Timeline c. 287 BCBorn in Syracuse, the son of the astronomer Phidias. c. 270 BCHiero II becomes master of Syracuse; later he proclaims himself king. c. 250 BCAround this time, he writes to Conon of Samos and to Dositheus, in Alexandria, sending them his results. c. 240 BCWrites to Eratosthenes, in Alexandria, the letter we know as The Method. 215 BCHiero dies. Syracuse allies itself with Carthage against Rome. 214 BCThe Roman general Marcellus begins the siege of Syracuse. Archimedes’s machines defend the city. 212 BCSyracuse falls. Archimedes is killed by a Roman soldier. 75 BCCicero, a Roman magistrate in Sicily, finds his tomb again. A Greek city in Sicily Archimedes was born around 287 BC in Syracuse, on the east coast of Sicily. The date comes from a twelfth-century Byzantine author, John Tzetzes, who says he died at 75. Syracuse was then one of the largest cities in the Greek world, with two harbours and a fortified island, Ortygia, at the heart of the ancient city.