Chapter 2, The World of Archimedes Summary and Analysis

Sicily is an island of the toe of Italy; many European nations were no more than half-civilized tribes. No one knew that the Americas existed and below the civilized part of Egypt, there were only great deserts, below which were jungles full of savage barbarians called 'gorillas'. Great civilizations lied to the East, but it took a long time to get there. Very few forms of travel or communication existed and when they did, they were slow.

Greek ideas influenced the West for centuries after their empire collapsed, even to the presence day in science, law and art, even ethics. It is not clear why the Greeks were so different from the peoples that preceded them and were their contemporaries.

Syracuse was a large city and center of commerce, located near the center...