阿基米德之墓The tomb of Archimedes

In his work On the Sphere and Cylinder, Archimedes established what are tantamount to our present-day formulas for the volume and the area of a sphere. The basic figure of the work is a sphere of radius r inscribed in a right circular cylinder of radius r and height 2r (see Figure 9). Archimedes showed that the volume of the sphere is exactly two thirds of the volume of the circumscribed cylinder, and the area of the sphere is exactly two thirds of the total area of the circumscribed cylinder. Archimedes was justly proud of these discoveries and expressed a wish that a figure showing a sphere with a circumscribed cylinder (like Figure 9) be engraved on his tombstone. When, with great honor and veneration, Marcellus buried the famous mathematician, he saw to it that Archimedes' request was carried out.

Many years later, in 75 b.c., when Cicero was serving as Roman quaestor in Sicily, he inquired as to the whereabouts of Archimedes' tomb. To his surprise, the Syracusans knew nothing of it and even denied that any such thing existed. With considerable effort and care he examined all the monuments at the Achradmae gate. Finally he noticed a small column, standing out a little above overgrown briars and shrubs, with the figure of a sphere and circumscribed cylinder upon it. Thus the long-neglected and forgotten tomb of the greatest of all Syracusans was rediscovered. Cicero had men with scythes clear the brush away, and then he left orders that the surrounding grounds be restored and preserved. How long this respect was kept up we do not know; today the tomb has completely vanished.