[48]
If Nicias
had known this when he commanded in Sicily, he
would not have shared the terror of his men nor lost
the finest army that Athens ever placed in the field.
Dion for instance when he came to Syracuse to overthrow the tyranny of Dionysius, was not frightened
away by the occurrence of a similar phenomenon.
However we are not concerned with the uses of
geometry in war and need not dwell upon the fact
that Archimedes singlehanded succeeded in appreciably prolonging the resistance of Syracuse when it
was besieged.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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