Free Republic

One of the most complete descriptions of a ship from antiquity is that described by the Greek writer Athenaeus. Writing in the second century ce, but basing his account on more contemporary descriptions (now lost), he described a huge grain ship built by Hieron II, king of Syracuse from 269 to 215 bce. Lionel Casson considers this to be the largest ship built in antiquity... There were cabins for 142 first-class passengers on the second deck in addition to accommodations for steerage, the lower deck being reserved for cargo and the upper deck for soldiers, said to number 400. The...

Greek inventor Archimedes is said to have used mirrors to burn ships of an attacking Roman fleet. But new research suggests he may have used steam cannons and fiery cannonballs instead. A legend begun in the Medieval Ages tells of how Archimedes used mirrors to concentrate sunlight as a defensive weapon during the siege of Syracuse, then a Greek colony on the island of Sicily, from 214 to 212 B.C. No contemporary Roman or Greek accounts tell of such a mirror device, however. Both engineering calculations and historical evidence support use of steam cannons as "much more reasonable than the...

THE book cost $2 million at auction, but large sections are unreadable. Some of its 348 pages are torn or missing and others are covered with sprawling purple patches of mildew. Sooty edges and water stains indicate a close escape from a fire.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will appear on an episode of "Mythbusters," a television show that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends. The White House says the episode will air Dec. 8 on the Discovery Channel. Discovery says the episode considers this question: Did Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun?

SAN FRANCISCO - It wasn't exactly the ancient siege of Syracuse, but rather a curious quest for scientific validation. According to sparse historical writings, the Greek mathematician Archimedes torched a fleet of invading Roman ships by reflecting the sun's powerful rays with a mirrored device made of glass or bronze. More than 2,000 years later, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona set out to recreate Archimedes' fabled death ray Saturday in an experiment sponsored by the Discovery Channel program "MythBusters." Their attempts to set fire to an 80-year-old fishing boat using their own versions...

President Obama and Discovery Channel announced today that the chief executive will appear on the Dec. 8 episode of Mythbusters. And surprisingly, the myth being busted has nothing to do with either Islam or Kenyan birth certificates. On the episode, Obama will ask Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to test whether it was possible for the Greek scientist Archimedes, as told in story, to have set fire to an invading fleet using a giant mirror and the reflected rays of the sun. Which forces me to ask: What the hell is the government secretly planning to do with a giant...

For a president under siege, maybe this could help. In an episode of “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel to be shown on Dec. 8, President Obama will help determine whether the Greek scientist Archimedes really set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun. Legend has it that during the Siege of Syracuse, circa 214 B.C., Archimedes destroyed the enemy ships with fire, the result of a “heat ray” involving a series of mirrors set up on the coast. But the question has long remained: Did it really happen that way? “Mythbusters”...