Perhaps the most famous Syracusan was the natural philosopher Archimedes. Among his many inventions were various military engines including the claw of Archimedes, used to resist a Roman siege. The city held out for three years, but fell in 212 BC.
Another siege in AD 878 inaugurated two centuries of Muslim rule. In 1085 the Normans followed and in 1194 Henry VI of Swabia occupied Syracuse. Under Frederick II the city and the whole of Sicily flourished again. In the struggle between the Anjou and Aragonese monarchies, Syracuse sided with the Aragonese and defeated the Anjou in 1298, receiving from the Spanish sovereigns great privileges in reward.
The city in the following centuries was struck by two ruinous earthquakes in 1542 and 1693, and in 1729 by a plague. More destruction was caused by the Allied and the German bombings in 1943.
Syracuse today has about 125,000 inhabitants and numerous attractions for the visitor interested in historical sites (such as the Ear of Dionysius). Nearby places of note include Catania, Noto, Modica and Ragusa.
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