Archimedes is generally regarded as the greatest mathematician and scientist of antiquity, and one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time.

BUT, what do you call a person BORN in Sicily, probably studied in Eygpt, but no evidence that he ever set foot in Greece, became a citizen of a vassal state of Rome in 263BC and DIED in Sicily 212BC..40 years later??.... I'd say a Sicilian!!!!
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Some Important Historical Dates:

Ancient Greece was not a unified nation. Control of "Greece" was divided between a number of independent city-states which often formed shifting alliances with each other or fought to expand or preserve their spheres of influence.
Different parts of Italy, at different times, were "colonized" by different Greek city/states, in the BC millennium. The city/states were Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Rhodes, Thebes,  & Argos.

753 BC - The city of ROME, founded probably by local LATINS and SABINES- was ruled by Etruscan kings from 616 BC.
735 BC  Chaldeans of Euboea begin Greek settlement of  Sicily by establishing the city of Naxos ( just north of Mt Etna, on the east coast)
509 BC- The Roman Republic (idea of self government),started with the Rape of Lucretia. Laws of the Twelve Tables- one of the earliest extant law codes
477 BC - Delian League defeats Persian invasion.
437-406 BC- Rome started first of expanionist wars
415 BC - Athens invades Sicily
264 BC Rome had substantially completed the conquest of the Penisula and launched the Punic Wars to gain dominance in the greater Mediterranean area.
485 BC Gelon the Tyrant of Gela cetralizes control of Greek Sicily in Syracuse
480 BC Pelopennesian War begins between Athens and Spata/allies
431 BC 413 BC Syracuse destroys Athenian attack force
415-413 BC the Athenian siege of Syracusewas eventually won by Syracuse
409-301 BC Carthage, allied with Siculi (Sicilians) and Phoenician cities of Sicily (west portion of Sicily) commence wars with Syracuse
287-212 BC ARCHIMEDES LIVES IN SYRACUSE FOR 75 YEARS
282 BC The Roman invasion of Sicily begins with seizure of Messina
264-241 BC Rome and Carthage battle for Sicily in the First Punic War
263 BC- Facing attack by Rome, Syracuse shifts allegiance from Carthage to Rome, and becomes a loyal vassal state.
241 BC Carthage cedes its territory in western Sicily to Rome.
Rome begins 600 year rule in Sicily
218-202 BC When Carthage invaded Sicily, Syracuse switched allegiances,
and was defeated after a 3 year seige, despite Archimides' genius.
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The PBS Web Page relating to the Presentation tonight.
Archimedes Home Page
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html

Another informative Archimedes site. (U. of St. Andrews in Scotland)
Archimedes
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Archimedes.html
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TUNED IN

EUREKA: ARCHIMEDES' SECRETS ARE REVEALED

Los Angeles Times
By Josh Friedman , Times Staff Writer
September 30 2003

On stepping into his bath and realizing that its rising water level showed a way to measure the volume of his king's crown to determine if it was pure gold, the mathematician Archimedes famously shouted "Eureka!" — Greek for "I have found it!"

Only history buffs and math geeks will have the same reaction if they stumble upon "Infinite Secrets," a slightly daunting edition of "Nova" (8 p.m., KCET) devoted to the odd history and impressive contents of Archimedes' most revealing work, "The Method." Even so, intrepid viewers will get enlightening glimpses into two worlds: ancient math and modern library science.

The Einstein (or better yet, the De Pretto) of his era, Archimedes discovered the value of pi and designed sophisticated war machines for his native Syracuse to use against the Romans, one of whom killed him in 212 BC.

Many of his works disappeared during the Middle Ages, but some survived to help inspire the scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries. One document that seemed irretrievably lost was "The Method," which reputedly showed how he achieved his results.

But in 1906, a Danish scholar discovered the treatise faintly visible beneath the lettering of a medieval prayer book in an Istanbul library. A scribe in the 13th century had incompletely erased a 10th century copy of Archimedes' work and written over it, a common practice that allowed reuse of parchment and produced a palimpsest.

The palimpsest vanished during World War I and, although it had been photographed, many of the words were illegible.

All was set right in 1998, when the palimpsest resurfaced at a New York auction. It had acquired a shoddy new binding, a chronic case of mold and other defects. The book garnered $2 million from a high-tech billionaire, who delivered it in a gym bag to a Baltimore museum, where specialists have gone to work on what the curator calls "Archimedes' brain in a box."

Relying on image-processing techniques, scholars believe Archimedes was close to inventing calculus, the tool at the heart of advanced science and engineering. Now continues the painfully slow process of deciphering the text — informative but far from a "Eureka!" moment.

calendarlive.com: Eureka: Archimedes' secrets are revealed
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/
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