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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pyrrhus, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pyrrhus
+       Makers of History
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: November 12, 2008 [EBook #27240]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PYRRHUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Makers of History
+
+ Pyrrhus
+
+ BY JACOB ABBOTT
+
+ WITH ENGRAVINGS
+
+ NEW YORK AND LONDON
+ HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+ 1901
+
+
+
+
+ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
+ hundred and fifty-four, by
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+ in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
+ of New York.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PYRRHUS VIEWING THE ROMAN ENCAMPMENT.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In respect to the heroes of ancient history, who lived in times
+antecedent to the period when the regular records of authentic history
+commence, no reliance can be placed upon the actual verity of the
+accounts which have come down to us of their lives and actions. In
+those ancient days there was, in fact, no line of demarkation between
+romance and history, and the stories which were told of Cyrus, Darius,
+Xerxes, Romulus, Pyrrhus, and other personages as ancient as they, are
+all more or less fabulous and mythical. We learn this as well from the
+internal evidence furnished by the narratives themselves as from the
+researches of modern scholars, who have succeeded, in many cases, in
+disentangling the web, and separating the false from the true. It is
+none the less important, however, on this account, that these ancient
+tales, as they were originally told, and as they have come down to us
+through so many centuries, should be made known to readers of the
+present age. They have been circulated among mankind in their
+original form for twenty or thirty centuries, and they have mingled
+themselves inextricably with the literature, the eloquence, and the
+poetry of every civilized nation on the globe. Of course, to know what
+the story is, whether true or false, which the ancient narrators
+recorded, and which has been read and commented on by every succeeding
+generation to the present day, is an essential attainment for every
+well-informed man; a far more essential attainment, in fact, for the
+general reader, than to discover now, at this late period, what the
+actual facts were which gave origin to the fable.
+
+In writing this series of histories, therefore, it has been the aim of
+the author not to _correct_ the ancient story, but to repeat it as it
+stands, cautioning the reader, however, whenever occasion requires,
+not to suppose that the marvelous narratives are historically true.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ Chapter                                                    Page
+
+    I. OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER                                 13
+
+   II. CASSANDER                                              40
+
+  III. EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS                                  64
+
+   IV. WARS IN MACEDON                                        86
+
+    V. WAR IN ITALY                                          111
+
+   VI. NEGOTIATIONS                                          134
+
+  VII. THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN                                 159
+
+ VIII. THE RETREAT FROM ITALY                                188
+
+   IX. THE FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS                              210
+
+    X. THE RECONQUEST OF MACEDON                             235
+
+   XI. SPARTA                                                249
+
+  XII. THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF PYRRHUS                          268
+
+
+
+
+ENGRAVINGS.
+
+
+                                                            Page
+
+ THE ROMAN ENCAMPMENT                            _Frontispiece_.
+
+ MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS                                       12
+
+ EURYDICE IN PRISON                                           57
+
+ MAP--GRECIAN EMPIRE                                         110
+
+ THE TROPHIES                                                132
+
+ THE ELEPHANT CONCEALED                                      145
+
+ THE ASSAULT                                                 177
+
+ THE ROUT                                                    206
+
+ THE FALLEN ELEPHANT                                         223
+
+ THE CHARGE                                                  283
+
+ THE DEATH OF PYRRHUS                                        300
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS.]
+
+
+
+
+PYRRHUS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER.
+
+B.C. 336-321
+
+Situation of the country of Epirus.--Epirus and Macedon.--Their
+political connections.--Olympias.--Her visits to
+Epirus.--Philip.--Olympias as a wife.--She makes many
+difficulties.--Alexander takes part with his mother in her
+quarrel.--Olympias is suspected of having murdered her
+husband.--Alexander's treatment of his mother.--His kind
+and considerate behavior.--Antipater.--Character of
+Antipater.--Alexander's opinion of him.--Olympias makes a great
+deal of trouble.--Alexander sends Craterus home.--Alexander's wife
+Roxana.--Her babe.--Aridĉus.--The two competing claimants to the
+crown.--Some account of the Ptolemaic dynasty.--The distribution of
+Alexander's empire.--Compromise between the rival claims.--Question of
+marriage.--Cleopatra.--Nicĉa.--Nicĉa is sent to Babylon.--Antipater's
+plan.--Another matrimonial question.--Cynane.--Excitement in the
+army.--Ada's new name.--Various intrigues.--Schemes of Antipater
+and Ptolemy.--Nicĉa.--Perdiccas' plans.--A battle.--Craterus is
+killed.--Discontent.--Unpopularity of Perdiccas.--Transit of the
+Nile.--Extraordinary incident.--Great numbers swept into the river
+and destroyed.--The kings are to be sent back to Babylon.--Antipater
+returns to Macedon full of honors.
+
+
+Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, entered at the very beginning of his life
+upon the extraordinary series of romantic adventures which so
+strikingly marked his career. He became an exile and a fugitive from
+his father's house when he was only two years old, having been
+suddenly borne away at that period by the attendants of the household,
+to avoid a most imminent personal danger that threatened him. The
+circumstances which gave occasion for this extraordinary ereption were
+as follows:
+
+The country of Epirus, as will be seen by the accompanying map, was
+situated on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea,[A] and on the
+southwestern confines of Macedonia. The kingdom of Epirus was thus
+very near to, and in some respects dependent upon, the kingdom of
+Macedon. In fact, the public affairs of the two countries, through the
+personal relations and connections which subsisted from time to time
+between the royal families that reigned over them respectively, were
+often intimately intermingled, so that there could scarcely be any
+important war, or even any great civil dissension in Macedon, which
+did not sooner or later draw the king or the people of Epirus to take
+part in the dispute, either on one side or on the other. And as it
+sometimes happened that in these questions of Macedonian politics the
+king and the people of Epirus took opposite sides, the affairs of the
+great kingdom were often the means of bringing into the smaller one an
+infinite degree of trouble and confusion.
+
+[Footnote A: See the opposite map.]
+
+The period of Pyrrhus's career was immediately subsequent to that of
+Alexander the Great, the birth of Pyrrhus having taken place about
+four years after the death of Alexander. At this time it happened that
+the relations which subsisted between the royal families of the two
+kingdoms were very intimate. This intimacy arose from an extremely
+important intermarriage which had taken place between the two families
+in the preceding generation--namely, the marriage of Philip of
+Macedon with Olympias, the daughter of a king of Epirus. Philip and
+Olympias were the father and mother of Alexander the Great. Of course,
+during the whole period of the great conqueror's history, the people
+of Epirus, as well as those of Macedon, felt a special interest in his
+career. They considered him as a descendant of their own royal line,
+as well as of that of Macedon, and so, very naturally, appropriated to
+themselves some portion of the glory which he acquired. Olympias, too,
+who sometimes, after her marriage with Philip, resided at Epirus, and
+sometimes at Macedon, maintained an intimate and close connection,
+both with her own and with Philip's family; and thus, through various
+results of her agency, as well as through the fame of Alexander's
+exploits, the governments of the two countries were continually
+commingled.
+
+It must not, however, by any means be supposed that the relations
+which were established through the influence of Olympias, between the
+courts of Epirus and of Macedon, were always of a friendly character.
+They were, in fact, often the very reverse. Olympias was a woman of a
+very passionate and ungovernable temper, and of a very determined
+will; and as Philip was himself as impetuous and as resolute as she,
+the domestic life of this distinguished pair was a constant succession
+of storms. At the commencement of her married life, Olympias was, of
+course, generally successful in accomplishing her purposes. Among
+other measures, she induced Philip to establish her brother upon the
+throne of Epirus, in the place of another prince who was more directly
+in the line of succession. As, however, the true heir did not, on this
+account, relinquish his claims, two parties were formed in the
+country, adhering respectively to the two branches of the family that
+claimed the throne, and a division ensued, which, in the end, involved
+the kingdom of Epirus in protracted civil wars. While, therefore,
+Olympias continued to hold an influence over her husband's mind, she
+exercised it in such a way as to open sources of serious calamity and
+trouble for her own native land.
+
+After a time, however, she lost this influence entirely. Her disputes
+with Philip ended at length in a bitter and implacable quarrel. Philip
+married another woman, named Cleopatra, partly, indeed, as a measure
+of political alliance, and partly as an act of hostility and hatred
+against Olympias, whom he accused of the most disgraceful crimes.
+Olympias went home to Epirus in a rage, and sought refuge in the court
+of her brother.
+
+Alexander, her son, was left behind at Macedon at this separation
+between his father and mother. He was then about nineteen years of
+age. He took part with his mother in the contest. It is true, he
+remained for a time at the court of Philip after his mother's
+departure, but his mind was in a very irritable and sullen mood; and
+at length, on the occasion of a great public festival, an angry
+conversation between Alexander and Philip occurred, growing out of
+some allusions which were made to Olympias by some of the guests, in
+the course of which Alexander openly denounced and defied the king,
+and then abruptly left the court, and went off to Epirus to join his
+mother. Of course the attention of the people of Epirus was strongly
+attracted to this quarrel, and they took sides, some with Philip, and
+some with Olympias and Alexander.
+
+Not very long after this, Philip was assassinated in the most
+mysterious and extraordinary manner.[B] Olympias was generally accused
+of having been the instigator of this deed. There was no positive
+evidence of her guilt; nor, on the other hand, had there ever been in
+her character and conduct any such indications of the presence of even
+the ordinary sentiments of justice and humanity in her heart as could
+form a presumption of her innocence. In a word, she was such a woman
+that it was more easy and natural, as it seemed, for mankind to
+believe her guilty than innocent; and she has accordingly been very
+generally condemned, though on very slender evidence, as accessory to
+the crime.
+
+[Footnote B: For a full account of this transaction, see "History of
+Alexander the Great."]
+
+Of course, the death of Philip, whether Olympias was the procurer of
+it or not, was of the greatest conceivable advantage to her in respect
+to its effect upon her position, and upon the promotion of her
+ambitious schemes. The way was at once opened again for her return to
+Macedon. Alexander, her son, succeeded immediately to the throne. He
+was very young, and would submit, as she supposed, very readily to the
+influence of his mother. This proved, in fact, in some sense to be
+true. Alexander, whatever may have been his faults in other respects,
+was a very dutiful son. He treated his mother, as long as he lived,
+with the utmost consideration and respect, while yet he would not in
+any sense subject himself to her authority and influence in his
+political career. He formed his own plans, and executed them in his
+own way; and if there was ever at any time any dispute or disagreement
+between him and Olympias in respect to his measures, she soon learned
+that he was not to be controlled in these things, and gave up the
+struggle. Nor was this a very extraordinary result; for we often see
+that a refractory woman, who can not by any process be made to submit
+to her husband, is easily and completely managed by a son.
+
+Things went on thus tolerably smoothly while Alexander lived. It was
+_only_ tolerably, however; for Olympias, though she always continued
+on friendly terms with Alexander himself, quarreled incessantly with
+the commanders and ministers of state whom he left with her at Macedon
+while he was absent on his Asiatic campaigns. These contentions caused
+no very serious difficulty so long as Alexander himself was alive to
+interpose, when occasion required, and settle the difficulties and
+disputes which originated in them before they became unmanageable.
+Alexander was always adroit enough to do this in a manner that was
+respectful and considerate toward his mother, and which yet preserved
+the actual administrative power of the kingdom in the hands to which
+he had intrusted it.
+
+He thus amused his mother's mind, and soothed her irritable temper by
+marks of consideration and regard, and sustained her in a very
+dignified and lofty position in the royal household, while yet he
+confided to her very little substantial power.
+
+The officer whom Alexander had left in chief command at Macedon, while
+absent on his Asiatic expedition, was Antipater. Antipater was a very
+venerable man, then nearly seventy years of age. He had been the
+principal minister of state in Macedonia for a long period of time,
+having served Philip in that capacity with great fidelity and success
+for many years before Alexander's accession. During the whole term of
+his public office, he had maintained a most exalted reputation for
+wisdom and virtue. Philip placed the most absolute and entire
+confidence in him, and often committed the most momentous affairs to
+his direction. And yet, notwithstanding the illustrious position which
+Antipater thus occupied, and the great influence and control which he
+exercised in the public affairs of Macedon, he was simple and
+unpretending in his manners, and kind and considerate to all around
+him, as if he were entirely devoid of all feelings of personal
+ambition, and were actuated only by an honest and sincere devotedness
+to the cause of those whom he served. Various anecdotes were related
+of him in the Macedonian court, which showed the estimation in which
+he was held. For example, Philip one day, at a time when placed in
+circumstances which required special caution and vigilance on his
+part, made his appearance at a late hour in the morning, and he
+apologized for it by saying to the officers, "I have slept rather late
+this morning, but then I knew that Antipater was awake." Alexander,
+too, felt the highest respect and veneration for Antipater's
+character. At one time some person expressed surprise that Antipater
+did not clothe himself in a purple robe--the badge of nobility and
+greatness--as the other great commanders and ministers of state were
+accustomed to do. "Those men," said Alexander, "wear purple on the
+outside, but Antipater is purple within."
+
+The whole country, in a word, felt so much confidence in the wisdom,
+the justice, and the moderation of Antipater, that they submitted
+very readily to his sway during the absence of Alexander. Olympias,
+however, caused him continual trouble. In the exercise of his regency,
+he governed the country as he thought his duty to the people of the
+realm and to Alexander required, without yielding at all to the
+demands or expectations of Olympias. She, consequently, finding that
+he was unmanageable, did all in her power to embarrass him in his
+plans, and to thwart and circumvent him. She wrote letters continually
+to Alexander, complaining incessantly of his conduct, sometimes
+misrepresenting occurrences which had actually taken place, and
+sometimes making accusations wholly groundless and untrue. Antipater,
+in the same manner, in his letters to Alexander, complained of the
+interference of Olympias, and of the trouble and embarrassment which
+her conduct occasioned him. Alexander succeeded for a season in
+settling these difficulties more or less perfectly, from time to time,
+as they arose; but at last he concluded to make a change in the
+regency. Accordingly, on an occasion when a considerable body of new
+recruits from Macedon was to be marched into Asia, Alexander ordered
+Antipater to accompany them, and, at the same time, he sent home
+another general named Craterus, in charge of a body of troops from
+Asia, whose term of service had expired.[C] His plan was to retain
+Antipater in his service in Asia, and to give to Craterus the
+government of Macedon, thinking it possible, perhaps, that Craterus
+might agree better with Olympias than Antipater had done.
+
+[Footnote C: For the route from Macedonia to Babylon, see map.]
+
+Antipater was not to leave Macedon until Craterus should arrive there;
+and while Craterus was on his journey, Alexander suddenly died. This
+event changed the whole aspect of affairs throughout the empire, and
+led to a series of very important events, which followed each other in
+rapid succession, and which were the means of affecting the condition
+and the fortunes of Olympias in a very material manner. The state of
+the case was substantially thus. The story forms quite a complicated
+plot, which it will require close attention on the part of the reader
+clearly to comprehend.
+
+The question which rose first to the mind of every one, as soon as
+Alexander's death became known, was that of the succession. There was,
+as it happened, no member of Alexander's own family who could be
+considered as clearly and unquestionably his heir. At the time of his
+death he had no child. He had a wife, however, whose name was Roxana,
+and a child was born to her a few months after Alexander's death.
+Roxana was the daughter of an Asiatic prince. Alexander had taken her
+prisoner, with some other ladies, at a fort on a rock, where her
+father had placed her for safety. Roxana was extremely beautiful, and
+Alexander, as soon as he saw her, determined to make her his wife.
+Among the thousands of captives that he made in his Asiatic campaign,
+Roxana, it was said, was the most lovely of all; and as it was only
+about four years after her marriage that Alexander died, she was still
+in the full bloom of youth and beauty when her son was born.
+
+But besides this son, born thus a few months after Alexander's death,
+there was a brother of Alexander, or, rather, a half-brother, whose
+claims to the succession seemed to be more direct, for he was living
+at the time that Alexander died. The name of his brother was Aridĉus.
+He was imbecile in intellect, and wholly insignificant as a political
+personage, except so far as he was by birth the next heir to Alexander
+in the Macedonian line. He was not the son of Olympias, but of another
+mother, and his imbecility was caused, it was said, by an attempt of
+Olympias to poison him in his youth. She was prompted to do this by
+her rage and jealousy against his mother, for whose sake Philip had
+abandoned her. The poison had ruined the poor child's intellect,
+though it had failed to destroy his life. Alexander, when he succeeded
+to the throne, adopted measures to protect Aridĉus from any future
+attempt which his mother might make to destroy him, and for this, as
+well as perhaps for other reasons, took Aridĉus with him on his
+Asiatic campaign. Aridĉus and Roxana were both at Babylon when
+Alexander died.
+
+Whatever might be thought of the comparative claims of Aridĉus and of
+Roxana's babe in respect to the inheritance of the Macedonian crown,
+it was plain that neither of them was capable of exercising any actual
+power--Alexander's son being incapacitated by his youthfulness, and
+his brother by his imbecility. The real power fell immediately into
+the hands of Alexander's great generals and counselors of state. These
+generals, on consultation with each other, determined not to decide
+the question of succession in favor of either of the two heirs, but to
+invest the sovereignty of the empire jointly in them both. So they
+gave to Aridĉus the name of Philip, and to Roxana's babe that of
+Alexander. They made these two princes jointly the nominal sovereigns,
+and then proceeded, in their name, to divide all the actual power
+among themselves.
+
+In this division, Egypt, and the African countries adjoining it, were
+assigned to a very distinguished general of the name of Ptolemy, who
+became the founder of a long line of Egyptian sovereigns, known as the
+Ptolemaic dynasty--the line from which, some centuries later, the
+renowned Cleopatra sprang. Macedon and Greece, with the other European
+provinces, were allotted to Antipater and Craterus--Craterus himself
+being then on the way to Macedon with the invalid and disbanded troops
+whom Alexander had sent home. Craterus was in feeble health at this
+time, and was returning to Macedon partly on this account. In fact, he
+was not fully able to take the active command of the detachment
+committed to him, and Alexander had accordingly sent an officer with
+him, named Polysperchon, who was to assist him in the performance of
+his duties on the march. This Polysperchon, as will appear in the
+sequel, took a very important part in the events which occurred in
+Macedonia after he and Craterus had arrived there.
+
+In addition to these great and important provinces--that of Egypt in
+Africa, and Macedon and Greece in Europe--there were various other
+smaller ones in Asia Minor and in Syria, which were assigned to
+different generals and ministers of state who had been attached to the
+service of Alexander, and who all now claimed their several portions
+in the general distribution of power which took place after his death.
+The distribution gave at first a tolerable degree of satisfaction. It
+was made in the _name_ of Philip the king, though the personage who
+really controlled the arrangement was Perdiccas, the general who was
+nearest to the person of Alexander, and highest in rank at the time of
+the great conqueror's decease. In fact, as soon as Alexander died,
+Perdiccas assumed the command of the army, and the general direction
+of affairs.[D] He intended, as was supposed, to make himself emperor
+in the place of Alexander. At first he had strongly urged that
+Roxana's child should be declared heir to the throne, to the exclusion
+of Aridĉus. His secret motive in this was, that by governing as
+regent during the long minority of the infant, he might prepare the
+way for finally seizing the kingdom himself. The other generals of the
+army, however, would not consent to this; they were inclined to insist
+that Aridĉus should be king. The army was divided on this question for
+some days, and the dispute ran very high. It seemed, in fact, for a
+time, that there was no hope that it could be accommodated. There was
+every indication that a civil war must ensue--to break out first under
+the very walls of Babylon. At length, however, as has already been
+stated, the question was compromised, and it was agreed that the crown
+of Alexander should become the joint inheritance of Aridĉus and of the
+infant child, and that Perdiccas should exercise at Babylon the
+functions of regent. Of course, when the division of the empire was
+made, it was made in the name of Philip; for the child of Roxana, at
+the time of the division, was not yet born. But, though made in King
+Philip's name, it was really the work of Perdiccas. His plan, it was
+supposed, in the assignment of provinces to the various generals, was
+to remove them from Babylon, and give them employment in distant
+fields, where they would not interfere with him in the execution of
+his plans for making himself master of the supreme power.
+
+[Footnote D: The death of Alexander took place, and the distribution
+here referred to was made at Babylon. For the situation of this city
+in reference to Macedon and the intervening countries, see map.]
+
+After these arrangements had been made, and the affairs of the empire
+had been tolerably well settled for the time being by this
+distribution of power, and Perdiccas began to consider what ulterior
+measures he should adopt for the widening and extending of his power,
+a question arose which for a season greatly perplexed him: it was the
+question of his marriage. Two proposals were made to him--one by
+Olympias, and one by Antipater. Each of these personages had a
+daughter whom they were desirous that Perdiccas should make his wife.
+The daughter of Olympias was named Cleopatra--that of Antipater was
+Nicĉa. Cleopatra was a young widow. She was residing at this time in
+Syria. She had been married to a king of Epirus named Alexander, but
+was now residing in Sardis, in Asia Minor. Some of the counselors of
+Perdiccas represented to him very strongly that a marriage with her
+would strengthen his position more than any other alliance that he
+could form, as she was the sister of Alexander the Great, and by his
+marriage with her he would secure to his side the influence of
+Olympias and of all of Alexander's family. Perdiccas so far acceded
+to these views that he sent a messenger to Sardis to visit Cleopatra
+in his name, and to make her a present. Olympias and Cleopatra
+accordingly considered the arrangement a settled affair.
+
+In the mean time, however, Antipater, who seems to have been more in
+earnest in his plans, sent off his daughter Nicĉa herself to Babylon,
+to be offered directly to Perdiccas there. She arrived at Babylon
+after the messenger of Perdiccas had gone to visit Cleopatra. The
+arrival of Nicĉa brought up very distinctly to the mind of Perdiccas
+the advantages of an alliance with Antipater. Olympias, it is true,
+had a great name, but she possessed no real power. Antipater, on the
+other hand, held sway over a widely-extended region, which comprised
+some of the most wealthy and populous countries on the globe. He had a
+large army under his command, too, consisting of the bravest and
+best-disciplined troops in the world; and he himself, though advanced
+in age, was a very able and effective commander. In a word, Perdiccas
+was persuaded, by these and similar considerations, that the alliance
+of Antipater would be more serviceable to him than that of Olympias,
+and he accordingly married Nicĉa. Olympias, who had always hated
+Antipater before, was now, when she found herself thus supplanted by
+him in her plans for allying herself with Perdiccas, aroused to the
+highest pitch of indignation and rage.
+
+Besides the marriage of Perdiccas, another matrimonial question arose
+about this time, which led to a great deal of difficulty. There was a
+lady of the royal family of Macedon named Cynane--a daughter of Philip
+of Macedon, and half-sister of Alexander the Great--who had a daughter
+named Ada. Cynane conceived the design of marrying her daughter to
+King Philip, who was now, as well as Roxana and her babe, in the hands
+of Perdiccas as their guardian. Cynane set out from Macedon with her
+daughter, on the journey to Asia, in order to carry this arrangement
+into effect. This was considered as a very bold undertaking on the
+part of Cynane and her daughter; for Perdiccas would, of course, be
+implacably hostile to any plan for the marriage of Philip, and
+especially so to his marrying a princess of the royal family of
+Macedon. In fact, as soon as Perdiccas heard of the movement which
+Cynane was making, he was enraged at the audacity of it, and sent
+messengers to intercept Cynane and murder her on the way. This
+transaction, however, as soon as it was known, produced a great
+excitement throughout the whole of the Macedonian army. The army, in
+fact, felt so strong an attachment for every branch and every member
+of the family of Alexander, that they would not tolerate any violence
+or wrong against any one of them. Perdiccas was quite terrified at the
+storm which he had raised. He immediately countermanded the orders
+which he had given to the assassins; and, to atone for his error and
+allay the excitement, he received Ada, when she arrived at Babylon,
+with great apparent kindness, and finally consented to the plan of her
+being married to Philip. She was accordingly married to him, and the
+army was appeased. Ada received at this time the name of Eurydice, and
+she became subsequently, under that name, quite renowned in history.
+
+During the time in which these several transactions were taking place,
+various intrigues and contentions were going on among the governors of
+the different provinces in Europe and Asia, which, as the results of
+them did not particularly affect the affairs of Epirus, we need not
+here particularly describe. During all this period, however,
+Perdiccas was extending and maturing his arrangements, and laying his
+plans for securing the whole empire to himself; while Antipater and
+Ptolemy, in Macedon and Egypt, were all the time holding secret
+communications with each other, and endeavoring to devise means by
+which they might thwart and circumvent him. The quarrel was an example
+of what very often occurs in such political systems as the Macedonian
+empire presented at this time--namely, a combining of the extremities
+against the centre. For some time the efforts of the hostile parties
+were confined to the maneuvers and counter-maneuvers which they
+devised against each other. Antipater was, in fact, restrained from
+open hostility against Perdiccas from a regard to his daughter Nicĉa,
+who, as has been already mentioned, was Perdiccas' wife. At length,
+however, under the influence of the increasing hostility which
+prevailed between the two families, Perdiccas determined to divorce
+Nicĉa, and marry Cleopatra after all. As soon as Antipater learned
+this, he resolved at once upon open war. The campaign commenced with a
+double operation. Perdiccas himself raised an army; and, taking Philip
+and Eurydice, and also Roxana and her babe in his train, he marched
+into Egypt to make war against Ptolemy. At the same time, Antipater
+and Craterus, at the head of a large Macedonian force, passed across
+the Hellespont into Asia Minor, on their way to attack Perdiccas in
+Babylon. Perdiccas sent a large detachment of troops, under the
+command of a distinguished general, to meet and encounter Antipater
+and Craterus in Asia Minor, while he was himself engaged in the
+Egyptian campaign.
+
+The result of the contest was fatal to the cause of Perdiccas.
+Antipater advanced triumphantly through Asia Minor, though in one of
+the battles which took place there Craterus was slain. But while
+Craterus himself fell, his troops were victorious. Thus the fortunes
+of war in this quarter went against Perdiccas. The result of his own
+operations in Egypt was still more disastrous to him. As he approached
+the Egyptian frontier, he found his soldiers very averse to fighting
+against Ptolemy, a general whom they had always regarded with extreme
+respect and veneration, and who, as was well known, had governed his
+province in Egypt with the greatest wisdom, justice, and moderation.
+Perdiccas treated this disaffection in a very haughty and domineering
+manner. He called his soldiers rebels, and threatened to punish them
+as such. This aroused their indignation, and from secret murmurings
+they proceeded to loud and angry complaints. Perdiccas was not their
+king, they said, to lord it over them in that imperious manner. He was
+nothing but the tutor of their kings, and they would not submit to any
+insolence from him. Perdiccas was soon quite alarmed to observe the
+degree of dissatisfaction which he had awakened, and the violence of
+the form which it seemed to be assuming. He changed his tone, and
+attempted to soothe and conciliate the minds of his men. He at length
+succeeded so far as to restore some degree of order and discipline to
+the army, and in that condition the expedition entered Egypt.[E]
+
+[Footnote E: For the route taken by this expedition, see map.]
+
+Perdiccas crossed one of the branches of the Nile, and then led his
+army forward to attack Ptolemy in a strong fortress, where he had
+intrenched himself with his troops. The forces of Perdiccas, though
+much more numerous than those of Ptolemy, fought with very little
+spirit; while those of Ptolemy exerted themselves to the utmost, under
+the influence of the strong attachment which they felt for their
+commander. Perdiccas was beaten in the engagement; and he was so much
+weakened by the defeat, that he determined to retreat back across the
+river. When the army arrived at the bank of the stream, the troops
+began to pass over; but after about half the army had crossed, they
+found, to their surprise, that the water, which had been growing
+gradually deeper all the time, became impassable. The cause of this
+deepening of the stream was at first a great mystery, since the
+surface of the water, as was evident by marks along the shore,
+remained all the time at the same level. It was at length ascertained
+that the cause of this extraordinary phenomenon was, that the sands in
+the bottom of the river were trampled up by the feet of the men and
+horses in crossing, so that the current of the water could wash them
+away; and such was the immense number of footsteps made by the
+successive bodies of troops, that, by the time the transportation had
+been half accomplished, the water had become too deep to be forded.
+Perdiccas was thus, as it were, caught in a trap--half his army being
+on one side of the river, and himself, with the remainder, on the
+other.
+
+He was seriously alarmed at the dangerous situation in which he thus
+found himself placed, and immediately resorted to a variety of
+expedients to remedy the unexpected difficulty. All his efforts were,
+however, vain. Finally, as it seemed imperiously necessary to effect a
+junction between the two divisions of his army, he ordered those who
+had gone over to make an attempt, at all hazards, to return. They did
+so; but in the attempt, vast numbers of men got beyond their depth,
+and were swept down by the current and drowned. Multitudes of the
+bodies, both of the dead and of the dying, were seized and devoured by
+the crocodiles which lined the shores of the river below. There were
+about two thousand men thus lost in the attempt to recross the stream.
+
+In all military operations, the criterion of merit, in the opinion of
+an army, is success; and, of course, the discontent and disaffection
+which prevailed in the camp of Perdiccas broke out anew in consequence
+of these misfortunes. There was a general mutiny. The officers
+themselves took the lead in it, and one hundred of them went over in a
+body to Ptolemy's side, taking with them a considerable portion of the
+army; while those that were left remained with Perdiccas, not to
+defend, but to destroy him. A troop of horse gathered around his tent,
+guarding it on all sides, to prevent the escape of their victim, and
+then a certain number of the men rushed in and killed him in the midst
+of his terror and despair.
+
+Ptolemy now advanced to the camp of Perdiccas, and was received there
+with acclamation. The whole army submitted themselves at once to his
+command. An arrangement was made for the return of the army to
+Babylon, with the kings and their train. Pithon, one of the generals
+of Perdiccas, took the command of the army, and the charge of the
+royal family, on the return. In the mean time, Antipater had passed
+into Asia, victorious over the forces that Perdiccas had sent against
+him. A new congress of generals was held, and a new distribution of
+power was made. By the new arrangement, Antipater was to retain his
+command in Macedon and Greece, and to have the custody of the kings.
+Accordingly, when every thing had thus been settled, Antipater set out
+on his return to Macedon, with Philip and Eurydice, and also Roxana
+and the infant Alexander, in his train. The venerable soldier--for he
+was now about eighty years of age--was received in Macedon, on his
+return, with universal honor and applause. There were several
+considerations, in fact, which conspired to exalt Antipater in the
+estimation of his countrymen on this occasion. He had performed a
+great military exploit in conducting the expedition into Asia, from
+which he was now triumphantly returning. He was bringing back to
+Macedon, too, the royal family of Alexander, the representatives of
+the ancient Macedonian line; and by being made the custodian of these
+princes, and regent of the empire in their name, he had been raised to
+the most exalted position which the whole world at that period could
+afford. The Macedonians received him, accordingly, on his return, with
+loud and universal acclamations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CASSANDER.
