Horace’s Archytas Ode (1.28) and the Tomb of Archimedes in Cicero (Tusculanae Disputationes 5.64)

In Odes 1.28, Horace deals with one of his favorite topics: death and the appropriate human disposition towards it, by focusing on the Pythagorean mathematician Archytas and his tomb near the sea. The paper tackles the old interpretive difficulty arising from the fact that several of the mathematician’s traits belong rather to Archimedes by arguing that Horace purposefully conflated the two mathematicians to respond to Cicero, who famously portrays himself cleaning Archimedes’ tomb in Tusculans 5.64. By identifying Archimedes with Archytas, Horace accentuates the aura of immortality attributed to Archimedes by Cicero and is able to offer his own contrasting view more forcefully.