Archimedes died in 212 BC in Syracuse, during the sack of Syracuse by Roman forces who had finally captured the city after a two-year long siege. The Romans were led by Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Marcellus had given strict orders that Archimedes was not be harmed, but was to be brought to him with honour. But despite those orders, Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier.

The precise details of his last moments are not known, though various accounts exist. According to some Roman historians, a Roman soldier, intent on looting, broke into his house, and demanded to know who he was. Archimedes, oblivious of the chaos around him, and absorbed in some diagrams he had traced in the dust, did not give his name, but shielding his drawings with his hands, begged the soldier not to disturb his work. The Roman soldier disregarded his plea and killed him.

Plutarch gives a slightly different account. He writes that a Roman soldier came up to Archimedes and commanded him to follow him to Marcellus. But Archimedes, in the middle of a mathematical problem, refused to follow until he had solved the problem. The soldier, enraged, ran him through with his sword. Plutarch offers an alternative version as well - he says that Archimedes, on his way to see Marcellus, and carrying with him his mathematical instruments, was killed by soldiers who thought he was carrying gold.

It is said that Archimedes last words were 'Don't disturb my circles.'

Plutarch goes on to say that Marcellus was greatly disturbed when he heard of Archimedes death, and declared the soldier who had killed him 'a murderer'.

In 75 BC, a hundred and thirty-seven years after the death of Archimedes, another Roman searched for Archimedes in Syracuse. This was Cicero, later famous as a statesman, lawyer, orator, writer and philosopher. Cicero managed to locate Archimedes' grave, which he found overgrown with thorns and brambles. Archimedes, says Plutarch, had requested his friends that, when he died, to mark his tomb with a sphere inscribed inside a cylinder. Cicero searched for this, and sure enough, he located a grave marked by a little column surmounted by a sphere and a cylinder. He writes that the verses engraved on it were still visible when he found Archimedes tomb, though part of each line had been worn away.

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See also:    'Eureka' - the story of Archimedes and the Golden Crown    |    Who was Galileo?