+
+B.C. 320-316
+
+Antipater's difficulties--Trouble with Olympias and Eurydice.--Character
+of Eurydice.--Her dictatorial and overbearing demeanor.--The convention
+of Triparadeisus.--Violence of Eurydice.--Antipater's life in
+danger.--Eurydice forced to submit.--Antipater is dangerously sick.--The
+arrangements made by him.--Antipater's arrangements for the
+succession.--Polysperchon.--Polysperchon invites Olympias to return
+to Macedon.--Cassander plans a rebellion.--His pretended hunting
+party.--Cassander explains his designs to his friends.--They agree
+to join him.--Olympias is afraid to return to Macedon.--War between
+Cassander and Polysperchon.--Curious incident.--Polysperchon's
+mine.--Success of it.--The conflict.--Consternation produced by the
+elephants.--Plan of defense against them.--The iron spikes.--Olympias
+finally concludes to go to Macedon.--Eurydice's troops desert
+her.--Olympias in her chariot.--Eurydice is captured.--She is sent to
+a dungeon.--Death of Philip.--Eurydice's despair.--he cell.--Eurydice's
+dreadful end.--Cassander's movements.--Olympias acts in the most
+energetic manner.--The siege of Pydna.--Movement of Cassander.--The
+carrying away of Pyrrhus.--Olympias resorts to a stratagem.--Olympias
+in prison.--Her end.
+
+
+Although Antipater, on his return to Macedon, came back loaded with
+honors, and in the full and triumphant possession of power, his
+situation was still not without its difficulties. He had for enemies,
+in Macedon, two of the most violent and unmanageable women that ever
+lived--Olympias and Eurydice--who quarreled with him incessantly, and
+who hated each other even more than they hated him.
+
+Olympias was at this time in Epirus. She remained there, because she
+did not choose to put herself under Antipater's power by residing in
+Macedon. She succeeded, however, by her maneuvers and intrigues, in
+giving Antipater a great deal of trouble. Her ancient animosity
+against him had been very much increased and aggravated by the failure
+of her plan for marrying her daughter Cleopatra to Perdiccas, through
+the advances which Antipater made in behalf of his daughter Nicĉa; and
+though Nicĉa and Perdiccas were now dead, yet the transaction was an
+offense which such a woman as Olympias never could forgive.
+
+Eurydice was a still greater source of annoyance and embarrassment to
+Antipater than Olympias herself. She was a woman of very masculine
+turn of mind, and she had been brought up by her mother, Cynane, to
+martial exercises, such as those to which young men in those days were
+customarily trained. She could shoot arrows, and throw the javelin,
+and ride on horseback at the head of a troop of armed men. As soon as
+she was married to Philip she began at once to assume an air of
+authority, thinking, apparently, that she herself, being the wife of
+the king, was entitled to a much greater share of the regal authority
+than the generals, who, as she considered them, were merely his tutors
+and guardians, or, at most, only military agents, appointed to execute
+his will. During the memorable expedition into Egypt, Perdiccas had
+found it very difficult to exercise any control over her; and after
+the death of Perdiccas, she assumed a more lofty and imperious tone
+than ever. She quarreled incessantly with Pithon, the commander of the
+army, on the return from Egypt; and she made the most resolute and
+determined opposition to the appointment of Antipater as the custodian
+of the persons of the kings.
+
+The place where the consultation was held, at which this appointment
+was made, was Triparadeisus,[F] in Syria. This was the place where the
+expedition of Antipater, coming from Asia Minor, met the army of Egypt
+on its return. As soon as the junction of the two armies was effected,
+and the grand council was convened, Eurydice made the most violent
+opposition to the proceedings. Antipater reproved her for evincing
+such turbulence and insubordination of spirit. This made her more
+angry than ever; and when at length Antipater was appointed to the
+regency, she went out and made a formal harangue to the army, in which
+she denounced Antipater in the severest terms, and loaded him with
+criminations and reproaches, and endeavored to incite the soldiers to
+a revolt. Antipater endeavored to defend himself against these
+accusations by a calm reply; but the influence which Eurydice's
+tempestuous eloquence exerted on the minds of the soldiery was too
+much for him. A very serious riot ensued, which threatened to lead to
+the most disastrous results. For a time Antipater's life was in most
+imminent danger, and he was saved only by the interposition of some of
+the other generals, who hazarded their own lives to rescue him from
+the enraged soldiery.
+
+[Footnote F: See map.]
+
+The excitement of this scene gradually subsided, and, as the generals
+persisted in the arrangement which they had made, Eurydice found
+herself forced to submit to it. She had, in fact, no real power in her
+hands except that of making temporary mischief and disturbance; and,
+as is usually the case with characters like hers, when she found that
+those around her could not be driven from their ground by her
+fractiousness and obstinacy, she submitted herself to the necessity of
+the case, though in a moody and sullen manner. Such were the relations
+which Antipater and Eurydice bore to each other on the return of
+Antipater to Macedon.
+
+The troubles, however, in his government, which Antipater might have
+reasonably expected to arise from his connection with Olympias and
+Eurydice, were destined to a very short continuance, so far as he
+personally was concerned; for, not long after his return to Macedon,
+he fell sick of a dangerous disease, under which it was soon evident
+that the vital principle, at the advanced age to which he had
+attained, must soon succumb. In fact, Antipater himself soon gave up
+all hopes of recovery, and began at once to make arrangements for the
+final surrender of his power.
+
+It will be recollected that when Craterus came from Asia to Macedon,
+about the time of Alexander's death, he brought with him a general
+named Polysperchon, who, though nominally second in command, really
+had charge of the army on the march, Craterus himself being at the
+time an invalid. When, some time afterward, Antipater and Craterus set
+out on their expedition to Asia, in the war against Perdiccas,
+Polysperchon was left in charge of the kingdom of Macedon, to govern
+it as regent until Antipater should return. Antipater had a son named
+Cassander, who was a general in his army. Cassander naturally expected
+that, during the absence of his father, the kingdom would be committed
+to his charge. For some reason or other, however, Antipater had
+preferred Polysperchon, and had intrusted the government to him.
+Polysperchon had, of course, become acquainted with the duties of
+government, and had acquired an extensive knowledge of Macedonian
+affairs. He had governed well, too, and the people were accustomed to
+his sway. Antipater concluded, therefore, that it would be better to
+continue Polysperchon in power after his death, rather than to
+displace Polysperchon for the sake of advancing his son Cassander. He
+therefore made provision for giving to Cassander a very high command
+in the army, but he gave Polysperchon the kingdom. This act, though
+Cassander himself never forgave it, raised Antipater to a higher place
+than ever in the estimation of mankind. They said that he did what no
+monarch ever did before; in determining the great question of the
+succession, he made the aggrandizement of his own family give place to
+the welfare of the realm.
+
+Antipater on his death-bed, among other councils which he gave to
+Polysperchon, warned him very earnestly against the danger of yielding
+to any woman whatever a share in the control of public affairs. Woman,
+he said, was, from her very nature, the creature of impulse, and was
+swayed in all her conduct by the emotions and passions of her heart.
+She possessed none of the calm, considerate, and self-controlling
+principles of wisdom and prudence, so essential for the proper
+administration of the affairs of states and nations. These cautions,
+as Antipater uttered them, were expressed in general terms, but they
+were understood to refer to Olympias and Eurydice, whom it had always
+been very difficult to control, and who, of course, when Antipater
+should be removed from the scene, might be expected to come forward
+with a spirit more obtrusive and unmanageable than ever.
+
+These counsels, however, of the dying king seemed to have had very
+little effect upon Polysperchon; for one of the first measures of his
+government, after Antipater was dead, was to send to Epirus to invite
+Olympias to return to Macedon. This measure was decided upon in a
+grand council which Polysperchon convened to deliberate on the state
+of public affairs as soon as the government came into his hands.
+Polysperchon thought that he should greatly strengthen his
+administration by enlisting Olympias on his side. She was held in
+great veneration by all the people of Macedon; not on account of any
+personal qualities which she possessed to entitle her to such regard,
+but because she was the mother of Alexander. Polysperchon, therefore,
+considered it very important to secure her influence, and the prestige
+of her name in his favor. At the same time, while he thus sought to
+propitiate Olympias, he neglected Cassander and all the other members
+of Antipater's family. He considered them, doubtless, as rivals and
+antagonists, whom he was to keep down by every means in his power.
+
+Cassander, who was a man of a very bold, determined, and ambitious
+spirit, remained quietly in Polysperchon's court for a little time,
+watching attentively all that was done, and revolving silently in his
+mind the question what course he himself should pursue. At length he
+formed a small party of his friends to go away on a hunting excursion.
+When he reached a safe distance from the court of Polysperchon, he
+called his friends around him, and informed them that he had resolved
+not to submit to the usurpation of Polysperchon, who, in assuming the
+throne of Macedon, had seized what rightfully belonged, he said, to
+him, Cassander, as his father's son and heir. He invited his friends
+to join him in the enterprise of deposing Polysperchon, and assuming
+the crown.
+
+He urged this undertaking upon them with very specious arguments. It
+was the only course of safety for them, as well as for him, since
+they--that is, the friends to whom Cassander was making these
+proposals--had all been friends of Antipater; and Olympias, whom
+Polysperchon was about to take into his counsels, hated the very name
+of Antipater, and would evince, undoubtedly, the most unrelenting
+hostility to all whom she should consider as having been his friends.
+He was confident, he said, that the Asiatic princes and generals would
+espouse his cause. They had been warmly attached to Antipater, and
+would not willingly see his son and rightful successor deprived of his
+legitimate rights. Besides, Philip and Eurydice would join him. They
+had every thing to fear from Olympias, and would, of course, oppose
+the power of Polysperchon, now that he had determined to ally himself
+to her.
+
+The friends of Cassander very readily agreed to his proposal, and the
+result proved the truth of his predictions. The Asiatic princes
+furnished Cassander with very efficient aid in his attempt to depose
+his rival. Olympias adhered to Polysperchon, while Eurydice favored
+Cassander's cause. A terrible conflict ensued. It was waged for some
+time in Greece, and in other countries more or less remote from
+Macedon, the advantage in the combats being sometimes on one side and
+sometimes on the other. It is not necessary to detail here the events
+which occurred in the contest so long as the theatre of war was beyond
+the frontiers of Macedon, for the parties with whom we are now
+particularly dealing were not directly affected by the conflict until
+it came nearer home.
+
+It ought here to be stated that Olympias did not at first accept the
+invitation to return to Macedon which Polysperchon sent to her. She
+hesitated. She consulted with her friends, and they were not decided
+in respect to the course which it would be best for her to pursue. She
+had made a great many enemies in Macedon during her former residence
+there, and she knew well that she would have a great deal to fear from
+their hostility in case she should return, and thus put herself again,
+as it were, into their power. Then, besides, it was quite uncertain
+what course affairs in Macedon would finally take. Antipater had
+bequeathed the kingdom to Polysperchon, it was true; but there might
+be great doubt whether the people would acquiesce in this decision,
+and allow the supreme power to remain quietly in Polysperchon's hands.
+She concluded, therefore, to remain a short time where she was, till
+she could see how the case would finally turn. She accordingly
+continued to reside in Epirus, keeping up, however, a continual
+correspondence with Polysperchon in respect to the measures of his
+government, and watching the progress of the war between him and
+Cassander in Greece, when that war broke out, with the utmost
+solicitude and anxiety.
+
+Cassander proved to be too strong for Polysperchon in Greece. He had
+obtained large bodies of troops from his Asiatic allies, and he
+maneuvered and managed these forces with so much bravery and skill,
+that Polysperchon could not dislodge him from the country. A somewhat
+curious incident occurred on one occasion during the campaign, which
+illustrates the modes of warfare practiced in those days. It seems
+that one of the cities of Peloponnesus, named Megalopolis, was on the
+side of Cassander, and when Polysperchon sent them a summons to
+surrender to him and acknowledge his authority, they withdrew all
+their property and the whole of their population within the walls, and
+bid him defiance. Polysperchon then advanced and laid siege to the
+city.
+
+After fully investing the city and commencing operations on various
+sides, to occupy the attention of the garrison, he employed a corps of
+sappers and miners in secretly undermining a portion of the wall. The
+mode of procedure, in operations like this, was to dig a subterranean
+passage leading to the foundations of the wall, and then, as fast as
+these foundations were removed, to substitute props to support the
+superincumbent mass until all was ready for the springing of the mine.
+When the excavations were completed, the props were suddenly pulled
+away, and the wall would cave in, to the great astonishment of the
+besieged, who, if the operation had been skillfully performed, knew
+nothing of the danger until the final consummation of it opened
+suddenly before their eyes a great breach in their defenses.
+Polysperchon's mine was so successful, that three towers fell into it,
+with all the wall connecting them. These towers came down with a
+terrific crash, the materials of which they had been composed lying,
+after the fall, half buried in the ground, a mass of ruins.
+
+The garrison of the city immediately repaired in great numbers to the
+spot, to prevent the ingress of the enemy; while, on the other hand, a
+strong detachment of troops rushed forward from the camp of
+Polysperchon to force their way through the breach into the city. A
+very desperate conflict ensued, and while the men of the city were
+thus engaged in keeping back the invaders, the women and children were
+employed in throwing up a line of intrenchments further within, to
+cover the opening which had been made in the wall. The people of the
+city gained the victory in the combat. The storming party were driven
+back, and the besieged were beginning to congratulate themselves on
+their escape from the danger which had threatened them, when they were
+suddenly terrified beyond measure by the tidings that the besiegers
+were arranging a train of elephants to bring in through the breach.
+Elephants were often used for war in those days in Asiatic countries,
+but they had seldom appeared in Greece. Polysperchon, however, had a
+number of them in the train of his army, and the soldiers of
+Megalopolis were overwhelmed with consternation at the prospect of
+being trampled under foot by these huge beasts, wholly ignorant as
+they were of the means of contending against them.
+
+It happened, however, that there was in the city of Megalopolis at
+this time a soldier named Damides, who had served in former years
+under Alexander the Great, in Asia. He went to the officers who had
+command within the city and offered his aid. "Fear nothing," said he,
+"but go on with your preparations of defense, and leave the elephants
+to me. I will answer for them, if you will do as I say." The officers
+agreed to follow his instructions. He immediately caused a great
+number of sharp iron spikes to be made. These spikes he set firmly in
+the ends of short stakes of wood, and then planted the stakes in the
+ground all about the intrenchments and in the breach, in such a manner
+that the spikes themselves, points upward, protruded from the ground.
+The spikes were then concealed from view by covering the ground with
+straw and other similar rubbish.
+
+The consequence of this arrangement was, that when the elephants
+advanced to enter the breach, they trod upon these spikes, and the
+whole column of them was soon disabled and thrown into confusion. Some
+of the elephants were wounded so severely that they fell where they
+stood, and were unable to rise. Others, maddened with the pain which
+they endured, turned back and trampled their own keepers under foot in
+their attempts to escape from the scene. The breach, in short, soon
+became so choked up with the bodies of beasts and men, that the
+assailants were compelled to give up the contest and withdraw. A
+short time afterward, Polysperchon raised the siege and abandoned the
+city altogether.
+
+In fact, the party of Cassander was in the end triumphant in Greece,
+and Polysperchon determined to return to Macedon.
+
+In the mean time, Olympias had determined to come to Macedon, and aid
+Polysperchon in his contest with Cassander. She accordingly left
+Epirus, and with a small body of troops, with which her brother
+Alexander, who was then King of Epirus, furnished her, went on and
+joined Polysperchon on his return. Eurydice was alarmed at this; for,
+since she considered Olympias as her great political rival and enemy,
+she knew very well that there could be no safety for her or her
+husband if Olympias should obtain the ascendency in the court of
+Polysperchon. She accordingly began to call upon those around her, in
+the city where she was then residing, to arm themselves for her
+defense. They did so, and a considerable force was thus collected.
+Eurydice placed herself at the head of it. She sent messengers off to
+Cassander, urging him to come immediately and join her. She also sent
+an embassage to Polysperchon, commanding him, in the name of Philip
+the king, to deliver up his army to Cassander. Of course this was only
+a form, as she could not have expected that such a command would have
+been obeyed; and, accordingly, after having sent off these orders, she
+placed herself at the head of the troops that she had raised, and
+marched out to meet Polysperchon on his return, intending, if he would
+not submit, to give him battle.
+
+Her designs, however, were all frustrated in the end in a very
+unexpected manner. For when the two armies approached each other, the
+soldiers who were on Eurydice's side, instead of fighting in her cause
+as she expected, failed her entirely at the time of trial. For when
+they saw Olympias, whom they had long been accustomed almost to adore
+as the wife of old King Philip, and the mother of Alexander, and who
+was now advancing to meet them on her return to Macedon, splendidly
+attended, and riding in her chariot, at the head of Polysperchon's
+army, with the air and majesty of a queen, they were so overpowered
+with the excitement of the spectacle, that they abandoned Eurydice in
+a body, and went over, by common consent, to Polysperchon's side.
+
+Of course Eurydice herself and her husband Philip, who was with her
+at this time, fell into Polysperchon's hands as prisoners. Olympias
+was almost beside herself with exultation and joy at having her hated
+rival thus put into her power. She imprisoned Eurydice and her husband
+in a dungeon, so small that there was scarcely room for them to turn
+themselves in it; and while they were thus confined, the only
+attention which the wretched prisoners received was to be fed, from
+time to time, with coarse provisions, thrust in to them through a hole
+in the wall. Having thus made Eurydice secure, Olympias proceeded to
+wreak her vengeance on all the members of the family of Antipater whom
+she could get within her power. Cassander, it is true, was beyond her
+reach for the present; he was gradually advancing through Thessaly
+into Macedonia, at the head of a powerful and victorious army. There
+was another son of Antipater, however, named Nicanor, who was then in
+Macedon. Him she seized and put to death, together with about a
+hundred of his relatives and friends. In fact, so violent and insane
+was her rage against the house of Antipater, that she opened a tomb
+where the body of another of his sons had been interred, and caused
+the remains to be brought out and thrown into the street. The people
+around her began to remonstrate against such atrocities; but these
+remonstrances, instead of moderating her rage, only excited it still
+more. She sent to the dungeon where her prisoners, Philip and
+Eurydice, were confined, and caused Philip to be stabbed to death with
+daggers; and then, when this horrid scene was scarcely over, an
+executioner came in to Eurydice with a dagger, a rope, and a cup of
+poison, saying that Olympias sent them to her, that she might choose
+herself by what she would die. Eurydice, on receiving this message,
+replied, saying, "I pray Heaven that Olympias herself may one day have
+the like alternative presented to her." She then proceeded to tear the
+linen dress which she wore into bandages, and to bind up with these
+bandages the wounds in the dead body of her husband. This dreadful
+though useless duty being performed, she then, rejecting all three of
+the means of self-destruction which Olympias had offered her,
+strangled herself by tying tight about her neck a band which she
+obtained from her own attire.
+
+[Illustration: EURYDICE IN PRISON.]
+
+Of course, the tidings of these proceedings were not long in reaching
+Cassander. He was at this time in Greece, advancing, however, slowly
+to the northward, toward Macedon. In coming from Greece into Thessaly,
+his route lay through the celebrated Pass of Thermopylĉ. He found this
+pass guarded by a large body of troops, which had been posted there to
+oppose his passage. He immediately got together all the ships, boats,
+galleys, and vessels of every kind which he could procure, and,
+embarking his army on board of them, he sailed past the defile, and
+landed in Thessaly. Thence he marched into Macedon.
+
+While Cassander had thus been slowly approaching, Polysperchon and
+Olympias had been very vigorously employed in making preparations to
+receive him. Olympias, with Roxana and the young Alexander, who was
+now about five years old, in her train, traveled to and fro among the
+cities of Macedonia, summoning the people to arms, enlisting all who
+would enter her service, and collecting money and military stores. She
+also sent to Epirus, to Ĉacides the king, the father of Pyrrhus,
+imploring him to come to her aid with all the force he could bring.
+Polysperchon, too, though separate from Olympias, made every effort to
+strengthen himself against his coming enemy. Things were in this state
+when Cassander entered Macedon.
+
+Cassander immediately divided his troops into two distinct bodies, and
+sending one, under the command of an able general, to attack
+Polysperchon, he himself went in pursuit of Olympias. Olympias
+retreated before him, until at length she reached the city of Pydna, a
+city situated in the southeastern part of Macedon, on the shore of the
+Ĉgean Sea.[G] She knew that the force under her command was not
+sufficient to enable her to offer her enemy battle, and she
+accordingly went into the city, and fortified herself there.
+Cassander advanced immediately to the place, and, finding the city
+too strongly fortified to be carried by assault, he surrounded it with
+his army, and invested it closely both by land and sea.
+
+[Footnote G: See map.]
+
+The city was not well provided for a siege, and the people within very
+soon began to suffer for want of provisions. Olympias, however, urged
+them to hold out, representing to them that she had sent to Epirus for
+assistance, and that Ĉacides, the king, was already on his way, with a
+large force, to succor her. This was very true; but, unfortunately for
+Olympias, Cassander was aware of this fact as well as she, and,
+instead of waiting for the troops of Ĉacides to come and attack him,
+he had sent a large armed force to the confines between Epirus and
+Macedon, to intercept these expected allies in the passes of the
+mountains. This movement was successful. The army of Ĉacides found,
+when they reached the frontier, that the passages leading into
+Macedonia were all blocked up by the troops of the enemy. They made
+some ineffectual attempts to break through; and then the leading
+officers of the army, who had never been really willing to embark in
+the war, revolted against Ĉacides, and returned home. And as, in the
+case of deeds of violence and revolution, it is always safest to go
+through and finish the work when it is once begun, they deposed
+Ĉacides entirely, and raised the other branch of the royal family to
+the throne in his stead. It was on this occasion that the infant
+Pyrrhus was seized and carried away by his friends, to save his life,
+as mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this history. The
+particulars of this revolution, and of the flight of Pyrrhus, will be
+given more fully in the next chapter. It is sufficient here to say,
+that the attempt of Ĉacides to come to the rescue of Olympias in her
+peril wholly failed, and there was nothing now left but the wall of
+the city to defend her from her terrible foe.
+
+In the mean time, the distress in the city for want of food had become
+horrible. Olympias herself, with Roxana and the boy, and the other
+ladies of the court, lived on the flesh of horses. The soldiers
+devoured the bodies of their comrades as they were slain upon the
+wall. They fed the elephants, it was said, on saw-dust. The soldiers
+and the people of the city, who found this state of things
+intolerable, deserted continually to Cassander, letting themselves
+down by stealth in the night from the wall. Still Olympias would not
+surrender; there was one more hope remaining for her. She contrived
+to dispatch a messenger to Polysperchon with a letter, asking him to
+send a galley round into the harbor at a certain time in the night, in
+order that she might get on board of it, and thus escape. Cassander
+intercepted this messenger. After reading the letter, he returned it
+to the messenger again, and directed him to go on and deliver it. The
+messenger did so, and Polysperchon sent the galley. Cassander, of
+course, watched for it, and seized it himself when it came. The last
+hope of the unhappy Olympias was thus extinguished, and she opened the
+gates and gave herself up to Cassander. The whole country immediately
+afterward fell into Cassander's hands.
+
+The friends of the family of Antipater were now clamorous in their
+demands that Olympias should be brought to punishment for having so
+atrociously murdered the sons and relatives of Antipater while she was
+in power. Olympias professed herself willing to be tried, and appealed
+to the Macedonian senate to be her judges. She relied on the
+ascendency which she had so long exercised over the minds of the
+Macedonians, and did not believe that they would condemn her.
+Cassander himself feared that they would not; and although he was
+unwilling to murder her while she was a defenseless prisoner in his
+hands, he determined that she should die. He recommended to her
+secretly not to take the hazard of a trial, but to make her escape and
+go to Athens, and offered to give her an opportunity to do so. He
+intended, it was said, if she made the attempt, to intercept and slay
+her on the way as a fugitive from justice. She refused to accede to
+this proposal, suspecting, perhaps, Cassander's treachery in making
+it. Cassander then sent a band of two hundred soldiers to put her to
+death.
+
+These soldiers, when they came into the prison, were so impressed by
+the presence of the queen, to whom, in former years, they had been
+accustomed to look up with so much awe, that they shrank back from
+their duty, and for a time it seemed that no one would strike the
+blow. At length, however, some among the number, who were relatives of
+those that Olympias had murdered, succeeding in nerving their arms
+with the resolution of revenge, fell upon her and killed her with
+their swords.
+
+As for Roxana and the boy, Cassander kept them close prisoners for
+many years; and finally, feeling more and more that his possession of
+the throne of Alexander was constantly endangered by the existence of
+a son of Alexander, caused them to be assassinated too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS.
+
+B.C. 332-295
+
+The family of Epirus.--Their difficulties.--The two Alexanders.--Their
+different destinies.--Adventures of Alexander of Macedon.--The Gulf of
+Tarentum.--Oracle of Dodona.--The equivocal prediction.--Pandosia.--The
+unexpected inundation.--Effects of it.--Bridge carried away.--The River
+of Sorrow.--Alexander killed.--His body falls into the river.--A woman
+rescues the remains.--Olympias.--Ĉacides marches to relieve Pydna.--The
+flight of the family with Pyrrhus.--The party meet with a narrow
+escape.--Ingenious mode of sending a letter.--The raft.--Pyrrhus is
+carried to Illyria.--Little Pyrrhus at the court of Glaucias.--Pyrrhus
+becomes a large boy.--Cassander's plans.--Glaucias establishes Pyrrhus
+on his throne.--Rebellion.--Pyrrhus once more an exile.--Pyrrhus enters
+into the service of Demetrius.--Pyrrhus acquires great renown.--He
+becomes a hostage.--The situation of a hostage.--Pyrrhus in the court
+of Ptolemy.
+
+
+In the two preceding chapters we have related that portion of the
+history of Macedonia which it is necessary to understand in order
+rightly to appreciate the nature of the difficulties in which the
+royal family of Epirus was involved at the time when Pyrrhus first
+appeared upon the stage. The sources of these difficulties were two:
+first, the uncertainty of the line of succession, there being two
+branches of the royal family, each claiming the throne, which state of
+things was produced, in a great measure, by the interposition of
+Olympias in the affairs of Epirus some years before; and, secondly,
+the act of Olympias in inducing Ĉacides to come to Macedonia, to
+embark in her quarrel against Cassander there. Of course, since there
+were two lines of princes, both claiming the throne, no sovereign of
+either line could hold any thing more than a divided empire over the
+hearts of his subjects; and consequently, when Ĉacides left the
+kingdom to fight the battles of Olympias in Macedon, it was
+comparatively easy for the party opposed to him to effect a revolution
+and raise their own prince to the throne.
+
+The prince whom Olympias had originally made king of Epirus, to the
+exclusion of the claimant belonging to the other branch of the family,
+was her own brother. His name was Alexander. He was the son of
+Neoptolemus. The rival branch of the family were the children of
+Arymbas, the brother of Neoptolemus. This Alexander flourished at the
+same time as Alexander the Great, and in his character very much
+resembled his distinguished namesake. He commenced a career of
+conquest in Italy at the same time that his nephew embarked in his in
+Asia, and commenced it, too, under very similar circumstances. One
+went to the East, and another to the West, each determined to make
+himself master of the world. The Alexander of Macedon succeeded. The
+Alexander of Epirus failed. The one acquired, consequently, universal
+and perpetual renown, while the memory of the other has been almost
+entirely neglected and forgotten.
+
+One reason, unquestionably, for the difference in these results was
+the difference in the character of the enemies respectively against
+whom the two adventurers had to contend. Alexander of Epirus went
+westward into Italy, where he had to encounter the soldiery of the
+Romans--a soldiery of the most rugged, determined, and indomitable
+character. Alexander of Macedon, on the other hand, went to the East,
+where he found only Asiatic races to contend with, whose troops,
+though countless in numbers and magnificently appointed in respect to
+all the purposes of parade and display, were yet enervated with
+luxury, and wholly unable to stand against any energetic and
+determined foe. In fact, Alexander of Epirus used to say that the
+reason why his nephew, Alexander of Macedon, had succeeded, while he
+himself had failed, was because he himself had invaded countries
+peopled by _men_, while the Macedonian, in his Asiatic campaign, had
+encountered only women.
+
+However this may be, the campaign of Alexander of Epirus in Italy had
+a very disastrous termination. The occasion of his going there was a
+request which he had received from the inhabitants of Tarentum that he
+would come over and assist them in a war in which they were engaged
+with some neighboring tribes. Tarentum was a city situated toward the
+western shore of Italy. It was at the head of the deep bay called the
+Gulf of Tarentum, which bay occupies the hollow of the foot that the
+form of Italy presents to the eye as seen upon a map.[H] Tarentum was,
+accordingly, across the Adriatic Sea from Epirus. The distance was
+about two hundred miles. By taking a southerly route, and going up the
+Gulf of Tarentum, this distance might be traversed wholly by sea. A
+little to the north the Adriatic is narrow, the passage there being
+only about fifty miles across. To an expedition, however, taking this
+course, there would remain, after arriving on the Italian shore, fifty
+miles or more to be accomplished by land in order to reach Tarentum.
+
+[Footnote H: See map.]
+
+Before deciding to comply with the request of the Tarentines that he
+would come to their aid, Alexander sent to a celebrated oracle in
+Epirus, called the oracle of Dodona, to inquire whether it would be
+safe for him to undertake the expedition. To his inquiries the oracle
+gave him this for an answer:
+
+     "The waters of Acheron will be the cause of your death, and
+     Pandosia is the place where you will die."
+
+Alexander was greatly rejoiced at receiving this answer. Acheron was a
+stream of Epirus, and Pandosia was a town upon the banks of it. He
+understood the response to mean that he was fated to die quietly in
+his own country at some future period, probably a remote one, and that
+there was no danger in his undertaking the expedition to which he had
+been called. He accordingly set sail from Epirus, and landed in Italy;
+and there, believing that he was fated to die in Epirus, and not in
+Italy, he fought in every battle with the most desperate and reckless
+bravery, and achieved prodigies of valor. The possibility that there
+might be an Acheron and a Pandosia in Italy, as well as in Epirus, did
+not occur to his mind.
+
+For a time he was very successful in his career. He fought battles,
+gained victories, conquered cities, and established his dominion over
+quite an extended region. In order to hold what he had gained, he sent
+over a great number of hostages to Epirus, to be kept there as
+security for the continued submission of those whom he had subdued.
+These hostages consisted chiefly, as was usual in such cases, of
+children. At length, in the course of the war, an occasion arose in
+which it was necessary, for the protection of his troops, to encamp
+them on three hills which were situated very near to each other.
+These hills were separated by low interval lands and a small stream;
+but at the time when Alexander established his encampment, the stream
+constituted no impediment to free intercommunication between the
+different divisions of his army. There came on, however, a powerful
+rain; the stream overflowed its banks; the intervals were inundated.
