If any man could have discovered the utmost powers of the cannon, in all its various forms and have given such a secret to the Romans, with what rapidity would they have conquered every country and have vanquished every army, and what reward could have been great enough for such a service! Archimedes indeed, although he had greatly damaged the Romans in the siege of Syracuse, nevertheless did not fail of being offered great rewards from these very Romans; and when Syracuse was taken, diligent search was made for Archimedes; and he being found dead greater lamentation was made for him by the Senate and people of Rome than if they had lost all their army; and they did not fail to honour him with burial and with a statue. At their head was Marcus Marcellus. And after the second destruction of Syracuse, the sepulchre of Archimedes was found again by Cato[25], in the ruins of a temple. So Cato had the temple restored and the sepulchre he so highly honoured.... Whence it is written that Cato said that he was not so proud of any thing he had done as of having paid such honour to Archimedes.
[Footnote: Where Leonardo found the statement that Cato had found and restored the tomb of Archimedes, I do not know. It is a merit that Cicero claims as his own (Tusc. V, 23) and certainly with a full right to it. None of Archimedes’ biographers —not even the diligent Mazzucchelli, mentions any version in which Cato is named. It is evidently a slip of the memory on Leonardo’s part. Besides, according to the passage in Cicero, the grave was not found ‘nelle ruine d’un tempio’—which is highly improbable as relating to a Greek—but in an open spot (H. MULLER-STRUBING).—See too, as to Archimedes, No. 1417.
Leonardo says somewhere in MS. C.A.: Architronito e una macchina di fino rame, invenzlon d’ Archimede (see ‘Saggio’, p. 20).]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.