Archimedes the military engineer: 23 centuries of defense-in-depth, from 213 BCE to 2013 CE

Abstract

Archimedes was not the first engineer to apply the principles of defense-in-depth to a military campaign, but his unique and systematic approach to the problem caught the attention of his contemporaries as well as that of future generations. Indeed, David Lane, historian of operations research, cites Archimedes’ defense of Syracuse as a precursor to the systems approach to military operations, 23 centuries before the term was even invented.