+This enabled the enemy to attack two of Alexander's encampments, while
+it was utterly impossible for Alexander himself to render them any
+aid. The enemy made the attack, and were successful in it. The two
+camps were broken up, and the troops stationed in them were put to
+flight. Those that remained with Alexander, becoming discouraged by
+the hopeless condition in which they found themselves placed,
+mutinied, and sent to the camp of the enemy, offering to deliver up
+Alexander to them, dead or alive, as they should choose, on condition
+that they themselves might be allowed to return to their native land
+in peace. This proposal was accepted; but, before it was put in
+execution, Alexander, having discovered the plot, placed himself at
+the head of a determined and desperate band of followers, broke
+through the ranks of the enemies that surrounded him, and made his
+escape to a neighboring wood. From this wood he took a route which
+led him to a river, intending to pass the river by a bridge which he
+expected to find there, and then to destroy the bridge as soon as he
+had crossed it, so as to prevent his enemies from following him. By
+this means he hoped to make his way to some place of safety. He found,
+on arriving at the brink of the stream, that the bridge had been
+carried away by the inundation. He, however, pressed forward into the
+water on horseback, intending to ford the stream. The torrent was
+wild, and the danger was imminent, but Alexander pressed on. At length
+one of the attendants, seeing his master in imminent danger of being
+drowned, exclaimed aloud, "This cursed river! well is it named
+Acheron." The word Acheron, in the original language, signifies River
+of Sorrow.
+
+By this exclamation Alexander learned, for the first time, that the
+river he was crossing bore the same name with the one in Epirus, which
+he supposed had been referred to in the warning of the oracle. He was
+at once overwhelmed with consternation. He did not know whether to go
+forward or to return. The moment of indecision was suddenly ended by a
+loud outcry from his attendants, giving the alarm that the traitors
+were close upon him. Alexander then pushed forward across the water.
+He succeeded in gaining the bank; but as soon as he did so, a dart
+from one of his enemies reached him and killed him on the spot. His
+lifeless body fell back into the river, and was floated down the
+stream, until at length it reached the camp of the enemy, which
+happened to be on the bank of the stream below. Here it was drawn out
+of the water, and subjected to every possible indignity. The soldiers
+cut the body in two, and, sending one part to one of the cities as a
+trophy of their victory, they set up the other part in the camp as a
+target for the soldiers to shoot at with darts and javelins.
+
+At length a woman came into the camp, and, with earnest entreaties and
+many tears, begged the soldiers to give the mutilated corpse to her.
+Her object in wishing to obtain possession of it was, that she might
+send it home to Epirus, to the family of Alexander, and buy with it
+the liberty of her husband and her children, who were among the
+hostages which had been sent there. The soldiers acceded to this
+request, and the parts of the body having been brought together again,
+were taken to Epirus, and delivered to Olympias, by whom the remains
+were honorably interred. We must presume that the woman who sent them
+obtained the expected reward, in the return of her husband and
+children, though of this we are not expressly informed.
+
+Of course, the disastrous result of this most unfortunate expedition
+had the effect, in Epirus, of diminishing very much the popularity and
+the strength of that branch of the royal family--namely, the line of
+Neoptolemus--to which Alexander had belonged. Accordingly, instead of
+being succeeded by one of his brothers, Ĉacides, the father of
+Pyrrhus, who was the representative of the other line, was permitted
+quietly to assume the crown. It might have been expected that Olympias
+would have opposed his accession, as she was herself a princess of the
+rival line. She did not, however, do so. On the contrary, she gave him
+her support, and allied herself to him very closely; and he, on his
+part, became in subsequent years one of her most devoted adherents and
+friends.
+
+When Olympias was shut up in Pydna by the army of Cassander, as was
+related in the last chapter, and sent for Ĉacides to come to her aid,
+he immediately raised an army and marched to the frontier. He found
+the passes in the mountains which led from Epirus to Macedonia all
+strongly guarded, but he still determined to force his way through. He
+soon, however, began to observe marks of discontent and
+dissatisfaction among the officers of his army. These indications
+increased, until at length the disaffection broke out into open
+mutiny, as stated in the last chapter. Ĉacides then called his forces
+together, and gave orders that all who were unwilling to follow him
+into Macedon should be allowed freely to return. He did not wish, he
+said, that any should accompany him on such an expedition excepting
+those who went of their own free will. A considerable part of the army
+then returned, but, instead of repairing peaceably to their homes,
+they raised a general insurrection in Epirus, and brought the family
+of Neoptolemus again to the throne. A solemn decree of the state was
+passed, declaring that Ĉacides, in withdrawing from the kingdom, had
+forfeited his crown, and banishing him forever from the country. And
+as this revolution was intended to operate, not merely against Ĉacides
+personally, but against the branch of the royal family to which he
+belonged, the new government deemed it necessary, in order to finish
+their work and make it sure, that many of his relatives and friends,
+and especially his infant son and heir, should die. Several of the
+members of Ĉacides' family were accordingly killed, though the
+attendants in charge succeeded in saving the life of the child by a
+sudden flight.
+
+The escape was effected by the instrumentality of two of the officers
+of Ĉacides' household, named Androclides and Angelus. These men, as
+soon as the alarm was given, hurried the babe away, with only such
+nurses and other attendants as it was necessary to take with them. The
+child was still unweaned; and though those in charge made the number
+of attendants as small as possible, still the party were necessarily
+of such a character as to forbid any great rapidity of flight. A troop
+was sent in pursuit of them, and soon began to draw near. When
+Androclides found that his party would be overtaken by the troop, he
+committed the child to the care of three young men, bidding them to
+ride on with him, at their utmost speed, to a certain town in Macedon,
+called Megarĉ, where they thought he would be safe; and then he
+himself, and the rest of his company, turned back to meet the
+pursuers. They succeeded, partly by their representations and
+entreaties, and partly by such resistance and obstruction as it was
+in their power to make, in stopping the soldiers where they were. At
+length, having, though with some difficulty, succeeded in getting away
+from the soldiers, Androclides and Angelus rode on by secret ways till
+they overtook the three young men. They now began to think that the
+danger was over. At length, a little after sunset, they approached the
+town of Megarĉ. There was a river just before the town, which looked
+too rough and dreadful to be crossed. The party, however, advanced to
+the brink, and attempted to ford the stream, but they found it
+impossible. It was growing dark; the water of the river, having been
+swelled by rains, was very high and boisterous, and they found that
+they could not get over. At length they saw some of the people of the
+town coming down to the bank on the opposite side. They were in hopes
+that these people could render them some assistance in crossing the
+stream, and they began to call out to them for this purpose; but the
+stream ran so rapidly, and the roaring of the torrent was so great,
+that they could not make themselves heard. The distance was very
+inconsiderable, for the stream was not wide; but, though the party
+with Pyrrhus called aloud and earnestly, and made signs, holding up
+the child in their arms to let the people see him, they could not make
+themselves understood.
+
+At last, after spending some time in these fruitless efforts, one of
+the party who were with Pyrrhus thought of the plan of writing what
+they wished to say upon a piece of bark, and throwing it across the
+stream to those on the other side. They accordingly pulled off some
+bark from a young oak which was growing on a bank of the river, and
+succeeded in making characters upon it by means of the tongue of a
+buckle, sufficient to say that they had with them Pyrrhus, the young
+prince of Epirus, and that they were flying with him to save his life,
+and to implore the people on the other side to contrive some way to
+get them over the river. This piece of bark they then managed to throw
+across the stream. Some say that they rolled it around a javelin, and
+then gave the javelin to the strongest of their party to throw; others
+say that they attached it to a stone. In some way or other they
+contrived to give it a sufficient momentum to carry it across the
+water; and the people on the other side, when they obtained it, and
+read what was written upon it, were greatly excited by the tidings,
+and engaged at once with ardor and enthusiasm in efforts to save the
+child.
+
+They brought axes and began to cut down trees to make a raft. In due
+time the raft was completed; and, notwithstanding the darkness of the
+night, and the force and swiftness of the current of the stream, the
+party of fugitives succeeded in crossing upon it, and thus brought the
+child and all the attendants accompanying him safely over.
+
+The party with Pyrrhus did not intend to stop at Megarĉ. They did not
+consider it safe, in fact, for them to remain in any part of Macedon,
+not knowing what course the war between Polysperchon and Cassander
+would take there, or how the parties engaged in the contest might
+stand affected toward Pyrrhus. They determined, therefore, to press
+forward in their flight till they had passed through Macedon, and
+reached the country beyond.
+
+The country north of Macedon, on the western coast, the one in which
+they determined to seek refuge, was Illyria. The name of the King of
+Illyria was Glaucias. They had reason to believe that Glaucias would
+receive and protect the child, for he was connected by marriage with
+the royal family of Epirus, his wife, Beroa, being a princess of the
+line of Ĉacides. When the fugitives arrived at the court of Glaucias,
+they went to the palace, where they found Glaucias and Beroa; and,
+after telling the story of their danger and escape, they laid the
+child down as a suppliant at the feet of the king.
+
+Glaucias felt not a little embarrassed at the situation in which he
+was placed, and did not know what to do. He remained for a long time
+silent. At length, little Pyrrhus, who was all the while lying at his
+feet, began to creep closer toward him; and, finally, taking hold of
+the king's robe, he began to climb up by it, and attempted to get into
+his lap, looking up into the king's face, at the same time, with a
+countenance in which the expression of confidence and hope was mingled
+with a certain instinctive infantile fear. The heart of the king was
+so touched by this mute appeal, that he took the child up in his arms,
+dismissed at once all prudential considerations from his mind, and, in
+the end, delivered the boy to the queen, Beroa, directing her to bring
+him up with her own children.
+
+Cassander soon discovered the place of Pyrrhus's retreat, and he made
+great efforts to induce Glaucias to give him up. He offered Glaucias
+a very large sum of money if he would deliver Pyrrhus into his hands;
+but Glaucias refused to do it. Cassander would, perhaps, have made war
+upon Glaucias to compel him to comply with this requisition, but he
+was then fully occupied with the enemies that threatened him in Greece
+and Macedon. He did, subsequently, make an attempt to invade the
+dominions of Glaucias, and to get possession of the person of Pyrrhus,
+but the expedition failed, and after that the boy was allowed to
+remain in Illyria without any further molestation.
+
+Time passed on, until at length Pyrrhus was twelve years old. During
+this interval great changes took place in the affairs of Cassander in
+Macedon. At first he was very successful in his plans. He succeeded in
+expelling Polysperchon from the country, and in establishing himself
+as king. He caused Roxana and the young Alexander to be assassinated,
+as was stated in the last chapter, so as to remove out of the way the
+only persons who he supposed could ever advance any rival claims to
+the throne. For a time every thing went well and prosperously with
+him, but at length the tide of his affairs seemed to turn. A new enemy
+appeared against him in Asia--a certain distinguished commander,
+named Demetrius, who afterward became one of the most illustrious
+personages of his age. Just at this time, too, the King of Epirus,
+Alcetus, the prince of the family of Neoptolemus, who had reigned
+during Pyrrhus's exile in Illyria, died. Glaucias deemed this a
+favorable opportunity for restoring Pyrrhus to the throne. He
+accordingly placed himself at the head of an army, and marched into
+Epirus, taking the young prince with him. No effectual resistance was
+made, and Pyrrhus was crowned king. He was, of course, too young
+actually to reign, and a sort of regent was accordingly established in
+power, with authority to govern the country in the young king's name
+until he should come of age.
+
+This state of things could not be very stable. It endured about five
+years; and during this time Pyrrhus seemed to be very firmly
+established in power. The strength of his position, however, was more
+apparent than real; for the princes of the other branch of the family,
+who had been displaced by Pyrrhus's return to power, were of course
+discontented and restless all the time. They were continually forming
+plots and conspiracies, and were only waiting for an opportunity to
+effect another revolution. The opportunity at length came. One of the
+sons of Glaucias was to be married. Pyrrhus had been the companion and
+playmate of this prince during his residence in Illyria, and was, of
+course, invited to the wedding. Supposing that all was safe in his
+dominions, he accepted the invitation, and went to Illyria. While he
+was there, amusing himself in the festivities and rejoicings connected
+with the wedding, his rivals raised a rebellion, took possession of
+the government, and of all of Pyrrhus's treasures, killed or put to
+flight his partisans and friends, and raised a prince of the family of
+Neoptolemus to the throne. Pyrrhus found himself once more an exile.
+
+The revolution in Epirus was so complete, that, after careful
+consideration and inquiry, Pyrrhus could see, with the resources he
+had at his command, no hope of recovering his throne. But, being of an
+ambitious and restless spirit, he determined not to remain idle; and
+he concluded, therefore, to enter into the service of Demetrius in his
+war against Cassander. There were two considerations which led him to
+do this. In the first place, Cassander was his most formidable enemy,
+and the prospect of his being ultimately restored again to his throne
+would depend almost entirely, he well knew, upon the possibility of
+destroying, or at least curtailing, Cassander's power. Then, besides,
+Demetrius was especially his friend. The wife of Demetrius was
+Deidamia, the sister of Pyrrhus, so that Pyrrhus looked upon Demetrius
+as his natural ally. He accordingly offered to enter the service of
+Demetrius, and was readily received. In fact, notwithstanding his
+youth--for he was now only seventeen or eighteen years of
+age--Demetrius gave him a very important command in his army, and took
+great pains to instruct him in the art of war. It was not long before
+an opportunity was afforded to make trial of Pyrrhus's capacity as a
+soldier. A great battle was fought at Ipsus, in Asia Minor, between
+Demetrius on one side and Cassander on the other. Besides these two
+commanders, there were many princes and generals of the highest rank
+who took part in the contest as allies of the principal combatants,
+which had the effect of making the battle a very celebrated one, and
+of causing it to attract very strongly the attention of all mankind at
+the time when it occurred. The result of the contest was, on the
+whole, unfavorable to the cause of Demetrius. His troops, generally,
+were compelled to give way, though the division which Pyrrhus
+commanded retained their ground. Pyrrhus, in fact, acquired great
+renown by his courage and energy, and perhaps still more by his
+success on this occasion. Young as he was, Demetrius immediately gave
+him a new and very responsible command, and intrusted to him the
+charge of several very important expeditions and campaigns, in all of
+which the young soldier evinced such a degree of energy and courage,
+combined, too, with so much forethought, prudence, and military skill,
+as presaged very clearly his subsequent renown.
+
+At length an alliance was formed between Demetrius and Ptolemy, king
+of Egypt, and as security for the due execution of the obligations
+assumed by Demetrius in the treaty which they made, Ptolemy demanded a
+hostage. Pyrrhus offered to go himself to Egypt in this capacity.
+Ptolemy accepted him, and Pyrrhus was accordingly taken in one of
+Ptolemy's ships across the Mediterranean to Alexandria.
+
+In Egypt the young prince was, of course, an object of universal
+attention and regard. He was tall and handsome in person, agreeable in
+manners, and amiable and gentle in disposition. His royal rank, the
+fame of the exploits which he had performed, the misfortunes of his
+early years, and the strange and romantic adventures through which he
+had passed, all conspired to awaken a deep interest in his favor at
+the court of Ptolemy. The situation of a hostage, too, is always one
+which strongly attracts the sympathy and kind feelings of those who
+hold him in custody. A captive is regarded in some sense as an enemy;
+and though his hard lot may awaken a certain degree of pity and
+commiseration, still the kind feeling is always modified by the fact
+that the object of it, after all, though disarmed and helpless, is
+still a foe. A hostage, however, is a friend. He comes as security for
+the faithfulness of a friend and an ally, so that the sympathy and
+interest which are felt for him as an exile from his native land, are
+heightened by the circumstance that his position makes him naturally
+an object of friendly regard.
+
+The attachment which soon began to be felt for Pyrrhus in the court of
+Ptolemy was increased by the excellent conduct and demeanor which he
+exhibited while he was there. He was very temperate and moderate in
+his pleasures, and upright and honorable in all his doings. In a
+word, he made himself a general favorite; and after a year or two he
+married Antigone, a princess of the royal family. From being a hostage
+he now became a guest, and shortly afterward Ptolemy fitted out an
+expedition to proceed to Epirus and restore him to his throne. On
+arriving in Epirus, Pyrrhus found every thing favorable to the success
+of his plans. The people of the country had become discontented with
+the government of the reigning king, and were very willing to receive
+Pyrrhus in his place. The revolution was easily effected, and Pyrrhus
+was thus once more restored to his throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WARS IN MACEDON.
+
+B.C. 295-288
+
+Pyrrhus is restored to his throne.--A
+celebration.--Festivities.--Gelon's gift.--Gelon and Myrtilus form
+a plot.--The cup-bearer pretends to join the plot.--Conversation
+overheard in a very singular manner.--Quarrel between Cassander's
+heirs.--Pyrrhus takes his first independent command.--Anecdotes of
+Pyrrhus.--His popularity.--Pyrrhus detects a forgery.--Plan of the
+forgers.--The war is ended.--Pyrrhus returns home.--Interview with
+Demetrius on the frontier.--Plots and counterplots.--Demetrius
+triumphs.--Relations between Demetrius and Pyrrhus.--War breaks out
+between them.--Thebes.--Recklessness and cruelty of Demetrius.--War
+between Pyrrhus and Demetrius.--Pantauchus.--The single
+combat.--Pyrrhus wounded.--Pantauchus narrowly escapes
+death.--Demetrius is hated by his subjects.--His famous garment.--It
+is left unfinished.--Pyrrhus's wives.--His motive for marrying
+Lanassa.--Lanassa is discontented, and deserts Pyrrhus.--War
+protracted for many years.
+
+
+The prince whom Pyrrhus displaced from the throne of Epirus on his
+return from Egypt, as narrated in the last chapter, was, of course, of
+the family of Neoptolemus. His own name was Neoptolemus, and he was
+the second son of the Neoptolemus who gave his name to the line.
+
+Pyrrhus exercised an uncommon degree of moderation in his victory over
+his rival; for, instead of taking his life, or even banishing him from
+the kingdom, he treated him with respectful consideration, and
+offered, very generously, as it would seem, to admit him to a share of
+the regal power. Neoptolemus accepted this proposal, and the two kings
+reigned conjointly for a considerable time. A difficulty, however,
+before long occurred, which led to an open quarrel, the result of
+which was that Neoptolemus was slain. The circumstances, as related by
+the historians of the time, were as follows:
+
+It seems that it was the custom of the people of Epirus to celebrate
+an annual festival at a certain city in the kingdom, for the purpose
+chiefly of renewing the oaths of allegiance on the one part, and of
+fealty on the other, between the people and the king. Of course, there
+were a great many games and spectacles, as well as various religious
+rites and ceremonies, connected with this celebration; and among other
+usages which prevailed, it was the custom for the people to bring
+presents to the king on the occasion. When the period for this
+celebration recurred, after Pyrrhus's restoration to the throne, both
+Pyrrhus and Neoptolemus, each attended by his own particular followers
+and friends, repaired to the city where the celebration was to be
+held, and commenced the festivities.
+
+Among other donations which were made to Pyrrhus at this festival, he
+received a present of two yoke of oxen from a certain man named Gelon,
+who was a particular friend of Neoptolemus. It appears that it was the
+custom for the kings to dispose of many of the presents which they
+received on these occasions from the people of the country, by giving
+them to their attendants and the officers of their households; and a
+certain cup-bearer, named Myrtilus, begged Pyrrhus to give these oxen
+to him. Pyrrhus declined this request, but afterward gave the oxen to
+another man. Myrtilus was offended at this, and uttered privately many
+murmurings and complaints. Gelon, perceiving this, invited Myrtilus to
+sup with him. In the course of the supper, he attempted to excite
+still more the ill-will which Myrtilus felt toward Pyrrhus; and
+finding that he appeared to succeed in doing this, he finally proposed
+to Myrtilus to espouse the cause of Neoptolemus, and join in a plot
+for poisoning Pyrrhus. His office as cup-bearer would enable him,
+Gelon said, to execute such a design without difficulty or danger,
+and, by doing it, he would so commend himself to the regard of
+Neoptolemus, that he might rely on the most ample and abundant
+rewards. Myrtilus appeared to receive these proposals with great
+favor; he readily promised to embark in the plot, and promised to
+fulfill the part assigned him in the execution of it. When the proper
+time arrived, after the conclusion of the supper, Myrtilus took leave
+of Gelon, and, proceeding directly to Pyrrhus, he related to him all
+that had occurred.
+
+Pyrrhus did not take any rash or hasty measures in the emergency, for
+he knew very well that if Gelon were to be then charged with the
+crime which he had proposed to commit, he would deny having ever
+proposed it, and that then there would be only the word of Myrtilus
+against that of Gelon, and that impartial men would have no positive
+means of deciding between them. He thought, therefore, very wisely,
+that, before taking any decided steps, it would be necessary to obtain
+additional proof that Gelon had really made the proposal. He
+accordingly directed Myrtilus to continue to pretend that he favored
+the plan, and to propose to Gelon to invite another cup-bearer, named
+Alexicrates, to join the plot. Alexicrates was to be secretly
+instructed to appear ready to enter into the conspiracy when he should
+be called upon, and thus, as Pyrrhus expected, the testimony of two
+witnesses would be obtained to Gelon's guilt.
+
+It happened, however, that the necessary evidence against Gelon was
+furnished without a resort to this measure; for when Gelon reported to
+Neoptolemus that Myrtilus had acceded to his proposal to join him in a
+plan for removing Pyrrhus out of the way, Neoptolemus was so much
+overjoyed at the prospect of recovering the throne to his own family
+again, that he could not refrain from revealing the plan to certain
+members of the family, and, among others, to his sister Cadmia. At the
+time when he thus discovered the design to Cadmia, he supposed that
+nobody was within hearing. The conversation took place in an apartment
+where he had been supping with Cadmia, and it happened that there was
+a servant-woman lying upon a couch in the corner of the room at the
+time, with her face to the wall, apparently asleep. She was, in
+reality, not asleep, and she overheard all the conversation. She lay
+still, however, and did not speak a word; but the next day she went to
+Antigone, the wife of Pyrrhus, and communicated to her all that she
+had heard. Pyrrhus now considered the evidence that Neoptolemus was
+plotting his destruction as complete, and he determined to take
+decisive measures to prevent it. He accordingly invited Neoptolemus to
+a banquet. Neoptolemus, suspecting nothing, came, and Pyrrhus slew him
+at the table. Henceforward Pyrrhus reigned in Epirus alone.
+
+Pyrrhus was now about twenty-three years of age, and inasmuch as, with
+all his moderation in respect to the pursuit of youthful pleasures, he
+was of a very ambitious and aspiring disposition, he began to form
+schemes and plans for the enlargement of his power. An opportunity
+was soon afforded him to enter upon a military career. Cassander, who
+had made himself King of Macedon in the manner already described, died
+about the time that Pyrrhus established himself on his throne in
+Epirus. He left two sons, Alexander and Antipater. These brothers
+immediately quarreled, each claiming the inheritance of their father's
+crown. Antipater proved to be the strongest in the struggle; and
+Alexander, finding that he could not stand his ground against his
+brother without aid, sent messengers at the same time to Pyrrhus, and
+also to Demetrius, in Thessaly, calling upon both to come to his
+assistance. They both determined to do so. Demetrius, however, was
+engaged in some enterprises which detained him for a time, but Pyrrhus
+immediately put himself at the head of his army, and prepared to cross
+the frontier.
+
+The commencement of this march marks an important era in the life of
+Pyrrhus, for it was now for the first time that he had an army wholly
+under his command. In all the former military operations in which he
+had been engaged, he had been only a general, acting under the orders
+of his superiors. Now he was an independent sovereign, leading forth
+his own troops to battle, and responsible to no one for the manner in
+which he exercised his power. The character which he displayed in this
+new capacity was such as very soon to awaken the admiration of all his
+troops, and to win their affection in a very strong degree. His fine
+personal appearance, his great strength and dexterity in all martial
+exercises, his kind consideration for his soldiers, the systematic and
+skillful manner in which all his arrangements were made, and a certain
+nobleness and generosity of character which he displayed on many
+occasions, all combined to make him an object of universal favor and
+regard.
+
+Various anecdotes were related of him in camp, which evinced the
+superiority of his mind, and that peculiar sense of confidence and
+strength which so often accompanies greatness. At one time a person
+was accused of being disaffected toward him, and of being in the habit
+of speaking evil of him on all occasions; and some of his counselors
+proposed that the offender should be banished. "No," said Pyrrhus;
+"let him stay here, and speak evil of me only to a few, instead of
+being sent away to ramble about and give me a bad character to all the
+world." At another time, some persons, when half intoxicated, at a
+convivial entertainment, had talked very freely in censure of
+something which Pyrrhus had done. They were called to account for it;
+and when asked by Pyrrhus whether it was true that they had really
+said such things, they replied that it was true. "And there is no
+doubt," they added, "that we should have said things a great deal
+worse if we had more wine." Pyrrhus laughed at this reply, and
+dismissed the culprits without any punishment. These, and other
+similar indications of the magnanimity which marked the general's
+character, made a great and very favorable impression upon the minds
+of all under his command.
+
+Possessing thus, in a very high degree, the confidence and affection
+of his troops, Pyrrhus was able to inspire them with his own ardor and
+impetuosity when they came to engage in battle, and his troops were
+victorious in almost every conflict. Wherever he went, he reduced the
+country into subjection to Alexander, and drove Antipater before him.
+He left garrisons of his own in the towns which he captured, so as to
+make his conquests secure, and in a short time the prospect seemed
+certain that Antipater would be expelled from the country, and
+Alexander placed upon the throne.
+
+In this crisis of their affairs, some of the allies of Antipater
+conceived the design of circumventing their enemy by artifice, since
+it appeared that he was so superior to them in force. They knew how
+strong was his feeling of reverence and regard for Ptolemy, the King
+of Egypt, his father-in-law, and they accordingly forged a letter to
+him in Ptolemy's name, enjoining him to make peace with Antipater, and
+withdraw from Macedon. Antipater, the letter said, was willing to pay
+him three hundred talents of silver in consideration of his doing so,
+and the letter strongly urged him to accede to this offer, and
+evacuate the kingdom.
+
+It was much less difficult to practice a successful deception of this
+kind in ancient days than it is now, for then writing was usually
+performed by scribes trained for the purpose, and there was therefore
+seldom any thing in the handwriting of a communication to determine
+the question of its authenticity. Pyrrhus, however, detected the
+imposition which was attempted in this case the moment that he opened
+the epistle. It began with the words, "King Ptolemy to King Pyrrhus,
+greeting;" whereas the genuine letters of Ptolemy to his son-in-law
+were always commenced thus: "The father to his son, greeting."
+
+Pyrrhus upbraided the contrivers of this fraud in severe terms for
+their attempt to deceive him. Still, he entertained the proposition
+that they made, and some negotiations were entered into, with a view
+to an amicable settlement of the dispute. In the end, however, the
+negotiations failed, and the war was continued until Alexander was
+established on his throne. Pyrrhus then returned to his own kingdom.
+He received, in reward for his services in behalf of Alexander, a
+grant of that part of the Macedonian territory which lies upon the
+coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of Epirus; and thus peace was
+restored, and all things seemed permanently settled.
+
+It will be recollected, perhaps, by the reader, that at the time that
+Alexander sent for Pyrrhus to assist him, he had also sent for
+Demetrius, who had been in former years the ally and friend of
+Pyrrhus. In fact, Deidamia, the sister of Pyrrhus, was Demetrius's
+wife. Demetrius had been engaged with the affairs of his own
+government at the time that he received this message, and was not then
+ready to grant the desired aid. But after a time, when he had settled
+his own affairs, he placed himself at the head of an army and went to
+Macedon. It was now, however, too late, and Alexander was sorry to
+learn that he was coming. He had already parted with a considerable
+portion of his kingdom to repay Pyrrhus for his aid, and he feared
+that Demetrius, if he were allowed to enter the kingdom, would not he
+satisfied without a good part of the remainder.
+
+He accordingly advanced to meet Demetrius at the frontier. Here, at an
+interview which he held with him, he thanked him for his kindness in
+coming to his aid, but said that his assistance would now not be
+required. Demetrius said that it was very well, and so prepared to
+return. Alexander, however, as Demetrius afterward alleged, did not
+intend to allow him to withdraw, but formed a plan to murder him at a
+supper to which he designed to invite him. Demetrius avoided the fate
+which was intended for him by going away unexpectedly from the supper
+before Alexander had time to execute his plan. Afterward, Demetrius
+invited Alexander to a supper. Alexander came unarmed and unprotected,
+in order to set his guest an example of unconcern, in hopes that
+Demetrius would come equally defenseless to a second entertainment
+which he had prepared for him the next day, and at which he intended
+to adopt such measures that his guest should not be able by any
+possibility to escape. Demetrius, however, did not wait for the second
+attempt, but ordered his servants to kill Alexander, and all who were
+with him, while they were at _his_ table. One of Alexander's men, when
+the attack was made upon them, said, as the soldiers of Demetrius were
+stabbing him, "You are too quick for us by just one day."
+
+The Macedonian troops, whom Alexander had brought with him to the
+frontier, when they heard of the murder of their king, expected that
+Demetrius would come upon them at once, with all his army, and cut
+them to pieces. But, instead of this, Demetrius sent them word that he
+did not intend them any harm, but wished, on the contrary, for an
+opportunity to explain and justify to them what he had done. He
+accordingly met them, and made a set harangue, in which he related the
+circumstances which led him to take the life of Alexander, and
+justified it as an act of self-defense. This discourse was received
+with great applause, and the Macedonian soldiers immediately hailed
+Demetrius king.
+
+How far there was any truth in the charge which Demetrius brought
+against Alexander of intending to kill him, it is, of course,
+impossible to say. There was no evidence of the fact, nor could there
+be any evidence but such as Demetrius might easily fabricate. It is
+the universal justification that is offered in every age by the
+perpetrators of political crimes, that they were compelled to perform
+themselves the deeds of violence and cruelty for which they are
+condemned, in order to anticipate and preclude the performance of
+similar deeds on the part of their enemies.
+
+Demetrius and Pyrrhus were now neighboring kings, and, from the
+friendly relations which had subsisted between them for so many years,
+it might, perhaps, be supposed that the two kingdoms which they
+respectively ruled would enjoy, from this time, a permanent and
+settled peace, and maintain the most amicable intercourse with each
+other. But the reverse was the fact. Contentions and quarrels arose on
+the frontiers. Each nation complained that the borderers of the other
+made inroads over the frontier. Demetrius and Pyrrhus gradually got
+drawn into these disputes. Unfortunately for the peace of the two
+countries, Deidamia died, and the strong band of union which she had
+formed between the two reigning families was sundered. In a word, it
+was not long before Pyrrhus and Demetrius came to open war.
+
+The war, however, which thus broke out between Demetrius and Pyrrhus
+did not arise wholly from accidental collisions occurring on the
+frontiers. Demetrius was a man of the most violent and insatiable
+ambition, and wholly unscrupulous in respect to the means of
+gratifying the passion. Before his difficulties with Pyrrhus began, he
+had made expeditions southwardly into Greece, and had finally
+succeeded in reducing a large portion of that country to his sway. He,
+however, at one time, in the course of his campaigns in Greece,
+narrowly escaped a very sudden termination of his career. He was
+besieging Thebes, one of the principal cities of Greece, and one which
+was obstinately determined not to submit to him. In fact, the
+inhabitants of the city had given him some special cause of offense,
+so that he was excessively angry with them, and though for a long time
+he made very little progress in prosecuting the siege, he was
+determined not to give up the attempt. At one period, he was himself
+called away from the place for a time, to engage in some military
+duty demanding his attention in Thessaly, and during his absence he
+left his son to conduct the siege. On his return to Thebes, he found
+that, through the energetic and obstinate resistance which was made by
+the people of Thebes, great numbers of his men were continually
+falling--so much so, that his son began to remonstrate with him
+against allowing so great and so useless a slaughter to go on.
