[jcrubino]

Thus my "musing conspiracy"....

Thanks for posting the link. Much of my commentary comes from past research on Archimedes... so I am biased and amused.

If I recall the founding of Syracuse is by Spartans and Corinthians... Archimedes society cared enough about knowledge that he was sent to Alexandria to study. Syracuse was a melting pot of cultures from the start and the Phonecians and the roman conflicts reinforced that to the end.