![]() ![]() Curious, Archimedes continued to lower himself slowly into the water, and he noticed that the more his body sank into the water, the more water ran out over the sides of the tub. As he began to lower himself into the water, the water in the tub began to spill out over the sides. Still thinking about the golden crown, he went through the rituals of cleansing and washing, and stepped into a tub of cool water for his final dip. ![]() ![]() This was his cousin, Archimedes, a young man of 22, who was already renowned for his work in mathematics, mechanics and physics.ĭeep in thought, pondering how best to solve the king’s problem, Archimedes walked to the public baths for his daily bath. Hiero believed there was only one man in Syracuse capable of discovering the truth and solving his problem. ![]() So it was important that Hiero find out the truth quickly, before the day fixed for the ceremony, and without damaging the crown in any way. But if the goldsmith had been honest, then the crown remained what it had been intended to be, a sacred offering, and it would be placed in the temple as planned. If the goldsmith had indeed cheated him and mixed silver into the gold, then the goldsmith would have to be punished, and the crown could no longer be given as an offering to the gods. But he was a fair-minded man and wished to determine the truth before he punished the goldsmith. Hiero was furious to learn that he might have been tricked. The goldsmith, said the rumours, had replaced some of the gold that Hiero had given him, with an equal weight of silver. But a few days before the ceremony, he heard rumours that the goldsmith had cheated him, and given him a crown not of pure gold, but of gold that had silver mixed in it. Hiero made preparations for the ceremony to place the wreath in the temple that he had chosen. The goldsmith, receiving his payment, went away. Hiero was pleased, and paid the goldsmith handsomely. The wreath seemed to weight exactly as much as the gold that the king had given the goldsmith. The goldsmith did as he had been ordered, and on he appointed day, he delivered to the king an exquisitely wrought crown, shaped, as the king had ordered, like a laurel wreath. Hiero weighed out a precise amount of gold, and appointing a goldsmith, commanded him to fashion out of the gold a wreath worthy of the gods. The crown was to be shaped like a laurel wreath. Hiero was grateful to the gods for his success and good fortune, and to show his gratitude, he decided to place in a certain temple, a golden crown in their honour. Then, after a great battle in 265 BCE, in which Hiero led the Syracusans to victory against their enemies, the people of Syracuse chose Hiero to be their king. He managed, through his connections, to enter the city and take over its government, but so smoothly and efficiently, that the citizens of Syracuse, who usually did not approve of soldiers choosing their own commanders, did so in this case. Now, Hiero had a natural flair and talent for leadership and politics. One of these was a young general called Hiero. Till, in 275 BCE, the Syracusan troops, tired of the inefficiencies of their leaders, elected commanders from amongst themselves. For almost a hundred years, the ancient Greek city of Syracuse had been at war with Carthage, and riven by internal strife as successive rulers fought each other for the throne. ![]()
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