+"Consider," said he, "why you should expose so many of your valiant
+soldiers to such sure destruction, when--"
+
+Here Demetrius, in a passion, interrupted him, saying, "Give yourself
+no concern about how many of the soldiers are killed. The more there
+are killed, the fewer you will have to provide subsistence for!"
+
+The brutal recklessness, however, which Demetrius thus evinced in
+respect to the slaughter of his troops was not attended, as such a
+feeling often is, with any cowardly unwillingness to expose himself to
+danger. He mingled personally in the contests that took place about
+the walls of the city, and hazarded his own life as freely as he
+required his soldiers to hazard theirs. At length, on one occasion, a
+javelin thrown from the wall struck him in the neck, and, passing
+directly through, felled him to the ground. He was taken up for dead,
+and borne to his tent. It was there found, on examination, that no
+great artery or other vital part had been wounded, and yet in a very
+short time a burning fever supervened, and for some time the life of
+Demetrius was in imminent danger. He still, however, refused to
+abandon the siege. At length, he recovered from the effects of his
+wound, and, in the end, the city surrendered.
+
+It was on the return of Demetrius to Macedon, after the close of his
+successful campaign in Greece, that the war between him and Pyrrhus
+broke out. As soon as it appeared that actual hostilities were
+inevitable, both parties collected an army and prepared for the
+conflict.
+
+They marched to meet each other, Pyrrhus from Epirus, and Demetrius
+from Macedon. It happened, however, that they took different routes,
+and thus passed each other on the frontier. Demetrius entered Epirus,
+and found the whole country open and defenseless before him, for the
+military force of the country was all with Pyrrhus, and had passed
+into Macedon by another way. Demetrius advanced accordingly, as far as
+he chose, into Pyrrhus's territories, capturing and plundering every
+thing that came in his way.
+
+Pyrrhus himself, on the other hand, met with quite a different
+reception. Demetrius had not taken all his army with him, but had left
+a large detachment under the command of a general named Pantauchus, to
+defend the country during his absence. Pyrrhus encountered Pantauchus
+as he entered Macedon, and gave him battle. A very hard-fought and
+obstinate conflict ensued. In the course of it, Pantauchus challenged
+Pyrrhus to single combat. He was one of the most distinguished of
+Demetrius's generals, being celebrated above all the officers of the
+army for his dexterity, strength, and courage; and, as he was a man of
+very high and ambitious spirit, he was greatly pleased with the
+opportunity of distinguishing himself that was now before him. He
+conceived that a personal encounter with so great a commander as
+Pyrrhus would add very much to his renown.
+
+Pyrrhus accepted the challenge. The preliminary arrangements were
+made. The combatants came out into the field, and, as they advanced to
+the encounter, they hurled their javelins at each other before they
+met, and then rushed forward to a close and mortal combat with swords.
+The fight continued for a long time. Pyrrhus himself received a wound;
+but, notwithstanding this, he succeeded in bringing his antagonist to
+the ground, and would have killed him, had not the friends of
+Pantauchus rushed on and rescued him from the danger. A general battle
+between the two armies ensued, in which Pyrrhus was victorious. The
+army of Pantauchus was totally routed, and five thousand men were
+taken prisoners.
+
+The Macedonian troops whom Pyrrhus thus defeated, instead of being
+maddened with resentment and anger against their conqueror, as it
+might have been expected they would be, were struck with a sentiment
+of admiration for him. They applauded his noble appearance and bearing
+on the field, and the feats of courage and strength which he
+performed. There was a certain stern and lofty simplicity in his air
+and demeanor which reminded them, as they said, of Alexander the
+Great, whom many of the old soldiers remembered. They compared Pyrrhus
+in these respects with Demetrius, their own sovereign, greatly to the
+disadvantage of the latter; and so strong was the feeling which was
+thus excited in Pyrrhus's favor, that it was thought at the time that,
+if Pyrrhus had advanced toward the capital with a view to the conquest
+of the country, the whole army would have gone over at once to his
+side, and that he might have made himself king of Macedon without any
+further difficulty or trouble. He did not do this, however, but
+withdrew again to Epirus when Demetrius came back into Macedonia. The
+Macedonians were by no means pleased to see Demetrius return.
+
+In fact, Demetrius was beginning to be generally hated by all his
+subjects, being regarded by them all as a conceited and cruel tyrant.
+He was not only unscrupulously ambitious in respect to the dominions
+of his neighbors, but he was unjust and overbearing in his treatment
+of his own friends. Pyrrhus, on the other hand, was kind and courteous
+to his army, both to the officers and soldiers. He lived in habits of
+great simplicity, and shared the hardships as well as the toils of
+those who were under his command. He gave them, too, their share of
+the glory which he acquired, by attributing his success to their
+courage and fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant campaign in
+Macedon, some persons in his army compared his progress to the flight
+of an eagle. "If I am an eagle," said he in reply, "I owe it to you,
+for you are the wings by means of which I have risen so high."
+
+Demetrius, on the other hand, treated the officers and men under his
+command with a species of haughtiness and disdain. He seemed to regard
+them as very far beneath him, and to take pleasure in making them feel
+his vast superiority. He was vain and foppish in his dress, expended
+great sums in the adornment of his person, decorating his robes and
+vestments, and even his shoes, with gold and precious stones. In fact,
+he caused the manufacture of a garment to be commenced which he
+intended should outvie in magnificence and in costly adornments all
+that had ever before been fabricated. This garment was left unfinished
+at the time of his death, and his successors did not attempt to
+complete it. They preserved it, however, for a very long time as a
+curiosity, and as a memorial of vanity and folly.
+
+Demetrius, too, was addicted to many vices, being accustomed to the
+unrestrained indulgence of his appetites and propensities in every
+form. It was in part owing to these excesses that he became so hateful
+in manners and character, the habitual indulgence of his animal
+appetites and propensities having had the effect of making him morose
+and capricious in mind.
+
+The hostility between Pyrrhus and Demetrius was very much increased
+and aggravated at one time by a difficulty in which a lady was
+concerned. Antigone, the first wife of Pyrrhus, died, and after her
+death Pyrrhus married two or three other wives, according to the
+custom which prevailed in those days among the Asiatic kings. Among
+these wives was Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, the king of
+Syracuse. The marriage of Pyrrhus with Antigone was apparently
+prompted by affection; but his subsequent alliances seem to have been
+simple measures of governmental policy, designed only to aid him in
+extending his dominions or strengthening his power. His inducement for
+marrying Lanassa was to obtain the island of Corcyra, which the King
+of Syracuse, who held that island at that time under his dominion, was
+willing to give to his daughter as her dowry. Now the island of
+Corcyra, as will be seen from the map, was off the coast of Epirus,
+and very near, so that the possession of it would add very
+considerably to the value of Pyrrhus's dominion.
+
+Lanassa was not happy as Pyrrhus's bride. In fact, to have been
+married for the sake of an island brought as dowry, and to be only one
+of several wives after all, would not seem to be circumstances
+particularly encouraging in respect to the promise of conjugal bliss.
+Lanassa complained that she was neglected; that the other wives
+received attentions which were not accorded to her. At last, when she
+found that she could endure the vexations and trials of her condition
+no longer, she left her husband and went back to Corcyra, and then
+sent an invitation to Demetrius to come and take possession of the
+island, and marry her. In a word, she divorced herself and resumed
+possession of her dowry, and considered herself at liberty to dispose
+of both her person and her property anew.
+
+Demetrius accepted the offer which was made him. He went to Corcyra,
+married Lanassa, and then, leaving a garrison to protect the island
+from any attempt which Pyrrhus might make to recover it, he went back
+to Macedon. Of course, after this transaction, Pyrrhus was more
+incensed against Demetrius than ever.
+
+Very soon after this Pyrrhus had an opportunity to revenge himself for
+the injury which Demetrius had done him. Demetrius was sick; he had
+brought on a fever by excessive drinking. Pyrrhus determined to take
+advantage of the occasion to make a new invasion of Macedonia. He
+accordingly crossed the frontier at the head of a numerous army.
+Demetrius, sick as he was, mounted on horseback, and put himself at
+the head of his forces to go out to meet his enemy. Nothing important
+resulted from this campaign; but, after some ineffectual attempts at
+conquest, Pyrrhus returned to his own country.
+
+In this way the war between Pyrrhus and Demetrius was protracted for
+many years, with varying success, one party being sometimes
+triumphant, and sometimes the other. At last, at a time when the tide
+of fortune seemed inclined to turn against Pyrrhus, some circumstances
+occurred which were the means of attracting his attention strongly in
+another direction, and ended in introducing him to a new and very
+brilliant career in an altogether different region. These
+circumstances, and the train of events to which they led, will form
+the subject of the following chapter.
+
+[Illustration: MAP--GRECIAN EMPIRE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WAR IN ITALY.
+
+B.C. 280
+
+The grand expedition into Italy.--The dominion of the Romans.--The
+Tarentines.--Various parties formed at Tarentum.--Boisterous
+meetings.--Meton's artifice.--Meton succeeds in accomplishing his
+aim.--Pyrrhus is invited to come to Tarentum.--Great numbers of
+volunteers.--Cineas.--Cineas propounds questions to Pyrrhus.--Pyrrhus
+explains his designs and plans.--The opinion of Cineas on the
+subject.--Pyrrhus sets sail.--His fleet and army.--Pyrrhus narrowly
+escapes death by shipwreck.--He establishes himself at Tarentum.--His
+energy.--Pyrrhus adopts very decisive measures.--The Tarentines were
+Greeks in origin.--Troops come in slowly.--Lĉvinus.--Pyrrhus sees a
+Roman encampment.--The Romans attack Pyrrhus by crossing the
+river.--Extraordinary spectacle.--Pyrrhus conspicuous.--Conversation
+between Pyrrhus and Leonatus.--Pyrrhus in dreadful danger.--The
+elephants.--Trophies borne through the field.--Pyrrhus shows
+himself.--The Romans defeated.
+
+
+The grand undertaking in which Pyrrhus now engaged, as indicated in
+the last chapter, the one in which he acquired such great renown, was
+an expedition into Italy against the Romans. The immediate occasion of
+his embarking in this enterprise was an invitation which he received
+from the inhabitants of Tarentum to come to their aid.[I] His
+predecessor, Alexander, had been drawn into Italy precisely in the
+same way; and we might have supposed that Pyrrhus would have been
+warned by the terrible fate which Alexander met with not to follow in
+his steps. But military men are never deterred from dangerous
+undertakings by the disasters which others have encountered in
+attempting them before. In fact, perhaps Pyrrhus was the more eager to
+try his fortune in this field on account of the calamitous result of
+his uncle's campaign. He was unwilling that his kingdom of Epirus
+should rest under the discredit of a defeat, and he was fired with a
+special ambition to show that he could overcome and triumph where
+others had been overborne and destroyed.
+
+[Footnote I: See map.]
+
+The dominion of the Romans had extended itself before this time over a
+considerable portion of Italy, though Tarentum, and the region of
+country dependent upon it, had not yet been subdued. The Romans were,
+however, now gradually making their way toward the eastern and
+southern part of Italy, and they had at length advanced to the
+frontiers of the Tarentine territory; and having been met and resisted
+there by the Tarentine troops, a collision ensued, which was followed
+by an open and general war. In the struggle, the Tarentines found that
+they could not maintain their ground against the Roman soldiery. They
+were gradually driven back; and now the city itself was in very
+imminent danger.
+
+The difficulties in which the Tarentines were placed were greatly
+increased by the fact that there was no well-organized and stable
+government ruling in the city. The government was a sort of democracy
+in its form, and in its action it seems to have been a democracy of a
+very turbulent character--the questions of public policy being
+debated and decided in assemblies of the people, where it would seem
+that there was very little of parliamentary law to regulate the
+proceedings; and now the dangers which threatened them on the approach
+of the Romans distracted their councils more than ever, and produced,
+in fact, universal disorder and confusion throughout the city.
+
+Various parties were formed, each of which had its own set of measures
+to urge and insist upon. Some were for submitting to the Romans, and
+thus allowing themselves to be incorporated in the Roman commonwealth;
+others were for persevering in their resistance to the last extremity.
+In the midst of these disputes, it was suggested by some of the
+counselors that the reason why they had not been able to maintain
+their ground against their enemies was, that they had no commander of
+sufficient predominance in rank and authority to concentrate their
+forces, and employ them in an efficient and advantageous manner; and
+they proposed that, in order to supply this very essential deficiency,
+Pyrrhus should be invited to come and take the command of their
+forces. This plan was strongly opposed by the more considerate and
+far-sighted of the people; for they well knew that when a foreign
+power was called in, in such a manner, as a temporary friend and ally,
+it almost always became, in the end, a permanent master. The mass of
+the people of the city, however, were so excited by the imminence of
+the immediate peril, that it was impossible to impress them with any
+concern for so remote and uncertain a danger, and it was determined
+that Pyrrhus should be called.
+
+It was said that the meetings which were held by the Tarentines while
+these proceedings were in progress, were so boisterous and disorderly
+that, as often happens in democratic assemblies, the voices of those
+who were in the minority could not be heard; and that at last one of
+the public men, who was opposed to the plan of sending the invitation
+to Pyrrhus, resorted to a singular device in order to express his
+opinion. The name of this personage was Meton. The artifice which he
+adopted was this: he disguised himself as a strolling mountebank and
+musician, and then, pretending to be half intoxicated, he came into
+the assembly with a garland upon his head, a torch in his hand, and
+with a woman playing on a sort of flute to accompany him. On seeing
+him enter the assembly, the people all turned their attention toward
+him. Some laughed, some clapped their hands, and others called out to
+him to give them a song. Meton prepared to do so; and when, after much
+difficulty, silence was at length obtained, Meton came forward into
+the space that had been made for him, and, throwing off his disguise,
+he called out aloud,
+
+"Men of Tarentum! You do well in calling for a song, and in enjoying
+the pleasures of mirth and merriment while you may; for I warn you
+that you will see very little like mirth or merriment in Tarentum
+after Pyrrhus comes."
+
+The astonishment which this sudden turn in the affair occasioned, was
+succeeded for a moment by a murmur of assent, which seemed to pass
+through the assembly; the good sense of many of the spectators being
+surprised, as it were, into an admission that the sentiment which
+Meton had so surreptitiously found means to express to them was true.
+This pause was, however, but momentary. A scene of violent excitement
+and confusion ensued, and Meton and the woman were expelled from the
+meeting without any ceremony.
+
+The resolution of sending for Pyrrhus was confirmed, and embassadors
+were soon afterward dispatched to Epirus. The message which they
+communicated to Pyrrhus on their arrival was, that the Tarentines,
+being engaged in a war with the Romans, invited Pyrrhus to come and
+take command of their armies. They had _troops_ enough, they said, and
+all necessary provisions and munitions of war. All that they now
+required was an able and efficient general; and if Pyrrhus would come
+over to them and assume the command, they would at once put him at the
+head of an army of twenty thousand horse and three hundred and fifty
+thousand foot soldiers.
+
+It seems incredible that a state should have attained to such a degree
+of prosperity and power as to be able to bring such a force as this
+into the field, while under the government of men who, when convened
+for the consideration of questions of public policy in a most
+momentous crisis, were capable of having their attention drawn off
+entirely from the business before them by the coming in of a party of
+strolling mountebanks and players. Yet such is the account recorded by
+one of the greatest historians of ancient times.
+
+Pyrrhus was, of course, very much elated at receiving this
+communication. The tidings, too, produced great excitement among all
+the people of Epirus. Great numbers immediately began to offer
+themselves as volunteers to accompany the expedition. Pyrrhus
+determined at once to embark in the enterprise, and he commenced
+making preparations for it on a very magnificent scale; for,
+notwithstanding the assurance which the Tarentines had given him that
+they had a very large body of men already assembled, Pyrrhus seems to
+have thought it best to take with him a force of his own.
+
+As soon as a part of his army was ready, he sent them forward under
+the command of a distinguished general and minister of state, named
+Cineas. Cineas occupied a very high position in Pyrrhus's court. He
+was a Thessalian by birth. He had been educated in Greece, under
+Demosthenes, and he was a very accomplished scholar and orator as well
+as statesman. Pyrrhus had employed him in embassies and negotiations
+of various kinds from time to time, and Cineas had always discharged
+these trusts in a very able and satisfactory manner. In fact, Pyrrhus,
+with his customary courtesy in acknowledging his obligations to those
+whom he employed, used to say that Cineas had gained him more cities
+by his address than he had ever conquered for himself by his arms.
+
+Cineas, it was said, was, in the outset, not much in favor of this
+expedition into Italy. The point of view in which he regarded such an
+enterprise was shown in a remarkable conversation which he held with
+Pyrrhus while the preparations were going on. He took occasion to
+introduce the subject one day, when Pyrrhus was for a short period at
+leisure in the midst of his work, by saying,
+
+"The Romans are famed as excellent soldiers, and they have many
+warlike nations in alliance with them. But suppose we succeed in our
+enterprise and conquer them, what use shall we make of our victory?"
+
+"Your question answers itself," replied the king. "The Romans are the
+predominant power in Italy. If they are once subdued, there will be
+nothing in Italy that can withstand us; we can go on immediately and
+make ourselves masters of the whole country."
+
+After a short pause, during which he seemed to be reflecting on the
+career of victory which Pyrrhus was thus opening to view, Cineas
+added,
+
+"And after we have conquered Italy, what shall we do next?"
+
+"Why, there is Sicily very near," replied Pyrrhus, "a very fruitful
+and populous island, and one which we shall then very easily be able
+to subdue. It is now in a very unsettled state, and could do nothing
+effectual to resist us."
+
+"I think that is very true," said Cineas; "and after we make ourselves
+masters of Sicily, what shall we do then?"
+
+"Then," replied Pyrrhus, "we can cross the Mediterranean to Lybia and
+Carthage. The distance is not very great, and we shall be able to land
+on the African coast at the head of such a force that we shall easily
+make ourselves masters of the whole country. We shall then have so
+extended and established our power, that no enemy can be found in any
+quarter who will think of opposing us."
+
+"That is very true," said Cineas; "and so you will then be able to put
+down effectually all your old enemies in Thessaly, Macedon, and
+Greece, and make yourself master of all those countries. And when all
+this is accomplished, what shall we do then?"
+
+"Why, then," said Pyrrhus, "we can sit down and take our ease, and
+eat, drink, and be merry."
+
+"And why," rejoined Cineas, "can not we sit down and take our ease,
+and enjoy ourselves now, instead of taking all this trouble
+beforehand? You have already at your command every possible means of
+enjoyment; why not make yourself happy with them now, instead of
+entering on a course which will lead to such dreadful toils and
+dangers, such innumerable calamities, and through such seas of blood,
+and yet bring you after all, at the end, nothing more than you have at
+the beginning?"
+
+It may, perhaps, be a matter of doubt whether Cineas intended this as
+a serious remonstrance against the execution of Pyrrhus's designs, or
+only as an ingenious and good-humored satire on the folly of ambition,
+to amuse the mind of his sovereign in some momentary interval of
+leisure that came in the midst of his cares. However it may have been
+intended, it made no serious impression on the mind of Pyrrhus, and
+produced no change in his plans. The work of preparation went
+vigorously on; and as soon as a portion of the troops were ready to
+embark, Cineas was put in command of them, and they crossed the
+Adriatic Sea. After this, Pyrrhus completed the organization of the
+remaining force. It consisted of twenty elephants, three thousand
+horse, and twenty thousand foot, with two thousand archers, and
+twenty thousand slingers. When all was ready, Pyrrhus put these troops
+on board a large fleet of galleys, transports, and flat-bottomed
+boats, which had been sent over to him from Tarentum by Cineas for the
+purpose, and at length set sail. He left Ptolemy, his eldest son, then
+about fifteen years old, regent of the kingdom, and took two younger
+sons, Alexander and Helenus, with him. The expedition was destined, it
+seems, to begin in disaster; for no sooner had Pyrrhus set sail than a
+terrible storm arose, which, for a time, threatened the total
+destruction of the fleet, and of all who were on board of it. The ship
+which conveyed Pyrrhus himself was, of course, larger and better
+manned than the others, and it succeeded at length, a little after
+midnight, in reaching the Italian shore, while the rest of the fleet
+were driven at the mercy of the winds, and dispersed in every
+direction over the sea, far and wide. But, though Pyrrhus's ship
+approached the shore, the violence of the winds and waves was so
+great, that for a long time it was impossible for those on board to
+land. At length the wind suddenly changed its direction, and began to
+blow very violently off the shore, so that there seemed to be great
+probability that the ship would be driven to sea again. In fact, so
+imminent was the danger, that Pyrrhus determined to throw himself into
+the sea and attempt to swim to the shore. He accordingly did so, and
+was immediately followed by his attendants and guards, who leaped into
+the water after him, and did every thing in their power to assist him
+in gaining the land. The danger, however, was extreme; for the
+darkness of the night, the roaring of the winds and waves, and the
+violence with which the surf regurgitated from the shore, rendered the
+scene terrific beyond description. At last, however, about daybreak,
+the shipwrecked company succeeded in gaining the land.
+
+Pyrrhus was almost completely exhausted in body by the fatigues and
+exposures which he had endured, but he appeared to be by no means
+depressed in mind. The people of the country flocked down to the coast
+to render aid. Several other vessels afterward succeeded in reaching
+the shore; and as the wind now rapidly subsided, the men on board of
+them found comparatively little difficulty in effecting a landing.
+Pyrrhus collected the remnant thus saved, and marshaled them on the
+shore. He found that he had about two thousand foot, a small body of
+horse, and two elephants. With this force he immediately set out on
+his march to Tarentum. As he approached the city, Cineas came out to
+meet him at the head of the forces which had been placed at his
+command, and which had made the passage in safety.
+
+As soon as Pyrrhus found himself established in Tarentum, he
+immediately assumed the command of every thing there, as if he were
+already the acknowledged sovereign of the city. In fact, he found the
+city in so disorganized and defenseless a condition, that this
+assumption of power on his part seemed to be justified by the
+necessity of the case. The inhabitants, as is often the fact with men
+when their affairs are in an extreme and desperate condition, had
+become reckless. Every where throughout the city disorder and idleness
+reigned supreme. The men spent their time in strolling about from
+place to place, or sitting idly at home, or gathering in crowds at
+places of public diversion. They had abandoned all care or concern
+about public affairs, trusting to Pyrrhus to save them from the
+impending danger. Pyrrhus perceived, accordingly, that an entire
+revolution in the internal condition of the city was indispensably
+required, and he immediately took most efficient measures for
+effecting it. He shut up all the places of public amusement, and even
+the public walks and promenades, and put an end to all feastings,
+revels, and entertainments. Every man capable of bearing arms was
+enrolled in the army, and the troops thus formed were brought out
+daily for severe and long-protracted drillings and reviews. The people
+complained loudly of these exactions; but Pyrrhus had the power in his
+hands, and they were compelled to submit. Many of the inhabitants,
+however, were so dissatisfied with these proceedings, that they went
+away and left the city altogether. Of course it was those who were the
+most hopelessly idle, dissolute, and reckless that thus withdrew,
+while the more hardy and resolute remained. While these changes were
+going on, Pyrrhus set up and repaired the defenses of the city. He
+secured the walls, and strengthened the gates, and organized a
+complete system of guards and sentries. In a word, the condition of
+Tarentum was soon entirely changed. From being an exposed and
+defenseless town, filled with devotees of idleness and pleasure, it
+became a fortress, well secured at all points with material defenses,
+and occupied by a well-disciplined and resolute garrison.
+
+The inhabitants of the southeastern part of Italy, where Tarentum was
+situated, were of Greek origin, the country having been settled, as it
+would seem, by emigrants from the opposite shores of the Adriatic Sea.
+Their language, therefore, as well as their customs and usages of
+life, were different from those of the Roman communities that occupied
+the western parts of the peninsula. Now the Greeks at this period
+regarded themselves as the only truly civilized people in the world;
+all other nations they called barbarians. The people of Tarentum,
+therefore, in sending for Pyrrhus to come to their aid against the
+Romans, did not consider him as a foreigner brought in to help them in
+a civil war against their own countrymen, but rather as a
+fellow-countryman coming to aid them in a war against foreigners. They
+regarded him as belonging to the same race and lineage with
+themselves, while the enemies who were coming from beyond the
+Apennines to assail them they looked upon as a foreign and barbarous
+horde, against whom it was for the common interest of all nations of
+Greek descent to combine. It was this identity of interest between
+Pyrrhus and the people whom he came to aid, in respect both to their
+national origin and the cause in which they were engaged, which made
+it possible for him to assume so supreme an authority over all their
+affairs when he arrived at Tarentum.
+
+The people of the neighboring cities were slow in sending in to
+Pyrrhus the quotas of troops which the Tarentines had promised him;
+and before his force was collected, the tidings arrived that the
+Romans were coming on at the head of a great army, under the command
+of the consul Lĉvinus. Pyrrhus immediately prepared to go forth to
+meet them. He marshaled the troops that were already assembled, and
+leaving the city, he advanced to meet the consul. After proceeding
+some way, he sent forward an embassador to the camp of Lĉvinus to
+propose to that general that, before coming to extremities, an effort
+should be made to settle the dispute between the Romans and Tarentines
+in some amicable manner, and offering his services as an umpire and
+mediator for this purpose. To this embassage Lĉvinus coolly replied
+"that he did not choose to accept Pyrrhus as a mediator, and that he
+did not fear him as an enemy." Of course, after receiving such a
+message as this, there was nothing left to Pyrrhus but to prepare for
+war.
+
+He advanced, accordingly, at the head of his troops, until, at
+length, he reached a plain, where he encamped with all his forces.
+There was a river before him, a small stream called the River
+Siris.[J] The Romans came up and encamped on the opposite side of the
+bank of this stream. Pyrrhus mounted his horse and rode to an eminence
+near the river to take a view of them.
+
+[Footnote J: See map.]
+
+He was much surprised at what he saw. The order of the troops, the
+systematic and regular arrangement of guards and sentinels, and the
+regularity of the whole encampment, excited his admiration.[K]
+
+[Footnote K: See Frontispiece.]
+
+"Barbarians!" said he. "There is certainly nothing of the barbarian in
+their manner of arranging their encampment, and we shall soon see how
+it is with them in other respects."
+
+So saying, he turned away, and rode to his own camp. He, however, now
+began to be very seriously concerned in respect to the result of the
+approaching contest. The enemy with whom he was about to engage was
+obviously a far more formidable one than he had anticipated. He
+resolved to remain where he was until the allies whom he was expecting
+from the other Grecian cities should arrive. He accordingly took
+measures for fortifying himself as strongly as possible in his
+position, and he sent down a strong detachment from his main body to
+the river, to guard the bank and prevent the Romans from crossing to
+attack him. Lĉvinus, on the other hand, knowing that Pyrrhus was
+expecting strong re-enforcements, determined not to wait till they
+should come, but resolved to cross the river at once, notwithstanding
+the guard which Pyrrhus had placed on the bank to dispute the passage.
+
+The Romans did not attempt to cross the stream in one body. The troops
+were divided, and the several columns advanced to the river and
+entered the water at different points up and down the stream, the
+foot-soldiers at the fords, where the water was most shallow, and the
+horsemen at other places--the most favorable that they could find. In
+this manner the whole river was soon filled with soldiers. The guard
+which Pyrrhus had posted on the bank found that they were wholly
+unable to withstand such multitudes; in fact, they began to fear that
+they might be surrounded. They accordingly abandoned the bank of the
+river, and retreated to the main body of the army.
+
+Pyrrhus was greatly concerned at this event, and began to consider
+himself in imminent danger. He drew up his foot-soldiers in battle
+array, and ordered them to stand by their arms, while he himself
+advanced, at the head of the horsemen, toward the river. As soon as he
+came to the bank, an extraordinary spectacle presented itself to view.
+The surface of the stream seemed covered in every part with shields,
+rising a little above the water, as they were held up by the arms of
+the horsemen and footmen who were coming over. As fast as the Romans
+landed, they formed an array on the shore, and Pyrrhus, advancing to
+them, gave them battle.
+
+The contest was maintained, with the utmost determination and fury on
+both sides, for a long time. Pyrrhus himself was very conspicuous in
+the fight, for he wore a very costly and magnificent armor, and so
+resplendent in lustre withal as to be an object of universal
+attention. Notwithstanding this, he exposed himself in the hottest
+parts of the engagement, charging upon the enemy with the most
+dauntless intrepidity whenever there was occasion, and moving up and
+down the lines, wherever his aid or the encouragement of his presence
+was most required. At length one of his generals, named Leonatus, rode
+up to him and said,
+
+"Do you see, sire, that barbarian trooper, on the black horse with
+the white feet? I counsel you to beware of him. He seems to be
+meditating some deep design against you; he singles you out, and keeps
+his eye constantly upon you, and follows you wherever you go. He is
+watching an opportunity to execute some terrible design, and you will
+do well to be on your guard against him."
+
+"Leonatus," said Pyrrhus, in reply, "we can not contend against our
+destiny, I know very well; but it is my opinion that neither that man,
+nor any other man in the Roman army that seeks an encounter with me,
+will have any reason to congratulate himself on the result of it."
+
+He had scarcely spoken these words when he saw the horseman whom
+Leonatus had pointed out coming down upon him at full speed, with his
+spear grasped firmly in his hands, and the iron point of it aimed
+directly at Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus sprang immediately to meet his
+antagonist, bringing his own spear into aim at the same time. The
+horses met, and were both thrown down by the shock of the encounter.
+The friends of Pyrrhus rushed to the spot. They found both horses had
+been thrust through by the spears, and they both lay now upon the
+ground, dying. Some of the men drew Pyrrhus out from under his horse
+and bore him off the field, while others stabbed and killed the Roman
+where he lay.
+
+Pyrrhus, having escaped this terrible danger, determined now to be
+more upon his guard. He supposed, in fact, that the Roman officers
+would be made furious by the death of their comrade, and would make
+the most desperate efforts to avenge him. He accordingly contrived to
+find an opportunity, in the midst of the confusion of the battle, to
+put off the armor which made him so conspicuous, by exchanging with
+one of his officers, named Megacles. Having thus disguised himself, he
+returned to the battle. He brought up the foot-soldiers and the
+elephants; and, instead of employing himself, as heretofore, in
+performing single feats of personal valor, he devoted all his powers
+to directing the arrangements of the battle, encouraging the men, and
+rallying them when they were for a time driven away from their ground.
