Richard, 

     Very good work, and excellent use of your Greek!

     I very much like your idea that our perceptions of Archimedes 
   have been filtered through the preoccupations and interests of the 
   Romans (and Greeks writing for Romans) who preserved his memory.  

     There's one other aspect of Plutarch's ideas that surely contributes
   here.  Plutarch was an avowed Platonist in his philosophy.  As
   you have probably read, Plato's justification for the study of
   mathematics was that it would lead the soul to the contemplation
   of eternal truths and prepare the mind for the study of dialectic.  
   So the fact that mathematics could also be used to design things
   like siege engines was something that he generally looked 
   down on and described as a sort of corruption of the pure
   excellence of geometry.  Plutarch's comments about the relation
   of geometry, mechanics, and Archimedes' engineering work in the
   Vita Marcelli come in the context of that philosophical background,
   I think.

   Grade:  A