The killing of Archimedes by the Romans during the siege of Syracuse was an epoch-making moment for the Ancient world. It was the Romans who initiated the legend of Archimedes that lives on to this day. Archimedes was remembered by classical and late-Antiquity authors for his impressive machines that delayed the fall of Syracuse but also for the construction of a mechanical planetarium, for his solution to the famed problem of the crown narrated by Vitruvius and for his ability to execute calculations of considerable complexity. Verses by Catullus, Virgil, Silius Italicus and Horace also celebrated Archimedes for having calculated the grains of sand and celestial bodies in the universe.