+
+By the exchange of armor which Pyrrhus thus made he probably saved his
+life; for Megacles, wherever he appeared after he had assumed the
+dress of Pyrrhus, found himself always surrounded by enemies, who
+pressed upon him incessantly and every where in great numbers, and he
+was finally killed. When he fell, the men who slew him seized the
+glittering helmet and the resplendent cloak that he wore, and bore
+them off in triumph into the Roman lines, as proof that Pyrrhus was
+slain. The tidings, as it passed along from rank to rank of the army,
+awakened a long and loud shout of acclamation and triumph, which
+greatly excited and animated the Romans, while it awakened in the army
+of Pyrrhus a correspondent emotion of discouragement and fear. In
+fact, for a short time it was universally believed in both armies that
+Pyrrhus was dead. In order to correct this false impression among his
+own troops, which threatened for a season to produce the most fatal
+effects, Pyrrhus rode along the ranks with his head uncovered, showing
+himself to his men, and shouting to them that he was yet alive.
+
+[Illustration: THE TROPHIES.]
+
+At length, after a long and very obstinate conflict, the Greeks gained
+the victory. This result was due in the end, in a great measure, to
+the elephants which Pyrrhus brought into the battle. The Roman horses,
+being wholly unused to the sight of such huge beasts, were terrified
+beyond measure at the spectacle, and fled in dismay whenever they saw
+the monsters coming. In fact, in some cases, the riders lost all
+command of their horses, and the troop turned and fled, bearing down
+and overwhelming the ranks of their friends behind them. In the end
+the Romans were wholly driven from the field. They did not even return
+to their camp, but, after recrossing the river in confusion, they fled
+in all directions, abandoning the whole country to their conqueror.
+Pyrrhus then advanced across the river and took possession of the
+Roman camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+NEGOTIATIONS.
+
+B.C. 280-279
+
+Effects of the victory.--Public opinion at Rome.--Expectations of
+Pyrrhus.--His mistake.--Cineas sent an embassador to Rome.--Cineas's
+plans for bribing the Roman senators.--Speech of Cineas in the Roman
+senate.--Debate in the senate.--An incident of the discussion.--Appius
+Claudius is brought on a bed to the senate.--Speech of Appius
+Claudius.--Effect of his speech on the senate.--Cineas makes report of
+his mission.--Fabricius sent to Pyrrhus.--His reception.--The elephant
+concealed in the tent.--Pyrrhus makes great offers to Fabricius.--The
+Roman armies advance.--The two generals.--The armies encamp in sight
+of each other.--His military honors.--Story of Decius Mus.--The
+vision.--Extraordinary alternative proposed.--The two consuls draw
+lots.--Decius sacrifices himself.--Superstitious fears of the
+soldiers.--Decius Mus.--Reply of Decius Mus to Pyrrhus.--The Romans
+afraid of the elephants.--The battle.--The elephants.--War
+chariots.--Doubtful victory.--Winter-quarters.--Nicias.--Pyrrhus's
+physician.--His treachery.--A generous exchange of prisoners.--No
+peace.
+
+
+The result of the battle on the banks of the Siris, decisive and
+complete as the victory was on the part of the Greeks, produced, of
+course, a very profound sensation at Rome. Instead, however, of
+discouraging and disheartening the Roman senate and people, it only
+aroused them to fresh energy and determination. The victory was
+considered as wholly due to the extraordinary military energy and
+skill of Pyrrhus, and not to any superiority of the Greek troops over
+those of the Romans in courage, in discipline, or in efficiency in the
+field. In fact, it was a saying at Rome at the time, that it was
+Lĉvinus that had been conquered by Pyrrhus in the battle, and not the
+Romans by the Greeks. The Roman government, accordingly, began
+immediately to enlist new recruits, and to make preparations for a new
+campaign, more ample and complete, and on a far greater scale than
+before.
+
+Pyrrhus was much surprised when he heard these things. He had
+supposed that the Romans would have been disheartened by the defeat
+which they had sustained, and would now think only of proposals and
+negotiations for peace. He seems to have been but very imperfectly
+informed in respect to the condition of the Roman commonwealth at this
+period, and to the degree of power to which it had attained. He
+supposed that, after suffering so signal and decisive a defeat, the
+Romans would regard themselves as conquered, and that nothing remained
+to them now but to consider how they could make the best terms with
+their conqueror. The Roman troops had, indeed, withdrawn from the
+neighborhood of the place where the battle had been fought, and had
+left Pyrrhus to take possession of the ground without molestation.
+Pyrrhus was even allowed to advance some considerable distance toward
+Rome; but he soon learned that, notwithstanding their temporary
+reverses, his enemies had not the most remote intention of submitting
+to him, but were making preparations to take the field again with a
+greater force than ever.
+
+Under these circumstances, Pyrrhus was for a time somewhat at a loss
+what to do. Should he follow up his victory, and advance boldly
+toward the capital, with a view of overcoming the Roman power
+entirely, or should he be satisfied with the advantage which he had
+already gained, and be content, for the present, with being master of
+Western Italy? After much hesitation, he concluded on the latter
+course. He accordingly suspended his hostile operations, and prepared
+to send an embassador to Rome to propose peace. Cineas was, of course,
+the embassador commissioned to act on this occasion.
+
+Cineas accordingly proceeded to Rome. He was accompanied by a train of
+attendants suitable to his rank as a royal embassador, and he took
+with him a great number of costly presents to be offered to the
+leading men in Rome, by way, as it would seem, of facilitating his
+negotiations. The nature of the means which he thus appears to have
+relied upon in his embassy to Rome may, perhaps, indicate the secret
+of his success in the diplomatic duties which he had performed in
+Greece and in Asia, where he had acquired so much distinction for his
+dexterity in negotiating treaties favorable to the interests of his
+master. However this may be, Cineas found that the policy which he
+contemplated would not answer in Rome. Soon after his arrival in the
+city, and in an early stage of the negotiations, he began to offer
+his presents to the public men with whom he had to deal; but they
+refused to accept them. The Roman senators to whom the gifts were
+offered returned them all, saying that, in case a treaty should be
+concluded, and peace made between the two nations, they should then
+have no objections to an interchange of such civilities; but, while
+the negotiations were pending, they conceived it improper for them to
+receive any such offerings. It may, perhaps, be taken as an additional
+proof of the nature of the influences which Cineas was accustomed to
+rely upon in his diplomatic undertakings, that he offered many of his
+gifts on this occasion to the ladies of the Roman senators as well as
+to the senators themselves; but the wives were found as incorruptible
+as the husbands. The gifts were all alike returned.
+
+Not discouraged by the failure of this attempt, Cineas obtained
+permission of the Roman senate to appear before them, and to address
+them on the subject of the views which Pyrrhus entertained in respect
+to the basis of the peace which he proposed. On the appointed day
+Cineas went to the senate-chamber, and there made a long and very able
+and eloquent address, in the presence of the senate and of the
+principal inhabitants of the city. He was very much impressed on this
+occasion with the spectacle which the august assembly presented to his
+view. He said afterward, in fact, that the Roman senate seemed to him
+like a congress of kings, so dignified and imposing was the appearance
+of the body, and so impressive was the air of calmness and gravity
+which reigned in their deliberations. Cineas made a very able and
+effective speech. He explained the views and proposals of Pyrrhus,
+presenting them in a light as favorable and attractive as possible.
+Pyrrhus was willing, he said, to make peace on equal terms. He
+proposed that he should give up all his prisoners without ransom, and
+that the Romans should give up theirs. He would then form an alliance
+with the Romans, and aid them in the future conquests that they
+meditated. All he asked was that he might have the sanction of the
+Roman government to his retaining Tarentum and the countries connected
+with and dependent upon it; and that, in maintaining his dominion over
+these lands, he might look upon the Roman people as his allies and
+friends.
+
+After Cineas had concluded his speech and had withdrawn from the
+senate-chamber, a debate arose among the senators on the propositions
+which he had made to them. There was a difference of opinion; some
+were for rejecting the proposals at once; others thought that they
+ought to be accepted. Those who were inclined to peace urged the
+wisdom of acceding to Pyrrhus's proposals by representing the great
+danger of continuing the war. "We have already," said they, "lost one
+great and decisive battle; and, in case of the renewal of the
+struggle, we must expect to find our enemy still more formidable than
+he was before; for many of the Italian nations of the eastern coast
+have joined his standard since hearing of the victory which he has
+obtained, and more are coming in. His strength, in fact, is growing
+greater and greater every day; and it is better for us to make peace
+with him now, on the honorable terms which he proposes to us, rather
+than to risk another battle, which may lead to the most disastrous
+consequences."
+
+In the midst of this discussion, an aged senator, who had been for a
+long time incapacitated by his years and infirmities from appearing in
+his seat, was seen coming to the assembly, supported and led by his
+sons and sons-in-law, who were making way for him in the passages and
+conducting him in. His name was Appius Claudius. He was blind and
+almost helpless through age and infirmity. He had heard in his chamber
+of the irresolution of the senate in respect to the further
+prosecution of the war with Pyrrhus, and had caused himself to be
+taken from his bed and borne through the streets by servants on a
+chair to the senate-house, that he might there once more raise his
+voice to save, if possible, the honor and dignity of his country. As
+he entered the chamber, he became at once the object of universal
+attention. As soon as he reached his seat, a respectful silence began
+to prevail throughout the assembly, all listening to hear what he had
+to say. He expressed himself as follows:
+
+"Senators of Rome,--I am blind, and I have been accustomed to consider
+my blindness as a calamity; but now I could wish that I had been deaf
+as well as blind, and then I might never have heard of the disgrace
+which seems to impend over my country. Where are now the boastings
+that we made when Alexander the Great commenced his career, that if he
+had turned his arms toward Italy and Rome, instead of Persia and the
+East, we would never have submitted to him; that he never would have
+gained the renown of being invincible if he had only attacked _us_,
+but would, on the other hand, if he invaded our dominions, only have
+contributed to the glory of the Roman name by his flight or his fall?
+These boasts we made so loudly that the echo of them spread throughout
+the world. And yet now, here is an obscure adventurer who has landed
+on our shores as an enemy and an invader, and because he has met with
+a partial and temporary success, you are debating whether you shall
+not make an ignominious peace with him, and allow him to remain. How
+vain and foolish does all our boastful defiance of Alexander appear
+when we now tremble at the name of Pyrrhus--a man who has been all his
+life a follower and dependent of one of Alexander's inferior
+generals--a man who has scarcely been able to maintain himself in his
+own dominions--who could not retain even a small and insignificant
+part of Macedon which he had conquered, but was driven ignominiously
+from it; and who comes into Italy now rather as a refugee than a
+conqueror--an adventurer who seeks power here because he can not
+sustain himself at home! I warn you not to expect that you can gain
+any thing by making such a peace with him as he proposes. Such a
+peace makes no atonement for the past, and it offers no security for
+the future. On the contrary, it will open the door to other invaders,
+who will come, encouraged by Pyrrhus's success, and emboldened by the
+contempt which they will feel for you in allowing yourselves to be
+thus braved and insulted with impunity."
+
+The effect of this speech on the senate was to produce a unanimous
+determination to carry on the war. Cineas was accordingly dismissed
+with this answer: that the Romans would listen to no propositions for
+peace while Pyrrhus remained in Italy. If he would withdraw from the
+country altogether, and retire to his own proper dominions, they would
+then listen to any proposals that he might make for a treaty of
+alliance and amity. So long, however, as he remained on Italian
+ground, they would make no terms with him whatever, though he should
+gain a thousand victories, but would wage war upon him to the last
+extremity.
+
+Cineas returned to the camp of Pyrrhus, bearing this reply. He
+communicated also to Pyrrhus a great deal of information in respect to
+the government and the people of Rome, the extent of the population,
+and the wealth and resources of the city; for while he had been
+engaged in conducting his negotiations, he had made every exertion to
+obtain intelligence on all these points, and he had been a very
+attentive and sagacious observer of all that he had seen. The account
+which he gave was very little calculated to encourage Pyrrhus in his
+future hopes and expectations. The people of Rome, Cineas said, were
+far more numerous than he had before supposed. They had now already on
+foot an army twice as large as the one which Pyrrhus had defeated, and
+multitudes besides were still left in the city, of a suitable age for
+enlisting, sufficient to form even larger armies still. The prospect,
+in a word, was very far from such as to promise Pyrrhus an easy
+victory.
+
+Of course, both parties began now to prepare vigorously for war.
+Before hostilities were resumed, however, the Romans sent a messenger
+to the camp of Pyrrhus to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. The name
+of this embassador was Fabricius. Fabricius, as Pyrrhus was informed
+by Cineas, was very highly esteemed at Rome for his integrity and for
+his military abilities, but he was without property, being dependent
+wholly on his pay as an officer of the army. Pyrrhus received
+Fabricius in the most respectful manner, and treated him with every
+mark of consideration and honor. He, moreover, offered him privately a
+large sum of money in gold. He told Fabricius that, in asking his
+acceptance of such a gift, he did not do it for any base purpose, but
+intended it only as a token of friendship and hospitality. Fabricius,
+however, refused to accept the present, and Pyrrhus pressed him no
+further.
+
+The next day Pyrrhus formed a plan for giving his guest a little
+surprise. He supposed that he had never seen an elephant, and he
+accordingly directed that one of the largest of these animals should
+be placed secretly behind a curtain, in an apartment where Fabricius
+was to be received. The elephant was covered with his armor, and
+splendidly caparisoned. After Fabricius had come in, and while he was
+sitting in the apartment wholly unconscious of what was before him,
+all at once the curtain was raised, and the elephant was suddenly
+brought to view; and, at the same instant, the huge animal, raising
+his trunk, flourished it in a threatening manner over Fabricius's
+head, making at the same time a frightful cry, such as he had been
+trained to utter for the purpose of striking terror into the enemy, in
+charging upon them on the field of battle. Fabricius, instead of
+appearing terrified, or even astonished at the spectacle, sat quietly
+in his seat, to all appearance entirely unmoved, and, turning to
+Pyrrhus with an air of the utmost composure, said coolly, "You see
+that you make no impression upon me, either by your gold yesterday or
+by your beast to-day."
+
+[Illustration: THE ELEPHANT CONCEALED.]
+
+Pyrrhus was not at all displeased with this answer, blunt as it may
+seem. On the contrary, he seems to have been very deeply impressed
+with a sense of the stern and incorruptible virtue of Fabricius's
+character, and he felt a strong desire to obtain the services of such
+an officer in his own court and army. He accordingly made new
+proposals to Fabricius, urging him to use his influence to induce the
+Romans to make peace, and then to go with him to Epirus, and enter
+into his service there.
+
+"If you will do so," said Pyrrhus, "I will make you the chief of my
+generals, and my own most intimate friend and companion, and you shall
+enjoy abundant honors and rewards."
+
+"No," replied Fabricius, "I can not accept those offers, nor is it for
+your interest that I should accept them; for, were I to go with you to
+Epirus, your people, as soon as they came to know me well, would lose
+all their respect for you, and would wish to have me, instead of you,
+for their king."
+
+We are, perhaps, to understand this rejoinder, as well as the one
+which Fabricius made to Pyrrhus in respect to the elephant, as
+intended in a somewhat jocose and playful sense; since, if we suppose
+them to have been gravely and seriously uttered, they would indicate a
+spirit of vanity and of empty boasting which would seem to be wholly
+inconsistent with what we know of Fabricius's character. However this
+may be, Pyrrhus was pleased with both; and the more that he saw and
+learned of the Romans, the more desirous he became of terminating the
+war and forming an alliance with them. But the Romans firmly persisted
+in refusing to treat with him, except on the condition of his
+withdrawing first entirely from Italy, and this was a condition with
+which he deemed it impossible to comply. It would be equivalent, in
+fact, to an acknowledgment that he had been entirely defeated.
+Accordingly, both sides began again to prepare vigorously for war.
+
+The Romans marched southward from the city with a large army, under
+the command of their two consuls. The names of the consuls at this
+time were Sulpicius Saverrio and Decius Mus. These generals advanced
+into Apulia, a country on the western coast of Italy, north of
+Tarentum. Here they encamped on a plain at the foot of the Apennines,
+near a place called Asculum. There was a stream in front of their
+camp, and the mountains were behind it. The stream was large and deep,
+and of course it greatly protected their position. On hearing of the
+approach of the Romans, Pyrrhus himself took the field at the head of
+all his forces, and advanced to meet them. He came to the plain on
+which the Roman army was encamped, and posted himself on the opposite
+bank of the stream. The armies were thus placed in close vicinity to
+each other, being separated only by the stream. The question was,
+which should attempt to cross the stream and make the attack upon the
+other. They remained in this position for a considerable time, neither
+party venturing to attempt the passage.
+
+While things were in this condition--the troops on each side waiting
+for an opportunity of attacking their enemies, and probably without
+any fear whatever of the physical dangers which they were to encounter
+in the conflict--the feeling of composure and confidence among the men
+in Pyrrhus's army was greatly disturbed by a singular superstition. It
+was rumored in the army that Decius Mus, the Roman commander, was
+endowed with a species of magical and supernatural power, which would,
+under certain circumstances, be fatal to all who opposed him. And
+though the Greeks seem to have had no fear of the material steel of
+the Roman legions, this mysterious and divine virtue, which they
+imagined to reside in the commander, struck them with an invincible
+terror.
+
+The story was, that the supernatural power in question originated in
+one of the ancestors of the present Decius, a brave Roman general,
+who lived and flourished in the century preceding the time of Pyrrhus.
+His name, too, was Decius Mus. In the early part of his life, when he
+was a subordinate officer, he was the means of saving the whole army
+from most imminent danger, by taking possession of an eminence among
+the mountains, with the companies that were under his command, and
+holding it against the enemy until the Roman troops could be drawn out
+of a dangerous defile where they would otherwise have been overwhelmed
+and destroyed. He was greatly honored for this exploit. The consul who
+commanded on the occasion rewarded him with a golden crown, a hundred
+oxen, and a magnificent white bull, with gilded horns. The common
+soldiers, too, held a grand festival and celebration in honor of him,
+in which they crowned him with a wreath made of dried grasses on the
+field, according to an ancient custom which prevailed among the Romans
+of rewarding in this way any man who should be the means of saving an
+army. Of course, such an event as saving an army was of very rare
+occurrence; and, accordingly, the crowning of a soldier by his
+comrades on the field was a very distinguished honor, although the
+decoration itself was made of materials so insignificant and
+worthless.
+
+Decius rose rapidly after this time from rank to rank, until at length
+he was chosen consul. In the course of his consulship, he took the
+field with one of his colleagues, whose name was Torquatus, at the
+head of a large army, in the prosecution of a very important war in
+the interior of the country. The time arrived at length for a decisive
+battle to be fought. Both armies were drawn up on the field, the
+preparations were all made, and the battle was to be fought on the
+following day. In the night, however, a vision appeared to each
+consul, informing him that it had been decreed by fate that a
+_general_ on one side and the _army_ on the other were to be destroyed
+on the following day; and that, consequently, either of the consuls,
+by sacrificing himself, might secure the destruction of the enemy. On
+the other hand, if they were to take measures to save themselves, the
+general on the other side would be killed, and on their side the
+_army_ would be defeated and cut to pieces.
+
+The two consuls, on conferring together upon the following morning,
+immediately decided that either one or the other of them should die,
+in order to secure victory to the arms of their country; and the
+question at once arose, what method they should adopt to determine
+which of them should be the sacrifice. At last it was agreed that they
+would go into battle as usual, each in command of his own wing of the
+army, and that the one whose wing should first begin to give way
+should offer himself as the victim. The arrangements were made
+accordingly, and the result proved that Decius was the one on whom the
+dire duty of self-immolation was to devolve. The wing under his
+command began to give way. He immediately resolved to fulfill his vow.
+He summoned the high priest. He clothed himself in the garb of a
+victim about to be offered in sacrifice. Then, with his military cloak
+wrapped about his head, and standing upon a spear that had been
+previously laid down upon the ground, he repeated in the proper form
+words by which he devoted himself and the army of the enemy to the God
+of Death, and then finally mounted upon his horse and drove furiously
+in among the thickest of the enemy. Of course he was at once thrust
+through with a hundred spears and javelins; and immediately afterward
+the army of the enemy gave way on all hands, and the Romans swept the
+field, completely victorious.
+
+The power which was in this instance supernaturally granted to Decius
+to secure the victory to the Roman arms, by sacrificing his own life
+on the field of battle, afterward descended, it was supposed, as an
+inheritance, from father to son. Decius Mus, the commander opposed to
+Pyrrhus, was the grandson of his namesake referred to above; and now
+it was rumored among the Greeks that he intended, as soon as the
+armies came into action, to make the destruction of his enemies sure
+by sacrificing himself, as his grandfather had done. The soldiers of
+Pyrrhus were willing to meet any of the ordinary and natural chances
+and hazards of war; but, where the awful and irresistible decrees of
+the spiritual world were to be against them, it is not strange that
+they dreaded the encounter.
+
+Under these circumstances, Pyrrhus sent a party of messengers to the
+Roman camp to say to Decius, that if in the approaching battle he
+attempted to resort to any such arts of necromancy to secure the
+victory to the Roman side, he would find himself wholly unsuccessful
+in the attempt; for the Greek soldiers had all been instructed not to
+kill him if he should throw himself among them, but to take him alive
+and bring him a prisoner to Pyrrhus's camp; and that then, after the
+battle was over, he should be subjected, they declared, to the most
+cruel and ignominious punishments, as a magician and an impostor.
+Decius sent back word, in reply, that Pyrrhus had no occasion to give
+himself any uneasiness in respect to the course which the Roman
+general would pursue in the approaching battle. The measure that he
+had referred to was one to which the Romans were not accustomed to
+resort except in emergencies of the most extreme and dangerous
+character, and Pyrrhus ought not to flatter himself with the idea that
+the Romans regarded his invasion as of sufficient consequence to
+require them to have recourse to any unusual means of defense. They
+were fully convinced of their ability to meet and conquer him by
+ordinary modes of warfare. To prove that they were honest in this
+opinion, they offered to waive the advantage which the river afforded
+them as a means of defense, and allow Pyrrhus to cross it without
+molestation, with a view to fighting the battle afterward upon the
+open field; or they would themselves cross the river, and fight the
+battle on Pyrrhus's side of it--whichever Pyrrhus himself preferred.
+They asked for no advantage, but were willing to meet their
+adversaries on equal terms, and abide by the result.
+
+Pyrrhus could not with honor decline to accept this challenge. He
+decided to remain where he was, and allow the Romans to cross the
+stream. This they accordingly did; and when all the troops had
+effected the passage, they were drawn up in battle array on the plain.
+Pyrrhus marshaled his forces also, and both parties prepared for the
+contest.
+
+The Romans stood most in awe of the elephants, and they resorted to
+some peculiar and extraordinary means of resisting them. They prepared
+a great number of chariots, each of which was armed with a long
+pointed spear, projecting forward in such a manner that when the
+chariots should be driven on toward the elephants, these spears or
+beaks should pierce the bodies of the beasts and destroy them. The
+chariots, too, were filled with men, who were all provided with
+fire-brands, which they were to throw at the elephants, and frighten
+them, as they came on. These chariots were all carefully posted in
+front of that part of Pyrrhus's army where the elephants were
+stationed, and the charioteers were strictly ordered not to move until
+they should see the elephants advancing.
+
+The battle, as might have been expected from the circumstances which
+preceded it, and from the character of the combatants, was fought with
+the most furious and persevering desperation. It continued through the
+whole day; and in the various parts of the field, and during the
+different hours of the day, the advantage was sometimes strongly on
+one side, and sometimes on the other, so that it was wholly uncertain,
+for a long time, what the ultimate result would be. The elephants
+succeeded in getting round the chariots which had been posted to
+intercept them, and effected a great destruction of the Roman troops.
+On the other hand, a detachment of the Roman army made their way to
+the camp of Pyrrhus, and attacked it desperately. Pyrrhus withdrew a
+part of his forces to protect his camp, and that turned the tide
+against him on the field. By means of the most Herculean exertions,
+Pyrrhus rallied his men, and restored their confidence; and then, for
+a time, the fortune of war seemed to incline in his favor. In the
+course of the day Decius was killed, and the whole command of the
+Roman army then devolved upon Sulpicius, his colleague. Pyrrhus
+himself was seriously wounded. When, at last, the sun went down, and
+the approaching darkness of the night prevented a continuance of the
+combat, both parties drew off such as remained alive of their
+respective armies, leaving the field covered with the dead and dying.
+One of Pyrrhus's generals congratulated him on his victory. "Yes,"
+said Pyrrhus; "another such victory, and I shall be undone."
+
+In fact, after trying their strength against each other in this
+battle, neither party seemed to be in haste to bring on another
+contest. They both drew away to places of security, and began to
+send for re-enforcements, and to take measures to strengthen
+themselves for future operations. They remained in this state of
+inaction until at length the season passed away, and they then went
+into winter-quarters, each watching the other, but postponing, by
+common consent, all active hostilities until spring. In the spring
+they took the field again, and the two armies approached each other
+once more. The Roman army had now two new commanders, one of whom
+was the celebrated Fabricius, whom Pyrrhus had negotiated with on
+former occasions. The two commanders were thus well acquainted with
+each other; and though, as public men, they were enemies, in private
+and personally they were very good friends.
+
+Pyrrhus had a physician in his service named Nicias. This man
+conceived the design of offering to the Romans to poison his master
+on condition of receiving a suitable reward. He accordingly wrote a
+letter to Fabricius making the proposal. Fabricius immediately
+communicated the letter to his colleague, and they both concurred in
+the decision to inform Pyrrhus himself of the offer which had been
+made them, and put him on his guard against the domestic traitor. They
+accordingly sent him the letter which they had received, accompanied
+by one from themselves, of the following tenor:
+
+    "Caius Fabricius and Quintus Ĉmilius to King Pyrrhus,
+    greeting:
+
+    "You seem to be as unfortunate in the choice of your friends
+    as you are in that of your enemies. The letter which we send
+    herewith will satisfy you that those around you, on whom you
+    rely, are wholly unworthy of your confidence. You are
+    betrayed; your very physician, the man who ought to be most
+    faithful to you, offers to poison you. We give you this
+    information, not out of any particular friendship for you,
+    but because we do not wish to be suspected of conniving at an
+    assassination--a crime which we detest and abhor. Besides, we
+    do not wish to be deprived of the opportunity of showing the
+    world that we are able to meet and conquer you in open war."
+
+Pyrrhus was very much struck with what he considered the extraordinary
+generosity of his enemies. He immediately collected together all the
+prisoners that he had taken from the Romans, and sent them home to the
+Roman camp, as a token of acknowledgment and gratitude on his part for
+the high and honorable course of action which his adversaries had
+adopted. They, however, Roman-like, would not accept such a token
+without making a corresponding return, and they accordingly sent home
+to Pyrrhus a body of Greek prisoners equal in number and rank to those
+whom Pyrrhus had set free.
+
+All these things tended to increase the disinclination of Pyrrhus to
+press the further prosecution of the war. He became more and more
+desirous every day to make peace with the Romans, preferring very much
+that such a people should be his allies rather than his enemies. They,
+however, firmly and pertinaciously refused to treat with him on any
+terms, unless, as a preliminary step, he would go back to his own
+dominions. This he thought he could not do with honor. He was
+accordingly much perplexed, and began earnestly to wish that something
+would occur to furnish him with a plausible pretext for retiring from
+Italy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN.
+
+B.C. 291-276
+
+Lanassa.--The tyrant her father.--His adventures.--Agathocles's flight
+from Africa.--Terrible consequences.--The sea dyed with blood.--Shocking
+story.--Texina and her children.--Extraordinary story.--Mĉnon's
+contrivance for administering poison.--Dangers of usurpation.--Mĉnon's
+career.--Pyrrhus receives two tempting invitations.--Pyrrhus's
+perplexity.--He decides to go to Sicily.--He makes great preparations
+at Tarentum.--The Tarentines remonstrate.--Their arguments.--Pyrrhus
+sends Cineas in advance to Sicily.--Form of Sicily.--Situation of
+Messana.--Conduct of the Mamertines in Sicily.--The Mamertines take
+complete possession of Messana.--Three objects to be accomplished in
+Sicily.--The grand expedition sails to Sicily.--He determines to take
+Eryx by storm.--Pyrrhus at the head of the column.--Combat on the
+walls.--Pyrrhus victorious.--Grand celebration.--Result of the
+battle.--He attacks the Mamertines.--Is victorious.--Pyrrhus forms
+new schemes.--Want of seamen.--The Sicilians are opposed to his
+plans.--General rebellion in Sicily.--Pyrrhus's character.--He
+possesses no perseverance.--New plan.--Disastrous attempt to get back
+to Italy.--Terrible conflict.--Pyrrhus is wounded in the head.--Shocking
+spectacle.--The Mamertine champion.--Pyrrhus succeeds in reaching
+Tarentum.
+
+
+The fact has already been mentioned that one of the wives whom Pyrrhus
+had married after the death of Antigone, the Egyptian princess, was
+Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, the King of Sicily. Agathocles
+was a tyrannical monster of the worst description. His army was little
+better than an organized band of robbers, at the head of which he went
+forth on marauding and plundering expeditions among all the nations
+that were within his reach. He made these predatory excursions
+sometimes into Italy, sometimes into the Carthaginian territories on
+the African coast, and sometimes among the islands of the
+Mediterranean Sea. In these campaigns he met with a great variety of
+adventures, and experienced every possible fate that the fortune of
+war could bring. Sometimes he was triumphant over all who opposed him,
+and became intoxicated with prosperity and success. At other times,
+through his insane and reckless folly, he would involve himself in
+the most desperate difficulties, and was frequently compelled to give
+up every thing, and to fly alone in absolute destitution from the
+field of his attempted exploits to save his life.
+
+On one such occasion, he abandoned an army in Africa, which he had
+taken there on one of his predatory enterprises, and, flying secretly
+from the camp, he made his escape with a small number of attendants,
+leaving the army to its fate. His flight was so sudden on this
+occasion that he left his two sons behind him in the hands and at the
+mercy of the soldiers. The soldiers, as soon as they found that
+Agathocles had gone and left them, were so enraged against him that
+they put his sons to death on the spot, and then surrendered in a body
+to the enemy. Agathocles, when the tidings of this transaction came to
+him in Sicily, was enraged against the soldiers in his turn, and, in
+order to revenge himself upon them, he immediately sought out from
+among the population of the country their wives and children, their
+brothers and sisters, and all who were in any way related to them.
+These innocent representatives of the absent offenders he ordered to
+be seized and slain, and their bodies to be cast into the sea toward
+Africa as an expression of revengeful triumph and defiance. So great
+was the slaughter on this occasion, that the waters of the sea were
+dyed with blood to a great distance from the shore.
