Senex Callidus
Free taster: the first 2 of 7 locks. Teachers can unlock the whole room with a membership.
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Syracuse, Sicily, 212 BC. After a siege of two years, Roman soldiers are pouring into the city. In a quiet courtyard an old man sits drawing circles in the dust, so lost in his problem that he has not noticed. He is Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of the ancient world, the man who worked out how close 22/7 comes to the number we call pi.
The Roman general Marcellus has ordered that Archimedes must not be harmed. But the soldier now coming through the gate does not know who the old man is. Seven puzzles stand between you and the end of the story. Solve them all, and one last word tells you how it ended.
Crossword — the city, the siege and the scholar, in Latin from Book 1.
Anagrams — unscramble seven things done as the city falls.
Cipher — decode a message in Latin, then answer the riddle it asks.
Matching — two verbs, scrībit ("writes") and capit ("takes"), in the present, imperfect and perfect.
Picture Count — reassemble the courtyard, then count what you see.
Odd One Out — find the word that doesn't belong in each row to build the story, then answer questions about it.
Final Rebus — one clue from every lock. Their first letters spell the final word.
Every answer box checks itself. Spelling and capitals are forgiving, and macrons are never needed.
Fourteen words from the fall of Syracuse. Every clue gives the English meaning; you supply the Latin. Fill the grid — every crossing letter must agree both ways. Seven cells are marked in red: once the grid is solved, their letters unscramble into one more word.
The grid is correct. Unscramble the seven red letters:
Seven things done as the city falls. Unscramble each one.
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The password was:
Tacuit — he fell silent. According to the story, Archimedes' last words to the soldier were “Do not disturb my circles!” Marcellus was grief-stricken, gave him an honourable burial and looked after his family.