained without base supervisions and depravation) from matter; so it
was that mechanics came to be separated from geometry, and, repudiated
and neglected by philosophers, took its place as a military art.
Archimedes, however, in writing to King Hiero, whose brother he was,
had stated that given the force, any given weight might be moved, and
even boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demonstration,
that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove
this. Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to
make good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great weight
moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon a ship of burden out
of the king's arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock without
great labor and many men; and, loading her with many passengers and a
full freight, sitting himself the while far off, with no great
endeavour, but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and
drawing the cords by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as
smoothly and evenly as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished
at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon
Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes,
offensive and defensive, of a siege. These the king himself never made
use of, because he spent almost all his life in profound quiet and the
highest affluence. But the apparatus was, in most opportune time,
ready at hand for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer
himself.
When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places at once,
fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans, believing that nothing
was able to resist that violence and those forces. But when Archimedes
began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all
sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down
with incredible noise and violence; against which no man could stand;
for they knocked down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking all
their ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the
walls over the ships sunk some by the great weights which they let down
from on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron
hand or beak like a crane's beak and, when they had drawn them up by
the prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the
bottom of the sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and
whirled about, were dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting out
under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers that were
aboard them. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height in the
air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled to and fro, and kept
swinging, until the mariners were all thrown out, when at length it was
dashed against the rocks, or let fall. At the engine that Marcellus
brought upon the bridge of ships, which was called Sambuca, from some
resemblance it had to an instrument of music, while it was as yet
approaching the wall, there was discharged a piece of rock of ten
talents weight, then a second and a third, which striking upon it with
immense force and a noise like thunder, broke all its foundation to
pieces, shook out all its fastenings, and completely dislodged it from
the bridge. So Marcellus, doubtful what counsel to pursue, drew off
his ships to a safer distance, and sounded a retreat to his forces on
land. They then took a resolution of coming up under the walls, if it
were possible, in the night; thinking that as Archimedes used ropes
stretched at length in playing his engines, the soldiers would now be
under the shot, and the darts would, for want of sufficient distance to
throw them, fly over their heads without effect. But he, it appeared,
had long before framed for such occasions engines accommodated to any
distance, and shorter weapons; and had made numerous small openings in
the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range, unexpected
blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when they who thought to
deceive the defenders came close up to the walls, instantly a shower of
darts and other missile weapons were again cast upon them. And when
stones came tumbling down perpendicularly upon their heads, and, as it
were, the whole wall shot out arrows at them, they retired. And now,
again, as they were going off arrows and darts of a longer range
inflicted a great slaughter among them, and their ships were driven one
against another; while they themselves were not able to retaliate in
any way. For Archimedes had provided and fixed most of his engines
immediately under the wall; whence the Romans, seeing that indefinite
mischief overwhelmed them from no visible means, began to think they
were fighting with the gods.
Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and deriding his own artificers and
engineers, "What,"said he, "must we give up fighting with this
geometrical monster, who plays pitch-and-toss with our ships, and, with
the multitude of darts which he showers at a single moment upon us,
really outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?" And, doubtless,
the rest of the Syracusans were but the body of Archimedes's designs,
one soul moving and governing all; for, laying aside all other arms,
with this alone they infested the Romans and protected themselves. In
fine, when such terror had seized upon the Romans, that, if they did
but see a little rope or a piece of wood from the wall, instantly
crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes was about to let fly
some engine at them, they turned their backs and fled, Marcellus
desisted from conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope in a long
siege. Yet Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul,
and such treasures of scientific knowledge, that though these
inventions had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity,
he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on
such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade
of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and
profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer
speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of
life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned,
and in which the only doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of
the subjects examined, of the precision and cogency of the methods and
means of proof, most deserve our admiration. It is not possible to
find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions, or more
simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to his natural
genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil produced
these, to all appearances, easy and unlabored results. No amount of
investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the proof, and yet,
once seen, you immediately believe you would have discovered it; by so
smooth and so rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required.
And thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told of him)
the charm of his familiar and domestic Siren, invention, made him
forget his food and neglect his person, to that degree that when he was
occasionally carried by absolute violence to bathe or have his body
anointed, he used to trace new inventions in the ashes of the fire, and
diagrams in the oil on his body, being in a state of entire
preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine possession with his
love and delight in science. His discoveries were numerous and
admirable; but he is said to have requested his friends and relations
that, when he was dead, they would place over his tomb the five simple
machines of physics. Lever and fulcrum, wheel and axle, pulley, screw,
and spring.
Such was Archimedes, who now showed himself, and so far as lay in him
the city also, invincible. While the siege continued, Marcellus took
Megara, one of the earliest founded of the Greek cities in Sicily, and
capturing also the camp of Hippocrates at Acilae, killed above eight
thousand men, having attacked them whilst they were engaged in forming
their fortifications. He overran a great spart of Sicily; gained over
many towns from the Carthaginians, and overcame all that dared to
encounter him. As the siege went on, one Damippus, a Lacedaemonian,
putting to sea in a ship from Syracuse, was taken. When the Syracusans
much desired to redeem this man, and there were many meetings and
treaties about the matter betwixt them and Marcellus, he had
opportunity to notice a tower into which a body of men might be
secretly introduced, as the wall near to it was not difficult to
surmount, and it was itself carelessly guarded. Coming often thither,
and entertaining conferences about the release of Damippus, he had
pretty well calculated the height of the tower, and got ladders
prepared. The Syracusans celebrated a feast to Diana; this juncture of
time, when they were given up entirely to wine and sport, Marcellus
laid hold of, and before the citizens perceived it, not only possessed
himself of the tower, but, before the break of day, filled the wall
around with soldiers, and made his way into the Hexapylum. The
Syracusans now beginning to stir, and to be alarmed at the tumult, he
ordered the trumpets everywhere to sound, and thus frightened them all
into flight, as if all parts of the city were already won, though the
most fortified, and the fairest, and most ample quarter was still
ungained. It is called Acradina, and was divided by a wall from the
outer city, one part of which they call Neapolis, the other Tycha.
Possessing himself of these, Marcellus, about break of day, entered
through the Hexapylum, all his officers congratulating him. But
looking down from the higher places upon the beautiful and spacious
city below, he is said to have wept much, commiserating the calamity
that hung over it, when his thoughts represented to him how dismal and
foul the face of the city would be in a few hours, when plundered and
sacked by the soldiers. For among the officers of his army there was
not one man that durst deny the plunder of the city to the soldiers'
demands; nay, many were instant that it should be set on fire and laid
level to the ground: but this Marcellus would not listen to. Yet he
granted, but with great unwillingness and reluctance that the money and
slaves should be made prey; giving orders, at the same time, that none
should violate any free person, nor kill, misuse, or make a slave of
any of the Syracusans. Though he had used this moderation, he still
esteemed the condition of that city to be pitiable, and, even amidst
the congratulations and joy, showed his strong feelings of sympathy and
commiseration at seeing all the riches accumulated during a long
felicity now dissipated in an hour. For it is related that no less
prey and plunder was taken here than afterward in Carthage. For not
long after they obtained also the plunder of the other parts of the
city, which were taken by treachery; leaving nothing untouched but the
king's money, which was brought into the public treasury. But nothing
enraptured Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes, who was by
then the biggest enemy of all Rome.And as fate would have it, as
Archimedes was fleeing north to Mount Etna from Marcellus with his
heavy instruments and tools, by which the magnitude of the sun might be
measured to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and thinking that he
carried gold in a vessel, slew him. Despite the order of the Roman
commander that the Architect be spared to be tried and tortured in
Rome.
Plutarch: Archimedes had the understanding of the engineering works of
levers, pulleys, and compound pulleys. King Hieron doubting the power
of these mechanical devices. The King wanted a practical demonstration
and so Archimedes selected the King's largest ship and moved the
largest ship all by himself a-pulling.
A one-man-military-industrial-complex that was I Archimedes.