+
+Of course, such cruelty as this could not be practiced without
+awakening, on the part of those who suffered from it, a spirit of
+hatred and revenge. Plots and conspiracies without number were formed
+against the tyrant's life, and in his later years he lived in
+continual apprehension and distress. His fate, however, was still more
+striking as an illustration of the manner in which the old age of
+ambitious and unprincipled men is often embittered by the ingratitude
+and wickedness of their children. Agathocles had a grandson named
+Archagathus, who, if all the accounts are true, brought the old king's
+gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. The story is too shocking to be
+fully believed, but it is said that this grandson first murdered
+Agathocles's son and heir, his own uncle, in order that he might
+himself succeed to the throne--his own father, who would have been the
+next heir, being dead. Then, not being willing to wait until the old
+king himself should die, he began to form plots against his life, and
+against the lives of the remaining members of the family. Although
+several of Agathocles's sons were dead, having been destroyed by
+violence, or having fallen in war, he had a wife, named Texina, and
+two children still remaining alive. The king was so anxious in respect
+to these children, on account of Archagathus, that he determined to
+send them with their mother to Egypt, in order to place them beyond
+the reach of their merciless nephew. Texina was very unwilling to
+consent to such a measure. For herself and her sons the proposed
+retiring into Egypt was little better than going into exile, and she
+was, moreover, extremely reluctant to leave her husband alone in
+Syracuse, exposed to the machinations and plots which his unnatural
+grandson might form against him. She, however, finally submitted to
+the hard necessity and went away, bidding her husband farewell with
+many tears. Very soon after her departure her husband died.
+
+The story that is told of the manner of his death is this: There was
+in his court a man named Mĉnon, whom Agathocles had taken captive when
+a youth, and ever since retained in his court. Though originally a
+captive, taken in war, Mĉnon had been made a favorite with Agathocles,
+and had been raised to a high position in his service. The indulgence
+however, and the favoritism with which he had been regarded, were not
+such as to awaken any sentiments of gratitude in Mĉnon's mind, or to
+establish any true and faithful friendship between him and his master;
+and Archagathus, the grandson, found means of inducing him to
+undertake to poison the king. As all the ordinary modes of
+administering poison were precluded by the vigilance and strictness
+with which the usual avenues of approach to the king were guarded,
+Mĉnon contrived to accomplish his end by poisoning a quill which the
+king was subsequently to use as a tooth-pick. The poison was
+insinuated thus into the teeth and gums of the victim, where it soon
+took effect, producing dreadful ulceration and intolerable pain. The
+infection of the venom after a short time pervaded the whole system of
+the sufferer, and brought him to the brink of the grave; and at last,
+finding that he was speechless, and apparently insensible, his
+ruthless murderers, fearing, perhaps, that he might revive again,
+hurried him to the funeral pile before life was extinct, and the fire
+finished the work that the poison had begun.
+
+The declaration of Scripture, "They that take the sword shall perish
+by the sword," is illustrated and confirmed by the history of almost
+every ancient tyrant. We find that they almost all come at last to
+some terrible end. The man who usurps a throne by violence seems, in
+all ages and among all nations, very sure to be expelled from it by
+greater violence, after a brief period of power; and he who poisons or
+assassinates a precedent rival whom he wishes to supplant, is almost
+invariably cut off by the poison or the dagger of a following one, who
+wishes to supplant him.
+
+The death of Agathocles took place about nine years before the
+campaign of Pyrrhus in Italy, as described in the last chapter, and
+during that period the kingdom of Sicily had been in a very distracted
+state. Mĉnon, immediately after the poisoning of the king, fled to the
+camp of Archagathus, who was at that time in command of an army at a
+distance from the city. Here, in a short time, he contrived to
+assassinate Archagathus, and to seize the supreme power. It was not
+long, however, before new claimants and competitors for possession of
+the throne appeared, and new wars broke out, in the course of which
+Mĉnon was deposed. At length, in the midst of the contests and
+commotions that prevailed, two of the leading generals of the
+Sicilian army conceived the idea of bringing forward Pyrrhus's son by
+Lanassa as the heir to the crown. This prince was, of course, the
+grandson of the old King Agathocles, and, as there was no other
+descendant of the royal line at hand who could be made the
+representative of the ancient monarchy, it was thought, by the
+generals above referred to, that the only measure which afforded any
+hope of restoring peace to the country was to send an embassy to
+Pyrrhus, and invite him to come and place his young son upon the
+throne. The name of Lanassa's son was Alexander. He was a boy, perhaps
+at this time about twelve years old.
+
+At the same time that Pyrrhus received the invitation to go to Sicily,
+a message came to him from certain parties in Greece, informing him
+that, on account of some revolutions which had taken place there, a
+very favorable opportunity was afforded him to secure for himself the
+throne of that country, and urging him to come and make the attempt.
+Pyrrhus was for some time quite undecided which of these two proposals
+to accept. The prize offered him in Greece was more tempting, but the
+expedition into Sicily seemed to promise more certain success. While
+revolving the question in his mind which conquest he should first
+undertake, he complained of the tantalizing cruelty of fortune, in
+offering him two such tempting prizes at the same time, so as to
+compel him to forego either the one or the other. At length he decided
+to go first to Sicily.
+
+It was said that one reason which influenced his mind very strongly in
+making this decision was the fact that Sicily was so near the coast of
+Africa; and the Sicilians being involved in wars with the
+Carthaginians, he thought that, if successful in his operations in
+Sicily, the way would be open for him to make an expedition into
+Africa, in which case he did not doubt but that he should be able soon
+to overturn the Carthaginian power, and add all the northern coasts of
+Africa to his dominions. His empire would thus embrace Epirus, the
+whole southern part of Italy, Sicily, and the coasts of Africa. He
+could afterward, he thought, easily add Greece, and then his dominions
+would include all the wealthy and populous countries surrounding the
+most important part of the Mediterranean Sea. His government would
+thus become a naval power of the first class, and any further
+extension of his sway which he might subsequently desire could easily
+be accomplished.
+
+In a word, Pyrrhus decided first to proceed to Sicily, and to postpone
+for a brief period his designs on Greece.
+
+He accordingly proceeded to withdraw his troops from the interior of
+the country in Italy, and concentrate them in and around Tarentum. He
+began to make naval preparations, too, on a very extensive scale. The
+port of Tarentum soon presented a very busy scene. The work of
+building and repairing ships--of fabricating sails and rigging--of
+constructing and arming galleys--of disciplining and training
+crews--of laying in stores of food and of implements of war, went on
+with great activity, and engaged universal attention. The Tarentines
+themselves stood by, while all these preparations were going on,
+rather as spectators of the scene than as active participants. Pyrrhus
+had taken the absolute command of their city and government, and was
+exercising supreme power, as if he were the acknowledged sovereign of
+the country. He had been invited to come over from his own kingdom to
+_help_ the Tarentines, not to _govern_ them; but he had seized the
+sovereign power, justifying the seizure, as is usual with military men
+under similar circumstances, by the necessity of the case. "There must
+be order and submission to authority in the city," he said, "or we
+can make no progress in subduing our enemies." The Tarentines had thus
+been induced to submit to his assumption of power, convinced, perhaps,
+partly by his reasoning, and, at all events, silenced by the display
+of force by which it was accompanied; and they had consoled themselves
+under a condition of things which they could not prevent, by
+considering that it was better to yield to a temporary foreign
+domination, than to be wholly overwhelmed, as there was every
+probability, before Pyrrhus came to them, that they would be, by their
+domestic foes.
+
+When, however, they found that Pyrrhus was intending to withdraw from
+them, and to go to Sicily, without having really effected their
+deliverance from the danger which threatened them, they at first
+remonstrated against the design. They wished him to remain and finish
+the work which he had begun. The Romans had been checked, but they had
+not been subdued. Pyrrhus ought not, they said, to go away and leave
+them until their independence and freedom had been fully established.
+They remonstrated with him against his design, but their remonstrances
+proved wholly unavailing.
+
+When at length the Tarentines found that Pyrrhus was determined to go
+to Sicily, they then desired that he should withdraw his troops from
+their country altogether, and leave them to themselves. This, however,
+Pyrrhus refused to do. He had no intention of relinquishing the power
+which he had acquired in Italy, and he accordingly began to make
+preparations for leaving a strong garrison in Tarentum to maintain his
+government there. He organized a sort of regency in the city, and set
+apart a sufficient force from his army to maintain it in power during
+his absence. When this was done, he began to make preparations for
+transporting the rest of his force to Sicily by sea.
+
+He determined to send Cineas forward first, according to his usual
+custom, to make the preliminary arrangements in Sicily. Cineas
+consequently left Tarentum with a small squadron of ships and galleys,
+and, after a short voyage, arrived safely at Syracuse. He found the
+leading powers in that city ready to welcome Pyrrhus as soon as he
+should arrive, and make the young Alexander king. Cineas completed and
+closed the arrangements for this purpose, and then sent messengers to
+various other cities on the northern side of the island, making known
+to them the design which had been formed of raising an heir of King
+Agathocles to the throne, and asking their co-operation in it. He
+managed these negotiations with so much prudence and skill, that
+nearly all that part of the island which was in the hands of the
+Sicilians readily acceded to the plan, and the people were every where
+prepared to welcome Pyrrhus and the young prince as soon as they
+should arrive.
+
+Sicily, as will be seen by referring to the map, is of a triangular
+form. It was only the southern portion which was at this time in the
+hands of the Sicilians. There were two foreign and hostile powers in
+possession, respectively, of the northeastern and northwestern
+portions. In the northeastern corner of the island was the city of
+Messana--the Messina of modern days. In the time of Pyrrhus's
+expedition, Messana was the seat and stronghold of a warlike nation,
+called the Mamertines, who had come over from Italy across the Straits
+of Messana some years before, and, having made themselves masters of
+that portion of the island, had since held their ground there,
+notwithstanding all the efforts of the Sicilians to expel them. The
+Mamertines had originally come into Sicily, it was said, as Pyrrhus
+had gone into Italy--by invitation. Agathocles sent for them to come
+and aid him in some of his wars. After the object for which they had
+been sent for had been accomplished, Agathocles dismissed his
+auxiliaries, and they set out on their return. They proceeded through
+the northeastern part of the island to Messana, where they were to
+embark for Italy. Though they had rendered Agathocles very efficient
+aid in his campaigns, they had also occasioned him an infinite deal of
+trouble by their turbulent and ungovernable spirit; and now, as they
+were withdrawing from the island, the inhabitants of the country
+through which they passed on the way regarded them every where with
+terror and dread. The people of Messana, anxious to avoid a quarrel
+with them, and disposed to facilitate their peaceable departure from
+the land by every means in their power, received them into the city,
+and hospitably entertained them there. Instead, however, of quietly
+withdrawing from the city in proper time, as the Messanians had
+expected them to do, they rose suddenly and unexpectedly upon the
+people, at a concerted signal, took possession of the city, massacred
+without mercy all the men, seized the women and children, and then,
+each one establishing himself in the household that choice or chance
+assigned him, married the wife and adopted the children whose husband
+and father he had murdered. The result was the most complete and
+extraordinary overturning that the history of the world can afford. It
+was a political, a social, and a domestic revolution all in one.
+
+This event took place many years before the time of Pyrrhus's
+expedition; and though during the interval the Sicilians had made many
+efforts to dispossess the intruders and to recover possession of
+Messana, they had not been able to accomplish the work. The Mamertines
+maintained their ground in Messana, and from that city, as their
+fortress and stronghold, they extended their power over a considerable
+portion of the surrounding country.
+
+This territory of the Mamertines was in the northeastern part of the
+island. In the northwestern part, on the other hand, there was a large
+province in the hands of the Carthaginians. Their chief city was Eryx;
+though there was another important city and port, called Lilybĉum,
+which was situated to the southward of Eryx, on the sea-shore. Here
+the Carthaginians were accustomed to land their re-enforcements and
+stores; and by means of the ready and direct communication which they
+could thus keep up with Carthage itself, they were enabled to resist
+all the efforts which the Sicilians had made to dispossess them.
+
+There were thus three objects to be accomplished by Pyrrhus in Sicily
+before his dominion over the island could be complete--namely, the
+Sicilians themselves, in the southern and central parts of the island,
+were to be conciliated and combined, and induced to give up their
+intestine quarrels, and to acknowledge the young Alexander as the king
+of the island; and then the Mamertines on the northeast part, and the
+Carthaginians in the northwest, were to be conquered and expelled.
+
+The work was done, so far as related to the Sicilians themselves,
+mainly by Cineas. His dexterous negotiations healed, in a great
+measure, the quarrels which prevailed among the people, and prepared
+the way for welcoming Pyrrhus and the young prince, as soon as they
+should appear. In respect to the Carthaginians and the Mamertines,
+nothing, of course, could be attempted until the fleets and armies
+should arrive.
+
+At length the preparations for the sailing of the expedition from
+Tarentum were completed. The fleet consisted of two hundred sail. The
+immense squadron, every vessel of which was crowded with armed men,
+left the harbor of Tarentum, watched by a hundred thousand spectators
+who had assembled to witness its departure, and slowly made its way
+along the Italian shores, while its arrival at Syracuse was the object
+of universal expectation and interest in that city. When at length the
+fleet appeared in view, entering its port of destination, the whole
+population of the city and of the surrounding country flocked to the
+shores to witness the spectacle. Through the efforts which had been
+made by Cineas, and in consequence of the measures which he had
+adopted, all ranks and classes of men were ready to welcome Pyrrhus as
+an expected deliverer. In the name of the young prince, his son, he
+was to re-establish the ancient monarchy, restore peace and harmony to
+the land, and expel the hated foreign enemies that infested the
+confines of it. Accordingly, when the fleet arrived, and Pyrrhus and
+his troops landed from it, they were received by the whole population
+with loud and tumultuous acclamations.
+
+After the festivities and rejoicings which were instituted to
+celebrate Pyrrhus's arrival were concluded, the young Alexander was
+proclaimed king, and a government was instituted in his name--Pyrrhus
+himself, of course, being invested with all actual power. Pyrrhus then
+took the field; and, on mustering his forces, he found himself at the
+head of thirty or forty thousand men. He first proceeded to attack the
+Carthaginians. He marched to the part of the island which they held,
+and gave them battle in the most vigorous and determined manner. They
+retreated to their cities, and shut themselves up closely within the
+walls. Pyrrhus advanced to attack them. He determined to carry Eryx,
+which was the strongest of the Carthaginian cities, by storm, instead
+of waiting for the slow operations of an ordinary siege. The troops
+were accordingly ordered to advance at once to the walls, and there
+mounting, by means of innumerable ladders, to the parapets above, they
+were to force their way in, over the defenses of the city, in spite of
+all opposition. Of course, such a service as this is, of all the
+duties ever required of the soldier, the most dangerous possible. The
+towers and parapets above, which the assailants undertake to scale,
+are covered with armed men, who throng to the part of the wall against
+which the attack is to be directed, and stand there ready with spears,
+javelins, rocks, and every other conceivable missile, to hurl upon
+the heads of the besiegers coming up the ladders.
+
+Pyrrhus, however, whatever may have been his faults in other respects,
+seems to have been very little inclined at any time to order his
+soldiers to encounter any danger which he was not willing himself to
+share. He took the head of the column in the storming of Eryx, and was
+the first to mount the ladders. Previous, however, to advancing for
+the attack, he performed a grand religious ceremony, in which he
+implored the assistance of the god Hercules in the encounter which was
+about to take place; and made a solemn vow that if Hercules would
+assist him in the conflict, so as to enable him to display before the
+Sicilians such strength and valor, and to perform such feats as should
+be worthy of his name, his ancestry, and his past history, he would,
+immediately after the battle, institute on the spot a course of
+festivals and sacrifices of the most imposing and magnificent
+character in honor of the god. This vow being made, the trumpet
+sounded and the storming party went forward--Pyrrhus at the head of
+it. In mounting the ladder, he defended himself with his shield from
+the missiles thrown down upon him from above until he reached the top
+of the wall, and there, by means of his prodigious strength, and
+desperate and reckless bravery, he soon gained ground for those that
+followed him, and established a position there both for himself and
+for them, having cut down one after another those who attempted to
+oppose him, until he had surrounded himself with a sort of parapet,
+formed of the bodies of the dead.
+
+[Illustration: THE ASSAULT.]
+
+In the mean time, the whole line of ladders extending along the wall
+were crowded with men, all forcing their way upward against the
+resistance which the besieged opposed to them from above; while
+thousands of troops, drawn up below as near as possible to the scene
+of conflict, were throwing a shower of darts, arrows, javelins,
+spears, and other missiles, to aid the storming party by driving away
+the besieged from the top of the wall. By these means those who were
+mounting the ladders were so much aided in their efforts that they
+soon succeeded in gaining possession of the wall, and thus made
+themselves masters of the city.
+
+Pyrrhus then, in fulfillment of his vow, instituted a great
+celebration, and devoted several days to games, spectacles, shows, and
+public rejoicings of all kinds, intended to express his devout
+gratitude to Hercules for the divine assistance which the god had
+vouchsafed to him in the assault by which the city had been carried.
+
+By the result of this battle, and of some other military operations
+which we can not here particularly describe, the Carthaginians were
+driven from the open field and compelled to shut themselves up in
+their strongholds, or retire to the fastnesses of the mountains, where
+they found places of refuge and defense from which Pyrrhus could not
+at once dislodge them. Accordingly, leaving things at present as they
+were in the Carthaginian or western part of the island, he proceeded
+to attack the Mamertines in the eastern part. He was equally
+successful here. By means of the tact and skill which he exercised in
+his military arrangements and maneuvers, and by the desperate bravery
+and impetuosity which he displayed in battle, he conquered wherever he
+came. He captured and destroyed many of the strongholds of the
+Mamertines, drove them entirely out of the open country, and shut them
+up in Messana. Thus the island was almost wholly restored to the
+possession of the Sicilians, while yet the foreign intruders, though
+checked and restrained, were not, after all, really expelled.
+
+The Carthaginians sent messengers to him proposing terms of peace.
+Their intention was, in these proposals, to retain their province in
+Sicily, as heretofore, and to agree with Pyrrhus in respect to a
+boundary, each party being required by the proposed treaty to confine
+themselves within their respective limits, as thus ascertained.
+Pyrrhus, however, replied that he could entertain no such proposals.
+He answered them precisely as the Romans had answered him on a similar
+occasion, saying that he should insist upon their first retiring from
+Sicily altogether, as a preliminary step to any negotiations whatever.
+The Carthaginians would not accede to this demand, and so the
+negotiations were suspended.
+
+Still the Carthaginians were so securely posted in their strongholds,
+that Pyrrhus supposed the work of dislodging them by force would be a
+slow, and tedious, and perhaps doubtful undertaking. His bold and
+restless spirit accordingly conceived the design of leaving them as
+they were, and going on in the prosecution of his original design, by
+organizing a grand expedition for the invasion of Africa. In fact, he
+thought this would be the most effectual means of getting the
+Carthaginians out of Sicily; since he anticipated that, if he were to
+land in Africa, and threaten Carthage itself, the authorities there
+would be compelled to recall all their forces from foreign lands to
+defend their own homes and firesides at the capital. He determined,
+therefore, to equip his fleet for a voyage across the Mediterranean
+without any delay.
+
+He had ships enough, but he was in want of mariners. In order to
+supply this want, he began to impress the Sicilians into his service.
+They were very reluctant to engage in it, partly from natural
+aversion to so distant and dangerous an enterprise, and partly because
+they were unwilling that Pyrrhus should leave the island himself until
+their foreign foes were entirely expelled. "As soon as you have gone,"
+they said, "the Carthaginians and the Mamertines will come out from
+their hiding-places and retreats, and the country will be immediately
+involved in all the difficulties from which you have been endeavoring
+to deliver us. All your labor will have been lost, and we shall sink,
+perhaps, into a more deplorable condition than ever."
+
+It was evident that these representations were true, but Pyrrhus could
+not be induced to pay any heed to them. He was determined on carrying
+into effect his design of a descent upon the coast of Africa. He
+accordingly pressed forward his preparations in a more arbitrary and
+reckless spirit than ever. He became austere, imperious, and
+tyrannical in his measures. He arrested some of the leading generals
+and ministers of state--men who had been his firmest friends, and
+through whose agency it was that he had been invited into Sicily, but
+whom he now suspected of being unfriendly to his designs. One of these
+men he put to death. In the mean time, he pressed forward his
+preparations, compelling men to join his army and to embark on board
+his fleet, and resorting to other harsh and extreme measures, which
+the people might perhaps have submitted to from one of their own
+hereditary sovereigns, but which were altogether intolerable when
+imposed upon them by a foreign adventurer, who had come to their
+island by their invitation, to accomplish a prescribed and definite
+duty. In a word, before Pyrrhus was ready to embark on his African
+campaign, a general rebellion broke out all over Sicily against his
+authority. Some of the people joined the Mamertines, some the
+Carthaginians. In a word, the whole country was in an uproar, and
+Pyrrhus had the mortification of seeing the great fabric of power
+which, as he imagined, he had been so successfully rearing, come
+tumbling suddenly on all sides to the ground.
+
+As the reader will have learned long before this time, it was not the
+nature of Pyrrhus to remain on the spot and grapple with difficulties
+like these. If there were any new enterprise to be undertaken, or any
+desperate battle to be fought on a sudden emergency, Pyrrhus was
+always ready and eager for action, and almost sure of success. But he
+had no qualities whatever to fit him for the exigencies of such a
+crisis as this. He had ardor and impetuosity, but no perseverance or
+decision. He could fight, but he could not plan. He was recklessly and
+desperately brave in encountering physical danger, but, when involved
+in difficulties and embarrassments, his only resource was to fly.
+Accordingly, it was soon announced in Sicily that Pyrrhus had
+determined to postpone his plan of proceeding to Africa, and was going
+back to Tarentum, whence he came. He had received intelligence from
+Tarentum, he said, that required his immediate return to that city.
+This was probably true; for he had left things in such a condition at
+Tarentum, that he was, doubtless, continually receiving such
+intelligence from that quarter. Whether he received any special or
+extraordinary summons from Tarentum just at this time is extremely
+uncertain. He, however, pretended that such a message had come; and
+under this pretense he sheltered himself in his intended departure, so
+as just to escape the imputation of being actually driven away.
+
+His enemies, however, did not intend to allow him to depart in peace.
+The Carthaginians, being apprised of his design, sent a fleet to watch
+the coast and intercept him; while the Mamertines, crossing the
+Strait, marched to the place on the coast of Italy where they expected
+he would land, intending to attack him as soon as he should set foot
+upon the shore. Both these plans were successful. The Carthaginians
+attacked his fleet, and destroyed many of his ships. Pyrrhus himself
+barely succeeded in making his escape with a small number of vessels,
+and reaching the shore. Here, as soon as he gained the land, he was
+confronted by the Mamertines, who had reached the place before him
+with ten thousand men. Pyrrhus soon collected from the ships that
+reached the land a force so formidable that the Mamertines did not
+dare to attack him in a body, but they blocked up the passes through
+which the way to Tarentum lay, and endeavored in every way to
+intercept and harass him in his march. They killed two of his
+elephants, and cut off many separate detachments of men, and finally
+deranged all his plans, and threw his whole army into confusion.
+Pyrrhus at length determined to force his enemies to battle.
+Accordingly, as soon as a favorable opportunity occurred, he pushed
+forward at the head of a strong force, and attacked the Mamertines in
+a sudden and most impetuous manner.
+
+A terrible conflict ensued, in which Pyrrhus, as usual, exposed
+himself personally in the most desperate manner. In fact, the various
+disappointments and vexations which he had endured had aroused him to
+a state of great exasperation against his tormenting enemies. He
+pushed forward into the hottest part of the battle, his prodigious
+muscular strength enabling him to beat down and destroy, for a time,
+all who attempted to oppose him.
+
+At last, however, he received a terrible wound in the head, which, for
+the moment, entirely disabled him. He was rescued from his peril by
+his friends, though stunned and fainting under the blow, and was borne
+off from the scene of conflict with the blood flowing down his face
+and neck--a frightful spectacle. On being carried to a place of safety
+within his own ranks, he soon revived, and it was found that he was
+not dangerously hurt. The enemy, however, full of rage and hatred,
+came up as near as they dared to the spot where Pyrrhus had been
+carried, and stood there, calling out to him to come back if he was
+still alive, and filling the air with taunting and insulting cries,
+and vociferations of challenge and defiance. Pyrrhus endured this
+mockery for a few moments as well as he could, but was finally goaded
+by it into a perfect phrensy of rage. He seized his weapons, pushed
+his friends and attendants aside, and, in spite of all their
+remonstrances and all their efforts to restrain him, he rushed forth
+and assailed his enemies with greater fury than ever. Breathless as he
+was from his former efforts, and covered with blood and gore, he
+exhibited a shocking spectacle to all who beheld him. The champion of
+the Mamertines--the one who had been foremost in challenging Pyrrhus
+to return--came up to meet him with his weapon upraised. Pyrrhus
+parried the blow, and then, suddenly bringing down his own sword upon
+the top of his antagonist's head, he cut the man down, as the story is
+told, from head to foot, making so complete a division, that one half
+of the body fell over to one side, and the other half to the other.
+
+It is difficult, perhaps, to assign limits to the degree of physical
+strength which the human arm is capable of exerting. This fact,
+however, of cleaving the body of a man by a blow from a sword, was
+regarded in ancient times as just on the line of absolute
+impossibility, and was considered, consequently, as the highest
+personal exploit which a soldier could perform. It was attributed, at
+different times, to several different warriors, though it is not
+believed in modern days that the feat was ever really performed.
+
+But, whatever may have been the fate of the Mamertine champion under
+Pyrrhus's sword, the army itself met with such a discomfiture in the
+battle that they gave Pyrrhus no further trouble, but, retiring from
+the field, left him to pursue his march to Tarentum for the remainder
+of the way in peace. He arrived there at last, with a force in numbers
+about equal to that with which he had left Tarentum for Sicily. The
+whole object, however, of his expedition had totally failed. The
+enterprise, in fact, like almost all the undertakings which Pyrrhus
+engaged in, though brilliantly and triumphantly successful in the
+beginning, came only to disappointment and disaster in the end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE RETREAT FROM ITALY.
+
+B.C. 276-274
+
+State of Pyrrhus's army.--His enfeebled condition.--Precarious
+situation of his affairs.--Affair of Locri.--Pyrrhus recaptures
+it.--Proserpina, the Goddess of Death.--Explanations.--Centaurs,
+mermaids, hippogriffs, and other fables.--Fabulous history of
+Proserpina.--Ceres seeks her.--Mystical significancy of Proserpina's
+life.--Pyrrhus resolves to confiscate the treasures at Locri.--The
+ships are wrecked and the treasures lost.--Pyrrhus is oppressed
+with superstitious fears.--He goes forth from Tarentum to meet the
+Romans.--Pyrrhus meets Curius near Beneventum.--He advances through a
+mountain path by torch-light.--The Romans taken by surprise.--Pyrrhus
+is repulsed.--Adventures of Pyrrhus on the field of battle.--Onset of
+the elephants.--They are terrified by the torches.--The young elephant
+and its mother.--Pyrrhus's flight.--His desperate expedient.--He
+arrives at length safely in Epirus.--
+
+
+The force with which Pyrrhus returned to Tarentum was very nearly as
+large as that which he had taken away, but was composed of very
+different materials. The Greeks from Epirus, whom he had brought over
+with him in the first instance from his native land, had gradually
+disappeared from the ranks of his army. Many of them had been killed
+in battle, and still greater numbers had been carried off by exposure
+and fatigue, and by the thousand other casualties incident to such a
+service as that in which they were engaged. Their places had been
+supplied, from time to time, by new enlistments, or by impressment and
+conscription. Of course, these new recruits were not bound to their
+commander by any ties of attachment or regard. They were mostly
+mercenaries--that is, men hired to fight, and willing to fight, in any
+cause or for any commander, provided they could be paid. In a word,
+Pyrrhus's fellow-countrymen of Epirus had disappeared, and the ranks
+of his army were filled up with unprincipled and destitute wretches,
+who felt no interest in his cause--no pride in his success--no concern
+for his honor. They adhered to him only for the sake of the pay and
+the indulgences of a soldier's life, and for their occasional hopes of
+plunder.
+
+Besides the condition of his army, Pyrrhus found the situation of his
+affairs in other respects very critical on his arrival at Tarentum.
+The Romans had made great progress, during his absence, in subjugating
+the whole country to their sway. Cities and towns, which had been
+under his dominion when he went to Sicily, had been taken by the
+Romans, or had gone over to them of their own accord. The government
+which he had established at Tarentum was thus curtailed of power, and
+shut in in respect to territory; and he felt himself compelled
+immediately to take the field, in order to recover his lost ground.
+
+He adopted vigorous measures immediately to re-enforce his army, and
+to obtain the necessary supplies. His treasury was exhausted; in order
+to replenish it, he dispatched embassadors to his various allies to
+borrow money. He knew, of course, that a large portion of his army
+would abandon him immediately so soon as they should find that he was
+unable to pay them. He was, therefore, quite uneasy for a time in
+respect to the state of his finances, and he instructed his
+embassadors to press the urgency of his wants upon his allies in a
+very earnest manner.
+
+He did not, however, wait for the result of these measures, but
+immediately commenced active operations in the field. One of his first
+exploits was the recapture of Locri, a city situated on the southern
+shore of Italy, as will be seen by the map. This city had been in his
+possession before he went to Sicily, but it had gone over to the
+Romans during his absence. Locri was a very considerable town, and the
+recovery of it from the Romans was considered quite an important gain.
+The place derived its consequence, in some considerable degree, from a
+celebrated temple which stood there. It was the temple of Proserpina,
+the Goddess of Death. This temple was magnificent in its structure,
+and it was enriched with very costly and valuable treasures. It not
+only gave distinction to the town in which it stood, but, on account
+of an extraordinary train of circumstances which occurred in
+connection with it, it became the occasion of one of the most
+important incidents in Pyrrhus's history.
+
+Proserpina, as has already been intimated, was the Goddess of Death.
+It is very difficult for us at the present day to understand and
+appreciate the conceptions which the Greeks and Romans, in ancient
+times, entertained of the supernatural beings which they
+worshiped--those strange creations, in which we see historic truth,
+poetic fancy, and a sublime superstition so singularly blended. To aid
+us in rightly understanding this subject, we must remember that in
+those days the boundaries of what was known as actual reality were
+very uncertain and vague. Only a very small portion, either of the
+visible world or of the domain of science and philosophy, had then
+been explored; and in the thoughts and conceptions of every man, the
+natural and the true passed by insensible gradations, on every hand,
+into the monstrous and the supernatural, there being no principles of
+any kind established in men's minds to mark the boundaries where the
+true and the possible must end, and all beyond be impossible and
+absurd. The knowledge, therefore, that men derived from the
+observation of such truths and such objects as were immediately
+around them, passed by insensible gradations into the regions of fancy
+and romance, and all was believed together. They saw lions and
+elephants in the lands which were near, and which they knew; and they
+believed in the centaurs, the mermaids, the hippogriffs, and the
+dragons, which they imagined inhabiting regions more remote. They saw
+heroes and chieftains in the plains and in the valleys below; and they
+had no reason to disbelieve in the existence of gods and demi-gods
+upon the summits of the blue and beautiful mountains above, where, for
+aught they knew, there might lie boundless territories of verdure and
+loveliness, wholly inaccessible to man. In the same manner, beneath
+the earth somewhere, they knew not where, there lay, as they imagined,
+extended regions destined to receive the spirits of the dead, with
+approaches leading to it, through mysterious grottoes and caverns,
+from above. Proserpina was the Goddess of Death, and the queen of
+these lower abodes.
+
+Various stories were told of her origin and history. The one most
+characteristic and most minutely detailed is this:
+
+She was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. She was very beautiful;
+and, in order to protect her from the importunity of lovers, her
+mother sent her, under the care of an attendant named Calligena, to a
+cavern in Sicily, and concealed her there. The mouth of the cavern was
+guarded by dragons. Pluto, who was the god of the inferior regions,
+asked her of Jupiter, her father, for his wife. Jupiter consented, and
+sent Venus to entice her out of her cavern, that Pluto might obtain
+her. Venus, attended by Minerva and Diana, proceeded to the cavern
+where Proserpina was concealed. The three goddesses contrived some
+means to keep the dragons that guarded the cavern away, and then
+easily persuaded the maiden to come out to take a walk. Proserpina was
+charmed with the verdure and beauty which she found around her on the
+surface of the ground, strongly contrasted as they were with the gloom
+and desolation of her cavern. She was attended by nymphs and zephyrs
+in her walk, and in their company she rambled along, admiring the
+beauty and enjoying the fragrance of the flowers. Some of the flowers
+which most attracted her attention were produced on the spot by the
+miraculous power of Jupiter, who caused them to spring up in wonderful
+luxuriance and splendor, the more effectually to charm the senses of
+the maiden whom they were enticing away. At length, suddenly the
+earth opened, and Pluto appeared, coming up from below in a golden
+chariot drawn by immortal steeds, and, seizing Proserpina, he carried
+her down to his own abodes.
+
+Ceres, the mother of Proserpina, was greatly distressed when she
+learned the fate of her daughter. She immediately went to Jupiter, and
+implored him to restore Proserpina to the upper world. Jupiter, on the
+other hand, urged Ceres to consent to her remaining as the wife of
+Pluto. The mother, however, would not yield, and finally her tears and
+entreaties so far prevailed over Jupiter as to induce him to give
+permission to Ceres to bring Proserpina back, provided that she had
+not tasted of any food that grew in the regions below. Ceres
+accordingly went in search of her daughter. She found, unfortunately,
+that Proserpina, in walking through the Elysian fields with Pluto, had
+incautiously eaten a pomegranate which she had taken from a tree that
+was growing there. She was consequently precluded from availing
+herself of Jupiter's permission to return to Olympus. Finally,
+however, Jupiter consented that she should divide her time between the
+inferior and the superior regions, spending six months with Pluto
+below, and six months with her mother above; and she did so.
+
+Proserpina was looked upon by all mankind with feelings of great
+veneration and awe as the goddess and queen of death, and she was
+worshiped in many places with solemn and imposing ceremonies. There
+was, moreover, in the minds of men, a certain mystical significancy in
+the mode of life which she led, in thus dividing her time by regular
+alternations between the lower and upper worlds, that seemed to them
+to denote and typify the principle of _vegetation_, which may be
+regarded as, in a certain sense, alternately a principle of life and
+death, inasmuch as, for six months in the year, it appears in the form
+of living and growing plants, rising above the ground, and covering
+the earth with verdure and beauty, and then, for the six months that
+remain, it withdraws from the view, and exists only in the form of
+inert and apparently lifeless roots and seeds, concealed in hidden
+recesses beneath the ground. Proserpina was thus considered the type
+and emblem of vegetation, and she was accordingly worshiped, in some
+sense, as the goddess of resuscitation and life, as well as of death
+and the grave.
+
+One of the principal temples which had been built in honor of
+Proserpina was situated, as has already been said, at Locri, and
+ceremonials and festivals were celebrated here, at stated intervals,
+with great pomp and parade. This temple had become very wealthy, too,
+immense treasures having been collected in it, consisting of gold and
+silver vessels, precious stones, and rich and splendid paraphernalia
+of every kind--the gifts and offerings which had been made, from time
+to time, by princes and kings who had attended the festivals.
+
+When Pyrrhus had reconquered Locri from the Romans, and this temple,
+with all its treasures, fell into his power, some of his advisers
+suggested that, since he was in such urgent need of money, and all his
+other plans for supplying himself had hitherto failed, he should take
+possession of these treasures. They might, it was argued, be
+considered, in some sense, as public property; and, as the Locrians
+had revolted from him in his absence, and had now been conquered anew,
+he was entitled to regard these riches as the spoils of victory.
+Pyrrhus determined to follow this advice. He took possession of the
+richest and most valuable of the articles which the temple contained,
+and, putting them on board ships which he sent to Locri for the
+purpose, he undertook to transport them to Tarentum. He intended to
+convert them there into money, in order to obtain funds to supply the
+wants of his army.
+
+The ships, however, on their passage along the coast, encountered a
+terrible storm, and were nearly all wrecked and destroyed. The
+mariners who had navigated the vessels were drowned, while yet the
+sacred treasures were saved, and that, too, as it would seem, by some
+supernatural agency, since the same surges which overwhelmed and
+destroyed the sacrilegious ships and seamen, washed the cases in which
+the holy treasures had been packed up upon the beach; and there the
+messengers of Pyrrhus found them, scattered among the rocks and on the
+sand at various points along the shore. Pyrrhus was greatly terrified
+at this disaster. He conceived that it was a judgment of Heaven,
+inflicted upon him through the influence and agency of Proserpina, as
+a punishment for his impious presumption in despoiling her shrine. He
+carefully collected all that the sea had saved, and sent every thing
+back to Locri. He instituted solemn services there in honor of
+Proserpina, to express his penitence for his faults, and, to give a
+still more decisive proof of his desire to appease her anger, he put
+to death the counselors who had advised him to take the treasures.
+
+Notwithstanding all these attempts to atone for his offense, Pyrrhus
+could not dispel from his mind the gloomy impression which had been
+made upon it by the idea that he had incurred the direct displeasure
+of Heaven. He did not believe that the anger of Proserpina was ever
+fully appeased; and whenever misfortunes and calamities befell him in
+his subsequent career, he attributed them to the displeasure of the
+goddess of death, who, as he believed, followed him every where, and
+was intent on effecting his ruin.
+
+It was now late in the season, and the military operations both of
+Pyrrhus and of the Romans were, in a great measure, suspended until
+spring. Pyrrhus spent the interval in making arrangements for taking
+the field as soon as the winter should be over. He had, however, many
+difficulties to contend with. His financial embarrassment still
+continued. His efforts to procure funds were only very partially
+successful. The people too, in all the region about Tarentum, were, he
+found, wholly alienated from him. They had not forgiven him for having
+left them to go to Sicily, and, in consequence of this abandonment of
+their cause, they had lost much of their confidence in him as their
+protector, while every thing like enthusiasm in his service was wholly
+gone. Through these and other causes, he encountered innumerable
+impediments in executing his plans, and his mind was harassed with
+continual disappointment and anxiety.
+
+Such, however, was still his resolution and energy, that when the
+season arrived for taking the field, he had a considerable force in
+readiness, and he marched out of Tarentum at the head of it, to go and
+meet the Romans. The Romans themselves, on the other hand, had raised
+a very large force, and had sent it forward in two divisions, under
+the command of the two consuls. These two divisions took different
+routes; one passing to the north, through the province of Samnium, and
+the other to the south, through Lucania--both, however, leading toward
+Tarentum. Pyrrhus divided his forces also into two parts. One body of
+troops he sent northwardly into Samnium, to meet the northern division
+of the Roman army, while with the other he advanced himself by the
+more southern route, to meet the Roman consul who was coming through
+Lucania. The name of this consul was Curius Dentatus.
+
+Pyrrhus advanced into Lucania. The Roman general, when he found that
+his enemy was coming, thought it most prudent to send for the other
+division of his army--namely, the one which was marching through
+Samnium--and to wait until it should arrive before giving Pyrrhus
+battle. He accordingly dispatched the necessary orders to Lentulus,
+who commanded the northern division, and, in the mean time, intrenched
+himself in a strong encampment at a place called Beneventum. Pyrrhus
+entered Lucania and advanced toward Beneventum, and, after
+ascertaining the state of the case in respect to the situation of the
+camp and the plans of Curius, he paused at some distance from the
+Roman position, in order to consider what it was best for him to do.
+He finally came to the conclusion that it was very important that his
+conflict with the Romans under Curius should take place before
+Lentulus should arrive to re-enforce them, and so he determined to
+advance rapidly, and fall upon and surprise them in their
+intrenchments before they were aware of his approach. This plan he
+accordingly attempted to execute. He advanced in the ordinary manner
+and by the public roads of the country until he began to draw near to
+Beneventum. At the close of the day he encamped as usual; but,
+instead of waiting in his camp until the following day, and then
+marching on in his accustomed manner, he procured guides to lead his
+troops around by a circuitous path among the mountains, with a view of
+coming down suddenly and unexpectedly upon the camp of the Romans from
+the hills very early in the morning. An immense number of torches were
+provided, to furnish light for the soldiers in traversing the dark
+forests and gloomy ravines through which their pathway lay.
+
+Notwithstanding all the precautions which had been taken, the
+difficulties of the route were so great that the progress of the
+troops was very much impeded. The track was every where encumbered
+with bushes, rocks, fallen trees, and swampy tracts of ground, so that
+the soldiers made way very slowly. Great numbers of the torches failed
+in the course of the night, some getting extinguished by accident, and
+others going out from exhaustion of fuel. By these means great numbers
+of the troops were left in the dark, and after groping about for a
+time in devious and uncertain paths, became hopelessly lost in the
+forest. Notwithstanding all these difficulties and discouragements,
+however, the main body of the army pressed resolutely on, and, just
+about daybreak, the van came out upon the heights above the Roman
+encampment. As soon as a sufficient number were assembled, they were
+at once marshaled in battle array, and, descending from the mountains,
+they made a furious onset upon the intrenchments of the enemy.
+
+The Romans were taken wholly by surprise, and their camp became
+immediately a scene of the wildest confusion. The men started up every
+where out of their sleep and seized their arms. They were soon in a
+situation to make a very effectual resistance to the attack of their
+enemies. They first beat the assailants back from the points where
+they were endeavoring to gain admission, and then, encouraged by their
+success, they sallied forth from their intrenchments, and became
+assailants in their turn. The Greeks were soon overpowered, and forced
+to retire altogether from the ground. A great many were killed, and
+some elephants, which Pyrrhus had contrived by some means to bring up
+to the spot, were taken. The Romans were, of course, greatly elated at
+this victory.
+
+In fact, so much was Curius gratified and pleased with this success,
+and so great was the confidence with which it inspired him, that he
+determined to wait no longer for Lentulus, but to march out at once
+and give Pyrrhus battle. He accordingly brought forth his troops and
+drew them up on a plain near his encampment, posting them in such a
+way as to gain a certain advantage for himself in the nature of the
+ground which he had chosen, while yet, since there was nothing but the
+open field between himself and his enemy, the movement was a fair and
+regular challenge to battle. Pyrrhus accepted this challenge by
+bringing up his forces to the field, and the conflict began.
+
+As soon as the combatants were fairly engaged, one of the wings of
+Pyrrhus's army began to give way. The other wing, on the contrary,
+which was the one that Pyrrhus himself personally commanded, was
+victorious. Pyrrhus himself led his soldiers on; and he inspired
+them with so much strength and energy by his own reckless daring,
+that all those portions of the Roman army which were opposed to them
+were beaten and driven back into the camp. This success, however,
+was not wholly owing to the personal prowess of Pyrrhus. It was due,
+in a great measure, to the power of the elephants, for they fought
+in that part of the field. As the Romans were almost wholly
+unaccustomed to the warfare of elephants, they knew not how to
+resist them, and the huge beasts bore down all before them wherever
+they moved. In this crisis, Curius ordered a fresh body of troops to
+advance. It was a corps of reserve, which he had stationed near the
+camp under orders to hold themselves in readiness there, to come
+forward and act at any moment, and at any part of the field wherever
+their services might be required. These troops were now summoned to
+advance and attack the elephants. They accordingly came rushing on,
+brandishing their swords in one hand, and bearing burning torches,
+with which they had been provided for the occasion, in the other.
+The torches they threw at the elephants as soon as they came near,
+in order to terrify them and make them unmanageable; and then, with
+their swords, they attacked the keepers and drivers of the beasts,
+and the men who fought in connection with them. The success of this
+onset was so great, that the elephants soon became unmanageable.
+They even broke into the phalanx, and threw the ranks of it into
+confusion, overturning and trampling upon the men, and falling
+themselves upon the slain, under the wounds which the spears
+inflicted upon them.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROUT.]
+
+A remarkable incident is said to have occurred in the midst of this
+scene of confusion and terror, which strikingly illustrates the
+strength of the maternal instinct, even among brutes. It happened that
+there was a young elephant, and also its mother, in the same division
+of Pyrrhus's army. The former, though young, was sufficiently grown to
+serve as an elephant of war, and, as it happened, its post on the
+field of battle was not very far from that of its mother. In the
+course of the battle the young elephant was wounded, and it uttered
+immediately a piercing cry of pain and terror. The mother heard the
+cry, and recognized the voice that uttered it through all the din and
+uproar of the battle. She immediately became wholly ungovernable, and,
+breaking away from the control of her keepers, she rushed forward,
+trampling down every thing in her way, to rescue and protect her
+offspring. This incident occurred at the commencement of the attack
+which the Roman reserve made upon the elephants, and contributed very
+essentially to the panic and confusion which followed.
+
+In the end Pyrrhus was entirely defeated. He was compelled to abandon
+his camp and to retire toward Tarentum. The Romans immediately
+advanced, flushed with victory, and carrying all before them. Pyrrhus
+retreated faster and faster, his numbers continually diminishing as he
+fled, until at last, when he reached Tarentum, he had only a few
+horsemen in his train. He sent off the most urgent requests to his
+friends and allies in Greece to furnish him aid. The help, however,
+did not come, and Pyrrhus, in order to keep the small remnant that
+still adhered to him together, resorted to the desperate expedient of
+forging letters from his friends, promising speedy and abundant
+supplies, and showing these letters to his officers, to prevent them
+from being wholly discouraged and abandoning his cause. This miserable
+contrivance, however, even if successful, could only afford a
+momentary relief. Pyrrhus soon found that all hope and possibility of
+retrieving his fortunes in Italy had entirely disappeared, and that no
+alternative was left to him but to abandon the ground. So, pretending
+to wonder why his allies did not send forward the succors which they
+had promised in their letters, and saying that, since they were so
+dilatory and remiss, he must go himself and bring them, but promising
+that he would immediately return, he set sail from Tarentum, and,
+crossing the sea, went home to his own kingdom. He arrived safely in
+Epirus after an absence of six years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS.
+
+B.C. 284-273
+
+Some account of the family of Lysimachus.--Remarks on the principle
+of hereditary succession.--Difficulties that often
+occur.--Examples.--Return to the history of Macedon.--Stories of
+Lysimachus's strength and courage.--Put in a dungeon with a
+lion.--Amastris and her two sons.--Arsinoe.--Feud in Ptolemy's
+family.--Origin of the quarrel.--Account of the family.--Ptolemy
+Ceraunus.--Transfer of the quarrel from Egypt to
+Macedon.--Lysandra.--Envy and hatred of Arsinoe.--Lysandra's husband
+imprisoned.--Danger of her children.--Lysandra's flight.--An army
+raised.--Desperate battle.--Ptolemy Ceraunus.--His reckless and
+desperate character.--Alliance of Ceraunus with Seleucus.--His
+plans.--Ceraunus's meditated treachery.--Argos.--Ceraunus proceeds
+to Macedon.--His rivals and enemies.--Their various claims.--The
+first contest was with Antigonus.--Arsinoe and her children.--Their
+retreat to Cassandria.--Ceraunus proposes marriage to
+Arsinoe.--Ceraunus finds himself in great prosperity.--Invasion
+threatened.--Ceraunus prepares to defend himself.--Ceraunus thrown
+to the ground and killed.--Consequences of the death of Ceraunus.
+
+
+The reader will perhaps recollect that when Pyrrhus withdrew from
+Macedon, before he embarked on his celebrated expedition into Italy,
+the enemy before he was compelled to retire was Lysimachus. Lysimachus
+continued to reign in Macedon for some time after Pyrrhus had gone,
+until, finally, he was himself overthrown, under circumstances of a
+very remarkable character. In fact, his whole history affords a
+striking illustration of the nature of the results which often
+followed, in ancient times, from the system of government which then
+almost universally prevailed--a system in which the supreme power was
+considered as rightfully belonging to some sovereign who derived it
+from his ancestors by hereditary descent, and who, in the exercise of
+it, was entirely above all sense of responsibility to the subjects of
+his dominion.
+
+It has sometimes been said by writers on the theory of civil
+government that the principle of hereditary sovereignty in the
+government of a nation has a decided advantage over any elective mode
+of designating the chief magistrate, on account of its _certainty_. If
+the system is such that, on the death of a monarch, the supreme power
+descends to his eldest son, the succession is determined at once,
+without debate or delay. If, on the other hand, an election is to take
+place, there must be a contest. Parties are formed; plans and
+counterplans are laid; a protracted and heated controversy ensues; and
+when, finally, the voting is ended, there is sometimes doubt and
+uncertainty in ascertaining the true result, and very often an angry
+and obstinate refusal to acquiesce in it when it is determined. Thus
+the principle of hereditary descent seems simple, clear, and liable to
+no uncertainty or doubt, while that of popular election tends to lead
+the country subject to it into endless disputes, and often ultimately
+to civil war.
+
+But though this may be in _theory_ the operation of the two systems,
+in actual practice it has been found that the hereditary principle has
+very little advantage over any other in respect to the avoidance of
+uncertainty and dispute. Among the innumerable forms and phases which
+the principle of hereditary descent assumes in actual life, the cases
+in which one acknowledged and unquestioned sovereign of a country
+dies, and leaves one acknowledged and unquestioned heir, are
+comparatively few. The relationships existing among the various
+branches of a family are often extremely intricate and complicated.
+Sometimes they become variously entangled with each other by
+intermarriages; sometimes the claims arising under them are disturbed,
+or modified, or confused by conquests and revolutions; and thus they
+often become so hopelessly involved that no human sagacity can
+classify or arrange them. The case of France at the present time[L] is
+a striking illustration of this difficulty, there being in that
+country no less than three sets of claimants who regard themselves
+entitled to the supreme power--the representatives, namely, of the
+Bourbon, the Orleans, and the Napoleon dynasties. Each one of the
+great parties rests the claim which they severally advance in behalf
+of their respective candidates more or less exclusively on rights
+derived from their hereditary relationship to former rulers of the
+kingdom, and there is no possible mode of settling the question
+between them but by the test of power. Even if all concerned were
+disposed to determine the controversy by a peaceful appeal to the
+principles of the law of descent, as relating to the transmission of
+governmental power, no principles could be found that would apply to
+the case; or, rather, so numerous are the principles that would be
+required to be taken into the account, and so involved and complicated
+are the facts to which they must be applied, that any distinct
+solution of the question on theoretical grounds would be utterly
+impossible. There is, and there can be, no means of solving such a
+question but power.
+
+[Footnote L: January, 1852.]
+
+In fact, the history of the smaller monarchies of ancient times is
+comprised, sometimes for centuries almost exclusively, in narratives
+of the intrigues, the contentions, and the bloody wars of rival
+families, and rival branches of the same family, in asserting their
+respective claims as inheritors to the possession of power. This truth
+is strikingly illustrated in the events which occurred in Macedon
+during the absence of Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily, in connection with
+the family of Lysimachus, and his successor in power there. These
+events we shall now proceed to relate in their order.
+
+At the time when Pyrrhus was driven from Macedon by Lysimachus,
+previous to his going into Italy, Lysimachus was far advanced in age.
+He was, in fact, at this time nearly seventy years old. He commenced
+his military career during the lifetime of Alexander the Great, having
+been one of the great conqueror's most distinguished generals. Many
+stories were told, in his early life, of his personal strength and
+valor. On one occasion, as was said, when hunting in Syria, he
+encountered a lion of immense size single-handed, and, after a very
+desperate and obstinate conflict, he succeeded in killing him, though
+not without receiving severe wounds himself in the contest. Another
+story was, that at one time, having displeased Alexander, he was
+condemned to suffer death, and that, too, in a very cruel and horrible
+manner. He was to be thrown into a lion's den. This was a mode of
+execution not uncommon in ancient times. It answered a double purpose;
+it not only served for a terrible punishment in respect to the man,
+but it also effected a useful end in respect to the animal. By giving
+him a living man to seize and devour, the savage ferocity of the beast
+was stimulated and increased, and thus he was rendered more valuable
+for the purposes and uses for which he was retained. In the case of
+Lysimachus, however, both these objects failed. As soon as he was put
+into the dungeon where the lion was awaiting him, he attacked the
+beast, and, though unarmed, he succeeded in destroying him. Alexander
+admired so much the desperate strength and courage evinced by this
+exploit, that he pardoned the criminal and restored him to favor.
+
+Lysimachus continued in the service of Alexander as long as that
+monarch lived; and when, at the death of Alexander, the empire was
+divided among the leading generals, the kingdom of Thrace, which
+adjoins Macedon on the east,[M] was assigned to him as his portion. He
+is commonly designated, therefore, in history, as the King of Thrace;
+though in the subsequent part of his life he obtained possession also,
+by conquest, of the kingdom of Macedon. He married, in succession,
+several wives, and experienced through them a great variety of
+domestic troubles. His second wife was a Sicilian princess named
+Amastris. She was a widow at the time of her marriage with Lysimachus,
+and had two sons. After being married to her for some time, Lysimachus
+repudiated and abandoned her, and she returned to Sicily with her two
+sons, and lived in a certain city which belonged to them there. The
+young men were not of age, and Amastris accordingly assumed the
+government of the city in their name. They, however, quarreled with
+their mother, and finally drowned her, in order to remove her out of
+their way. Lysimachus, though he might justly have considered himself
+as in some sense the cause of this catastrophe, since, by deserting
+his wife and withdrawing his protection from her, he compelled her to
+return to Sicily and put herself in the power of her unnatural sons,
+was still very indignant at the event, and, fitting out an expedition,
+he went to Sicily, captured the city, took the sons of Amastris
+prisoners, and put them to death without mercy, in retribution for
+their atrocious crime.
+
+[Footnote M: See map.]
+
+At the time when Lysimachus put away his wife, Amastris, he married
+Arsinoe, an Egyptian princess, the daughter, in fact, of Ptolemy, the
+son of Lagus, who was at this time the king of Egypt. How far
+Lysimachus was governed, in his repudiation of Amastris, by the
+influence of Arsinoe's personal attractions in winning his heart away
+from his fidelity to his legitimate wife, and how far, on the other
+hand, he was alienated from her by her own misconduct or the violence
+of her temper, is not now known. At any rate, the Sicilian wife, as
+has been stated, was dismissed and sent home, and the Egyptian
+princess came into her place.
+
+The small degree of domestic peace and comfort which Lysimachus had
+hitherto enjoyed was far from being improved by this change. The
+family of Ptolemy was distracted by a deadly feud, and, by means of
+the marriage of Arsinoe with Lysimachus, and of another marriage which
+subsequently occurred, and which will be spoken of presently, the
+quarrel was transferred, in all its bitterness, to the family of
+Lysimachus, where it produced the most dreadful results.
+
+The origin of the quarrel in the household of Ptolemy was this:
+Ptolemy married, for his first wife, Eurydice, the daughter of
+Antipater. When Eurydice, at the time of her marriage, went with her
+husband into Egypt, she was accompanied by her cousin Berenice, a
+young and beautiful widow, whom she invited to go with her as her
+companion and friend. A great change, however, soon took place in the
+relations which they sustained to each other. From being very
+affectionate and confidential friends, they became, as often happens
+in similar cases, on far less conspicuous theatres of action, rivals
+and enemies. Berenice gained the affections of Ptolemy, and at length
+he married her. Arsinoe, whom Lysimachus married, was the daughter of
+Ptolemy and Berenice. They had also a son who was named Ptolemy, and
+who, at the death of his father, succeeded him on the throne. This son
+subsequently became renowned in history under the name of Ptolemy
+Philadelphus. He was the second monarch of the Ptolemaic line.
+
+But, besides these descendants of Berenice, there was another set of
+children in Ptolemy's family--namely, those by Eurydice. Eurydice had
+a son and a daughter. The name of the son was Ptolemy Ceraunus; that
+of the daughter was Lysandra. There was, of course, a standing and
+bitter feud always raging between these two branches of the royal
+household. The two wives, though they had once been friends, now, of
+course, hated each other with perfect hatred. Each had her own circle
+of partisans and adherents, and the court was distracted for many
+years with the intrigues, the plots, the dissensions, and the endless
+schemes and counterschemes which were resorted to by the two parties
+in their efforts to thwart and circumvent each other. As Arsinoe, the
+wife of Lysimachus, was the daughter of Berenice, it might have been
+expected that the influence of Berenice's party would prevail in
+Lysimachus's court. This would doubtless have been the case, had it
+not been that unfortunately there was another alliance formed between
+the two families which complicated the connection, and led, in the
+end, to the most deplorable results. This other alliance was the
+marriage of Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, with Lysandra,
+Eurydice's daughter. Thus, in the court and family of Lysimachus,
+Berenice had a representative in the person of her daughter Arsinoe,
+the wife of the king himself; while Eurydice, also, had one in the
+person of her daughter Lysandra, the wife of the king's son. Of
+course, the whole virulence of the quarrel was spread from Egypt to
+Macedon, and the household of Lysimachus was distracted by the
+dissensions of Arsinoe and Lysandra, and by the attempts which each
+made to effect the destruction of the other.
+
+Of course, in this contest, the advantage was on the side of Arsinoe,
+since she was the wife of the king himself, while Lysandra was only
+the wife of his son. Still, the position and the influence of
+Lysandra were very high. Agathocles was a prince of great
+consideration and honor. He had been very successful in his military
+campaigns, had won many battles, and had greatly extended the dominion
+and power of his father. He was a great favorite, in fact, both with
+the army and with the people, all of whom looked up to him as the hope
+and the pride of the kingdom.
+
+Of course, the bestowal of all this fame and honor upon Lysandra's
+husband only served to excite the rivalry and hatred of Arsinoe the
+more. She and Lysandra were sisters, or, rather, half-sisters--being
+daughters of the same father. They were, however, on this very
+account, natural enemies to each other, for their mothers were rivals.
+Arsinoe, of course, was continually devising means to curtail the
+growing importance and greatness of Agathocles. Agathocles himself, on
+the other hand, would naturally make every effort to thwart and
+counteract her designs. In the end, Arsinoe succeeded in convincing
+Lysimachus that Agathocles was plotting a conspiracy against him, and
+was intending to take the kingdom into his own hands. This may have
+been true. Whether it was true or false, however, can now never be
+known. At all events, Lysimachus was induced to believe it. He ordered
+Agathocles to be seized and put into prison, and then, a short time
+afterward, he caused him to be poisoned. Lysandra was overwhelmed with
+consternation and sorrow at this event. She was, moreover, greatly
+alarmed for herself and for her children, and also for her brother,
+Ptolemy Ceraunus, who was with her at this time. It was obvious that
+there could be no longer any safety for her in Macedon, and so, taking
+with her her children, her brother, and a few friends who adhered to
+her cause, she made her escape from Macedon and went to Asia. Here she
+cast herself upon the protection of Seleucus, king of Syria.
+
+Seleucus was another of the generals of Alexander--the only one, in
+fact, besides Lysimachus, who now survived. He had, of course, like
+Lysimachus, attained to a very advanced period of life, being at this
+time more than seventy-five years old. These veterans might have been
+supposed to have lived long enough to have laid aside their ancient
+rivalries, and to have been willing to spend their few remaining years
+in peace. But it was far otherwise in fact. Seleucus was pleased with
+the pretext afforded him, by the coming of Lysandra, for embarking in
+new wars. Lysandra was, in a short time, followed in her flight by
+many of the nobles and chieftains of Macedon, who had espoused her
+cause. Lysimachus, in fact, had driven them away by the severe
+measures which he had adopted against them. These men assembled at the
+court of Seleucus, and there, with Lysander and Ptolemy Ceraunus, they
+began to form plans for invading the dominions of Lysimachus, and
+avenging the cruel death of Agathocles. Seleucus was very easily
+induced to enter into these plans, and war was declared.
+
+Lysimachus did not wait for his enemies to invade his dominions; he
+organized an army, crossed the Hellespont, and marched to meet
+Seleucus in Asia Minor. The armies met in Phrygia. A desperate battle
+was fought. Lysimachus was conquered and slain.
+
+Seleucus now determined to cross the Hellespont himself, and,
+advancing into Thrace and Macedon, to annex those kingdoms to his own
+domains. Ptolemy Ceraunus accompanied him. This Ptolemy, it will be
+recollected, was the son of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, by his wife
+Eurydice; and, at first view, it might seem that he could have no
+claim whatever himself to the crown of Macedon. But Eurydice, his
+mother, was the daughter of Antipater, the general to whom Macedon had
+been assigned on the original division of the empire after Alexander's
+death. Antipater had reigned over the kingdom for a long time with
+great splendor and renown, and his name and memory were still held in
+great veneration by all the Macedonians. Ptolemy Ceraunus began to
+conceive, therefore, that he was entitled to succeed to the kingdom as
+the grandson and heir of the monarch who was Alexander's immediate
+successor, and whose claims were consequently, as he contended,
+entitled to take precedence of all others.
+
+Moreover, Ptolemy Ceraunus had lived for a long time in Macedon, at
+the court of Lysimachus, having fled there from Egypt on account of
+the quarrels in which he was involved in his father's family. He was a
+man of a very reckless and desperate character, and, while a young man
+in his father's court, he had shown himself very ill able to brook the
+preference which his father was disposed to accord to Berenice and to
+her children over his mother Eurydice and him. In fact, it was said
+that one reason which led his father to give Berenice's family the
+precedence over that of Eurydice, and to propose that _her_ son
+rather than Ptolemy Ceraunus should succeed him, was the violent and
+uncontrollable spirit which Ceraunus displayed. At any rate, Ceraunus
+quarreled openly with his father, and went to Macedon to join his
+sister there. He had subsequently spent some considerable time at the
+court of Lysimachus, and had taken some active part in public affairs.
+When Agathocles was poisoned, he fled with Lysandra to Seleucus; and
+when the preparations were made by Seleucus for war with Lysimachus,
+he probably regarded himself as in some sense the leader of the
+expedition. He considered Seleucus as his ally, going with him to aid
+him in the attempt to recover the kingdom of his ancestors.
+
+Seleucus, however, had no such design. He by no means considered
+himself as engaged in prosecuting an expedition for the benefit of
+Ceraunus. _His_ plan was the enlargement of his own dominion; and as
+for Ceraunus, he regarded him only as an adventurer following in his
+train--a useful auxiliary, perhaps, but by no means entitled to be
+considered as a principal in the momentous transactions which were
+taking place. Ceraunus, when he found what the state of the case
+really was, being wholly unscrupulous in respect to the means that he
+employed for the attainment of his ends, determined to kill Seleucus
+on the first opportunity.
+
+Seleucus seems to have had no suspicion of this design, for he
+advanced into Thrace, on his way to Macedon, without fear, and without
+taking any precautions to guard himself from the danger of Ceraunus's
+meditated treachery. At length he arrived at a certain town which they
+told him was called Argos. He seemed alarmed on hearing this name,
+and, when they inquired the reason, he said that he had been warned by
+an oracle, at some former period of his life, to beware of Argos, as a
+place that was destined to be for him the scene of some mysterious and
+dreadful danger. He had supposed that another Argos was alluded to in
+this warning, namely, an Argos in Greece. He had not known before of
+the existence of any Argos in Thrace. If he had been aware of it, he
+would have ordered his march so as to have avoided it altogether; and
+now, in consequence of the anxious forebodings that were excited by
+the name, he determined to withdraw from the place without delay. He
+was, however, overtaken by his fate before he could effect his
+resolution. Ptolemy Ceraunus, watching a favorable opportunity which
+occurred while he was at Argos, came stealthily up behind the aged
+king, and stabbed him in the back with a dagger. Seleucus immediately
+fell down and died.
+
+Ptolemy Ceraunus forthwith organized a body of adherents and proceeded
+to Macedon, where he assumed the diadem, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed king. He found the country distracted by dissensions, many
+parties having been formed, from time to time, in the course of the
+preceding reigns, each of which was now disposed to come forward with
+its candidates and its claims. All these Ptolemy Ceraunus boldly set
+aside. He endeavored to secure all those who were friendly to the
+ancient house of Antipater by saying that he was Antipater's grandson
+and heir; and, on the other hand, to conciliate the partisans of
+Lysimachus, by saying that he was Lysimachus's avenger. This was in
+one sense true, for he had murdered Seleucus, the man by whom
+Lysimachus had been destroyed. He relied, however, after all, for the
+means of sustaining himself in his new position, not on his reasons,
+but on his troops; and he accordingly advanced into the country more
+as a conqueror coming to subjugate a nation by force, than as a
+prince succeeding peacefully to an hereditary crown.
+
+He soon had many rivals and enemies in the field against him. The
+three principal ones were Antiochus, Antigonus, and Pyrrhus. Antiochus
+was the son of Seleucus. He maintained that his father had fairly
+conquered the kingdom of Macedon, and had acquired the right to reign
+over it; that Ptolemy Ceraunus, by assassinating Seleucus, had not
+divested him of any of his rights, but that they all descended
+unimpaired to his son, and that he himself, therefore, was the true
+king of Macedon. Antigonus was the son of Demetrius, who had reigned
+in Macedon at a former period, before Lysimachus had invaded and
+conquered the kingdom. Antigonus therefore maintained that his right
+was superior to that of Ptolemy, for his father had been the
+acknowledged sovereign of the country at a period subsequent to that
+of the reign of Antipater. Pyrrhus was the third claimant. He had held
+Macedon by conquest immediately before the reign of Lysimachus, and
+now, since Lysimachus had been deposed, his rights, as he alleged,
+revived. In a word, there were four competitors for the throne, each
+urging claims compounded of rights of conquest and of inheritance, so
+complicated and so involved, one with the other, as to render all
+attempts at a peaceable adjudication of them absolutely hopeless.
+There could be no possible way of determining who was best entitled to
+the throne in such a case. The only question, therefore, that remained
+was, who was best able to take and keep it.
+
+This question Ptolemy Ceraunus had first to try with Antigonus, who
+came to invade the country with a fleet and an army from Greece. After
+a very short but violent contest, Antigonus was defeated, both by sea
+and by land, and Ceraunus remained master of the kingdom. This triumph
+greatly strengthened his power in respect to the other competitors.
+He, in fact, contrived to settle the question with them by treaty, in
+which they acknowledged him as king. In the case of Pyrrhus, he
+agreed, in consideration of being allowed peaceably to retain
+possession of his kingdom, to furnish a certain amount of military aid
+to strengthen the hands of Pyrrhus in the wars in which he was then
+engaged in Italy and Sicily. The force which he thus furnished
+consisted of five thousand foot, four thousand horse, and fifty
+elephants.
+
+Thus it would seem that every thing was settled. There was, however,
+one difficulty still remaining. Arsinoe, the widow of Lysimachus,
+still lived. It was Arsinoe, it will be recollected, whose jealousy of
+her half-sister, Lysandra, had caused the death of Agathocles and the
+flight of Lysandra, and which had led to the expedition of Seleucus,
+and the subsequent revolution in Macedon. When her husband was killed,
+she, instead of submitting at once to the change of government, shut
+herself up in Cassandria, a rich and well-defended city. She had her
+sons with her, who, as the children of Lysimachus, were heirs to the
+throne. She was well aware that she had, for the time being, no means
+at her command for supporting the claims of her children, but she was
+fully determined not to relinquish them, but to defend herself and her
+children in the city of Cassandria, as well as she was able, until
+some change should take place in the aspect of public affairs.
+Ceraunus, of course, saw in her a very formidable and dangerous
+opponent; and, after having triumphed over Antigonus, and concluded
+his peace with Antiochus and with Pyrrhus, he advanced toward
+Cassandria, revolving in his mind the question by what means he could
+best manage to get Arsinoe and her children into his power.
+
+He concluded to try the effect of cunning and treachery before
+resorting to force. He accordingly sent a message to Arsinoe,
+proposing that, instead of quarreling for the kingdom, they should
+unite their claims, and asking her, for this purpose, to become his
+wife. He would marry her, he said, and adopt her children as his own,
+and thus the whole question would be amicably settled.
+
+Arsinoe very readily acceded to this proposal. It is true that she was
+the half-sister of Ceraunus; but this relationship was no bar to a
+matrimonial union, according to the ideas that prevailed in the courts
+of kings in those days. Arsinoe, accordingly, gave her consent to the
+proposal, and opened the gates of the city to Ceraunus and his troops.
+Ceraunus immediately put her two sons to death. Arsinoe herself fled
+from the city. Very probably Ceraunus allowed her to escape, since, as
+she herself had no claim to the throne, any open violence offered to
+her would have been a gratuitous crime, which would have increased,
+unnecessarily, the odium that would naturally attach to Ceraunus's
+proceedings. At any rate, Arsinoe escaped, and, after various
+wanderings, found her way back to her former home in her father's
+court at Alexandria.
+
+The heart of Ceraunus was now filled with exultation and pride. All
+his schemes had proved successful, and he found himself, at last, in
+secure possession, as he thought, of a powerful and wealthy kingdom.
+He wrote home to his brother in Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus--by whom,
+as the reader will recollect, he had been supplanted there, in
+consequence of his father's preference for the children of
+Berenice--saying that he now acquiesced in that disposition of the
+kingdom of Egypt, since he had acquired for himself a better kingdom
+in Macedon. He proceeded to complete the organization of his
+government. He recruited his armies; he fortified his towns; and began
+to consider himself as firmly established on his throne. All his
+dreams, however, of security and peace, were soon brought to a very
+sudden termination.
+
+There was a race of half-civilized people on the banks of the Danube
+called Gauls. Some tribes of this nation afterward settled in what is
+now France, and gave their name to that country. At the period,
+however, of the events which we are here relating, the chief seat of
+their dominion was a region on the banks of the Danube, north of
+Macedon and Thrace. Here they had been for some time concentrating
+their forces and gradually increasing in power, although their
+movements had been very little regarded by Ceraunus. Now, however, a
+deputation suddenly appeared at Ceraunus's capital, to say that they
+were prepared for an invasion of his dominions, and asking him how
+much money he would give for peace. Ceraunus, in the pride of his
+newly-established power, treated this proposal with derision. He
+directed the embassadors to go back and say that, far from wishing to
+purchase peace, he would not _allow_ peace to them, unless they
+immediately sent him all their principal generals, as hostages for
+their good behavior. Of course, after such an interchange of messages
+as this, both parties immediately prepared for war.
+
+Ceraunus assembled all the forces that he could command, marched
+northward to meet his enemy, and a great battle was fought between the
+two armies. Ceraunus commanded in person in this conflict. He rode
+into the field at the head of his troops, mounted on an elephant. In
+the course of the action he was wounded, and the elephant on which he
+rode becoming infuriated at the same time, perhaps from being wounded
+himself too, threw his rider to the ground. The Gauls who were
+fighting around him immediately seized him. Without any hesitation or
+delay they cut off his head, and, raising it on the point of a pike,
+they bore it about the field in triumph. This spectacle so appalled
+and intimidated the army of the Macedonians, that the ranks were soon
+broken, and the troops, giving way, fled in all directions, and the
+Gauls found themselves masters of the field.
+
+[Illustration: THE FALLEN ELEPHANT.]
+
+The death of Ptolemy Ceraunus was, of course, the signal for all the
+old claimants to the throne to come forward with their several
+pretensions anew. A protracted period of dissension and misrule
+ensued, during which the Gauls made dreadful havoc in all the northern
+portions of Macedon. Antigonus at last succeeded in gaining the
+advantage, and obtained a sort of nominal possession of the throne,
+which he held until the time when Pyrrhus returned to Epirus from
+Italy. Pyrrhus, being informed of this state of things, could not
+resist the desire which he felt of making an incursion into Macedon,
+and seizing for himself the prize for which rivals, no better entitled
+to it than he, were so fiercely contending.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RECONQUEST OF MACEDON.
+
+B.C. 273-272
+
+Fatal deficiencies in Pyrrhus's character.--Fickleness of
+Pyrrhus.--Consequences which resulted from it.--Examples of his want
+of perseverance.--Reasons for the proposed invasion of Macedon.--In
+the outset Pyrrhus is successful.--The country is disposed to submit
+to him.--Combat in the mountain defile.--Account of the phalanx.--Its
+terrible efficacy.--Impossibility of making any impression upon
+it.--The elephants.--Order of battle.--The elephants overpowered.--The
+phalanx.--Pyrrhus invites the enemy to join him.--Pyrrhus is victorious,
+and becomes master of Macedon.--Complaints of the people.--Pyrrhus pays
+little regard to them.--Pyrrhus receives an unexpected invitation.
+
+
+It was the great misfortune of Pyrrhus's life, a misfortune resulting
+apparently from an inherent and radical defect in his character, that
+he had no settled plans or purposes, but embarked in one project after
+another, as accident or caprice might incline him, apparently without
+any forethought, consideration, or design. He seemed to form no plan,
+to live for no object, to contemplate no end, but was governed by a
+sort of blind and instinctive impulse, which led him to love danger,
+and to take a wild and savage delight in the performance of military
+exploits on their own account, and without regard to any ultimate end
+or aim to be accomplished by them. Thus, although he evinced great
+power, he produced no permanent effects. There was no steadiness or
+perseverance in his action, and there could be none, for in his whole
+course of policy there were no ulterior ends in view by which
+perseverance could be sustained. He was, consequently, always ready
+to abandon any enterprise in which he might be engaged as soon as it
+began to be involved in difficulties requiring the exercise of
+patience, endurance, and self-denial, and to embark in any new
+undertaking, provided that it promised to bring him speedily upon a
+field of battle. He was, in a word, the type and exemplar of that
+large class of able men who waste their lives in a succession of
+efforts, which, though they evince great talent in those who perform
+them, being still without plan or aim, end without producing any
+result. Such men often, like Pyrrhus, attain to a certain species of
+greatness. They are famed among men for what they seem to have the
+power to do, and not for any thing that they have actually done.
+
+In accordance with this view of Pyrrhus's character, we see him
+changing continually the sphere of his action from one country to
+another, gaining great victories every where, and evincing in all his
+operations--in the organizing and assembling of his armies, in his
+marches, in his encampments, and in the disposition of his troops on
+the field of battle, and especially in his conduct during the period
+of actual conflict--the most indomitable energy and the most
+consummate military skill. But when the battle was fought and the
+victory gained, and an occasion supervened requiring a cool and
+calculating deliberation in the forming of future plans, and a steady
+adherence to them when formed, the character and resources of
+Pyrrhus's mind were found woefully wanting. The first summons from any
+other quarter, inviting him to a field of more immediate excitement
+and action, was always sufficient to call him away. Thus he changed
+his field of action successively from Macedon to Italy, from Italy to
+Sicily, from Sicily back to Italy, and from Italy to Macedon again,
+perpetually making new beginnings, but nowhere attaining any ends.
+
+His determination to invade Macedon once more, on his return to Epirus
+from Italy, was prompted, apparently, by the mere accident that the
+government was unsettled, and that Antigonus was insecure in his
+possession of the throne. He had no intention, when he first embarked
+in this scheme, of attempting the conquest of Macedon, but only
+designed to make a predatory incursion into the country for the
+purpose of plunder, its defenseless condition affording him, as he
+thought, a favorable opportunity of doing this. The plea on which he
+justified this invasion was, that Antigonus was his enemy. Ptolemy
+Ceraunus had made a treaty of alliance with him, and had furnished him
+with troops for recruiting and re-enforcing his armies in Italy, as
+has already been stated; but Antigonus, when called upon, had refused
+to do this. This, of course, gave Pyrrhus ample justification, as he
+imagined, for his intended incursion into the Macedonian realms.
+
+Besides this, however, there was another justification, namely, that
+of necessity. Although Pyrrhus had been compelled to withdraw from
+Italy, he had not returned by any means alone, but had brought quite a
+large army with him, consisting of many thousands of men, all of whom
+must now be fed and paid. All the resources of his own kingdom had
+been wellnigh exhausted by the drafts which he had made upon them to
+sustain himself in Italy, and it was now necessary, he thought, to
+embark in some war, as a means of finding employment and subsistence
+for these troops. He determined, therefore, on every account, to make
+a foray into Macedon.
+
+Before setting off on his expedition, he contrived to obtain a
+considerable force from among the Gauls as auxiliaries. Antigonus,
+also, had Gauls in his service, for they themselves were divided, as
+it would seem, in respect both to their policy and their leaders, as
+well as the Macedonians; and Antigonus, taking advantage of their
+dissensions, had contrived to enlist some portion of them in his
+cause, while the rest were the more easily, on that very account,
+induced to join the expedition of Pyrrhus. Things being in this state,
+Pyrrhus, after completing his preparations, commenced his march, and
+soon crossed the Macedonian frontier.
+
+As was usually the case with the enterprises which he engaged in, he
+was, in the outset, very successful. He conquered several cities and
+towns as he advanced, and soon began to entertain higher views in
+respect to the object of his expedition than he had at first formed.
+Instead of merely plundering the frontier, as he had at first
+intended, he began to think that it would be possible for him to
+subdue Antigonus entirely, and reannex the whole of Macedon to his
+dominions. He was well known in Macedon, his former campaigns in that
+country having brought him very extensively before the people and the
+army there. He had been a general favorite, too, among them at the
+time when he had been their ruler; the people admired his personal
+qualities as a soldier, and had been accustomed to compare him with
+Alexander, whom, in his appearance and manners, and in a certain air
+of military frankness and generosity which characterized him, he was
+said strongly to resemble. Pyrrhus now found, as he advanced into the
+country of Macedonia, that the people were disposed to regard him with
+the same sentiments of favor which they had formerly entertained for
+him. Several of the garrisons of the cities joined his standard; and
+the detachments of troops which Antigonus sent forward to the frontier
+to check his progress, instead of giving him battle, went over to him
+in a body and espoused his cause. In a word, Pyrrhus found that,
+unexpectedly to himself, his expedition, instead of being merely an
+incursion across the frontiers on a plundering foray, was assuming the
+character of a regular invasion. In short, the progress that he made
+was such, that it soon became manifest that to meet Antigonus in one
+pitched battle, and to gain one victory, was all that was required to
+complete the conquest of the country.
+
+He accordingly concentrated his forces more and more, strengthened
+himself by every means in his power, and advanced further and further
+into the interior of the country. Antigonus began to retire,
+desirous, perhaps, of reaching some ground where he could post himself
+advantageously. Pyrrhus, acting with his customary energy, soon
+overtook the enemy. He came up with the rear of Antigonus's army in a
+narrow defile among the mountains; at least, the place is designated
+as a narrow defile by the ancient historian who narrates these events,
+though, from the number of men that were engaged in the action which
+ensued, as well as from the nature of the action itself, as a
+historian describes it, it would seem that there must have been a
+considerable breadth of level ground in the bottom of the gorge.
+
+The main body of Antigonus's troops was the phalanx. The Macedonian
+phalanx is considered one of the most extraordinary military
+contrivances of ancient times. The invention of it was ascribed to
+Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, though it is probable that
+it was only improved and perfected, and brought into general use, but
+not really originated by him. The single phalanx was formed of a body
+of about four thousand men. These men were arranged in a compact form,
+the whole body consisting of sixteen ranks, and each rank of two
+hundred and fifty-six men. These men wore each a short sword, to be
+used in cases of emergency, and were defended by large shields. The
+main peculiarity, however, of their armor, and the one on which the
+principal power of the phalanx depended as a military body, was in the
+immensely long spears which they carried. These spears were generally
+twenty-one, and sometimes twenty-four feet long. The handles were
+slender, though strong, and the points were tipped with steel. The
+spears were not intended to be thrown, but to be held firmly in the
+hands, and pointed toward the enemy; and they were so long, and the
+ranks of the men were so close together, that the spears of the fifth
+rank projected several feet before the men who stood in the front
+rank. Thus each man in the front rank had five steel-pointed spears
+projecting to different distances before him, while the men who stood
+in ranks further behind rested their spears upon the shoulders of
+those who were before them, so as to elevate the points into the air.
+
+The men were protected by large shields, which, when the phalanx was
+formed in close array, just touched each other, and formed an
+impregnable defense. In a word, the phalanx, as it moved slowly over
+the plain, presented the appearance of a vast monster, covered with
+scales, and bristling with points of steel--a sort of military
+porcupine, which nothing could approach or in any way injure. Missiles
+thrown toward it were intercepted by the shields, and fell harmless to
+the ground. Darts, arrows, javelins, and every other weapon which
+could be projected from a distance, were equally ineffectual, and no
+one could come near enough to men thus protected to strike at them
+with the sword. Even cavalry were utterly powerless in attacking such
+_chevaux de frise_ as the phalanx presented. No charge, however
+furious, could break its serrated ranks; an onset upon it could only
+end in impaling the men and the horses that made it together on the
+points of the innumerable spears.
+
+To form a phalanx, and to maneuver it successfully, required a special
+training, both on the part of the officers and men, and in the
+Macedonian armies the system was carried to very high perfection. When
+foreign auxiliaries, however, served under Macedonian generals, they
+were not generally formed in this way, but were allowed to fight under
+their own leaders, and in the accustomed manner of their respective
+nations. The army of Antigonus, accordingly, as he was retiring
+before Pyrrhus, consisted of two portions. The phalanx was in advance,
+and large bodies of Gauls, armed and arrayed in their usual manner,
+were in the rear. Of course, Pyrrhus, as he came up with this force in
+the ravine or valley, encountered the Gauls first. Their lines, it
+would seem, filled up the whole valley at the place where Pyrrhus
+overtook them, so that, at the outset of the contest, Pyrrhus had them
+only to engage. There was not space sufficient for the phalanx to come
+to their aid.
+
+Besides the phalanx and the bodies of Gauls, there was a troop of
+elephants in Antigonus's army. Their position, as it would seem, was
+between the phalanx and the Gauls. This being the state of things, and
+Pyrrhus coming up to the attack in the rear, would, of course,
+encounter first the Gauls, then the elephants, and, lastly, the most
+formidable of all, the phalanx itself.
+
+Pyrrhus advanced to the attack of the Gauls with the utmost fury, and,
+though they made a very determined resistance, they were soon
+overpowered and almost all cut to pieces. The troop of elephants came
+next. The army of Pyrrhus, flushed with their victory over the Gauls,
+pressed eagerly on, and soon so surrounded the elephants and hemmed
+them in, that the keepers of them perceived that all hope of
+resistance was vain. They surrendered without an effort to defend
+themselves. The phalanx now remained. It had hastily changed its
+front, and it stood on the defensive. Pyrrhus advanced toward it with
+his forces, bringing his men up in array in front of the long lines of
+spears, and paused. The bristling monster remained immovable, evincing
+no disposition to advance against its enemy, but awaiting, apparently,
+an attack. Pyrrhus rode out in front of his lines and surveyed the
+body of Macedonians before him. He found that he knew the officers
+personally, having served with them before in the wars in which he had
+been engaged in Macedon in former years. He saluted them, calling them
+by name. They were pleased with being thus remembered and recognized
+by a personage so renowned. Pyrrhus urged them to abandon Antigonus,
+who had, as he maintained, no just title to the crown, and whose
+usurped power he was about to overthrow, and invited them to enter
+into his service, as the ancient and rightful sovereign of their
+country. The officers seemed much disposed to listen to these
+overtures; in fine, they soon decided to accede to them. The phalanx
+went over to Pyrrhus's side in a body, and Antigonus, being thus
+deprived of his last remaining support, left the field in company with
+a few personal followers, and fled for his life.
+
+Of course, Pyrrhus found himself at once in complete possession of the
+Macedonian kingdom. Antigonus did not, indeed, entirely give up the
+contest. He retreated toward the coast, where he contrived to hold
+possession, for a time, of a few maritime towns; but his power as King
+of Macedon was gone. Some few of the interior cities attempted, for a
+time, to resist Pyrrhus's rule, but he soon overpowered them. Some of
+the cities that he thus conquered he garrisoned with Gauls.
+
+Of course, after such a revolution as this, a great deal was required
+to be done to settle the affairs of the government on their new
+footing, and to make the kingdom secure in the hands of the conqueror;
+but no one in the least degree acquainted with the character and
+tendencies of Pyrrhus's mind could expect that he would be at all
+disposed to attend to these duties. He had neither the sagacity to
+plan nor the steadiness of purpose to execute such measures. He could
+conquer, but that was all. To secure the results of his conquests was
+utterly beyond his power.
+
+In fact, far from making such a use of his power as to strengthen his
+position, and establish a permanent and settled government, he so
+administered the affairs of state, or, rather, he so neglected them,
+that very soon an extended discontent and disaffection began to
+prevail. The Gauls, whom he had left as garrisons in the conquered
+cities, governed them in so arbitrary a manner, and plundered them so
+recklessly, as to produce extreme irritation among the people. They
+complained earnestly to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus paid little attention to
+their representations. To fight a battle with an open enemy on the
+field was always a pleasure to him; but to meet and grapple with
+difficulties of this kind--to hear complaints, and listen to evidence,
+and discuss and consider remedies, was all weariness and toil to him.
+
+What he would have done, and what would have been the end of his
+administration in Macedon, had he been left to himself, can not now be
+known; for, very fortunately, as he deemed it, he was suddenly
+relieved of all the embarrassment in which he was gradually getting
+involved, as he had often been relieved in similar circumstances
+before, by an invitation which came to him just at this time to embark
+in a new military enterprise, which would draw him away from the
+country altogether. It is scarcely necessary to say that Pyrrhus
+accepted the invitation with the most eager alacrity. The
+circumstances of the case will be explained in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SPARTA.
+
+B.C. 1000-272
+
+Sparta.--Some account of the city.--The Spartan kings.--Origin of
+the system.--Oracle at Delphi.--A difficulty.--The two lines of
+kings.--A diarchy.--Dissensions.--Lycurgus.--His family.--Death of
+his father.--Lycurgus assumes the crown.--Atrocious proposal.--Plan
+arranged for disposing of the child.--Generous conduct of
+Lycurgus.--Serious difficulties encountered.--Resentment
+of the queen.--Lycurgus resolves on exiling himself from
+Sparta.--Adventures of Lycurgus during his absence.--Account of
+Charilaus.--His inefficiency.--Discontent of the people.--Lycurgus
+is invited to return.--He finally complies.--He consults the oracle
+at Delphi.--The response.--Charilaus is terrified.--He flies to a
+sanctuary.--Nature and effects of the institutions of Lycurgus.--The
+character and spirit of the Spartans.--Message sent to
+Pyrrhus.--Account of Cleonymus.--Areus becomes king.--Affair of
+Cleonymus and Chelidonis.--Appeal to Pyrrhus.--Pyrrhus determines to
+march into Greece.
+
+
+The war in which Pyrrhus was invited to engage, at the time referred
+to at the close of the last chapter, arose out of a domestic quarrel
+in one of the royal families of Sparta. Sparta was one of the
+principal cities of the Peloponnesus, and the capital of a very
+powerful and warlike kingdom.[N] The institutions of government in
+this commonwealth were very peculiar, and among the most extraordinary
+of them all was the arrangement made in respect to the kingly power.
+There were two dynasties, or lines of kings, reigning conjointly. The
+division of power between the two incumbents who reigned at any one
+time may have been somewhat similar to that made in Rome between the
+consuls. But the system differed from that of the consular government
+in the fact that the Spartan kings were not elected magistrates, like
+the Roman consuls, but hereditary sovereigns, deriving their power
+from their ancestors, each in his own line.
+
+[Footnote N: For the situation of Sparta, see map.]
+
+The origin of this extraordinary system was said to be this: at a very
+early period of the Spartan history, a king died suddenly, leaving two
+children twins, as his heirs, but without designating either one of
+them as his successor. The Spartans then applied to the mother of the
+two children to know which of them was the first-born. She pretended
+that she could not tell. They then applied to the oracle at Delphi,
+asking what they should do. The response of the oracle directed them
+to make both the children kings, but to bestow the highest honors upon
+the oldest. By this answer the Spartans were only partially relieved
+from their dilemma; for, under the directions of the oracle, the
+necessity of determining the question of priority in respect to the
+birth of the two children remained, without any light or guidance
+being afforded them in respect to the mode of doing it.
+
+At last some person suggested that a watch should be set over the
+mother, with a view to ascertain for which of her children she had the
+strongest affection. They supposed that she really knew which was the
+first-born, and that she would involuntarily give to the one whom she
+regarded in that light the precedence in the maternal services and
+duties which she rendered to the babes. This plan succeeded. It was
+discovered which was the first-born, and which was the younger; and
+the Spartans, accordingly, made both the children kings, but gave the
+highest rank to the former, as the oracle had directed. The children
+both lived, and grew up to be men, and in due time were married. By a
+singular coincidence, they married twin-sisters. In the two families
+thus arising originated the Spartan lines of kings that reigned
+jointly over the kingdom for many successive generations. To express
+this extraordinary system of government, it has sometimes been said
+that Sparta, though governed by kings, was not a monarchy, but a
+_diarchy_.
+
+The diarchy, however, as might have been expected, was found not to
+work very successfully in practice. Various dissensions and
+difficulties arose; and at length, about two hundred years after the
+original establishment of the two lines, the kingdom became almost
+wholly disorganized. At this juncture the celebrated lawgiver Lycurgus
+arose. He framed a system of laws and regulations for the kingdom,
+which were immediately put in force, and resulted not only in
+restoring the public affairs to order at the time, but were the means,
+in the end, of raising Sparta to the highest condition of prosperity
+and renown.
+
+Lycurgus was indebted for his success in the measures which he adopted
+not merely to the sagacity which he exercised in framing them, and the
+energy with which he carried them into effect: he occupied personally
+a very peculiar position, which afforded him great facilities for the
+performance of his work. He was a member of one of the royal families,
+being a younger son of one of the kings. He had an elder brother named
+Polydectes. His father died suddenly, from a stab that he received in
+a fray. He was not personally engaged in the fray himself as one of
+the combatants, but only went into it to separate other persons, who
+had by some means become involved in a sudden quarrel. In the
+struggle, he received a stab from a kitchen knife, with which one of
+the combatants was armed, and immediately died.
+
+Polydectes, of course, being the eldest son, succeeded to the throne.
+He, however, very soon died, leaving a wife, but no children. About
+eight months after his death, however, a child was born to his widow,
+and this child, according to the then received principles of
+hereditary descent, was entitled to succeed his father.
+
+As, however, at the time of Polydectes's death the child was not born,
+Lycurgus, the brother, was then apparently the heir. He accordingly
+assumed the government--so far as the government devolved upon the
+line to which his brother had belonged--intending only to hold it in
+the interim, and to give it up ultimately when the proper heir should
+appear. In the mean time, the widow supposed very naturally that he
+would like to retain the power permanently. She was herself also
+ambitious of reigning as queen; and she accordingly made to Lycurgus
+the atrocious and unnatural proposal to destroy the life of her child,
+on condition that he would marry her, and allow her to share the
+kingdom with him. Lycurgus was much shocked at receiving such a
+proposition, but he deemed it best, for the time being, to appear to
+accede to it. He accordingly represented to the queen that it would
+not be best for her to make the attempt which she had proposed, lest
+she should thereby endanger her own safety. "Wait," said he, "and let
+me know as soon as the child is born; then leave every thing to me. I
+will do myself whatever is required to be done."
+
+Lycurgus, moreover, had attendants, provided with orders to keep
+themselves in readiness when the child should be born, and, if it
+proved to be a son, to bring the babe to him immediately, wherever he
+might be, or however he might be engaged. If it proved to be a
+daughter, they were to leave it in the hands of the woman who had
+charge of the queen. The babe proved to be a son. The officers took
+it, accordingly, and brought it at once to Lycurgus. The unnatural
+mother, of course, understood that it was taken away from her to be
+destroyed, and she acquiesced in the supposed design, in order, by
+sacrificing her child, to perpetuate her own queenly dignity and
+power. Lycurgus, however, was intending to conduct the affair to a
+very different result.
+
+At the time when the attendants brought the new-born babe to
+Lycurgus's house, Lycurgus was engaged with a party of friends whom he
+had invited to a festival. These friends consisted of nobles,
+generals, ministers of state, and other principal personages of the
+Spartan commonwealth, whom Lycurgus had thus assembled in
+anticipation, probably, of what was to take place. The attendants had
+been ordered to bring the child to him without delay, wherever they
+might find him. They accordingly came into the apartment where
+Lycurgus and his friends were assembled, bringing the infant with
+them in their arms. Lycurgus received him, and holding him up before
+the company, called out to them, in a loud voice, "Spartans, I present
+to you your new-born king!" The people received the young prince with
+the most extravagant demonstrations of joy; and Lycurgus named him
+Charilaus, which means, "Dear to the people."
+
+The conduct of Lycurgus on this occasion was thought to be very
+generous and noble, since by bringing the child forward as the true
+heir to the crown, he surrendered at once all his own pretensions to
+the inheritance, and made himself a private citizen. Very few of the
+sons of kings, either in ancient or modern times, would have pursued
+such a course. But, though in respect to his position, he abased
+himself by thus descending from his place upon the throne to the rank
+of a private citizen, he exalted himself very highly in respect to
+influence and character. He was at once made protector of the person
+of the child and regent of the realm during the young king's minority;
+and all the people of the city, applauding the noble deed which he had
+performed, began to entertain toward him feelings of the highest
+respect and veneration.
+
+It proved, however, that there were yet very serious difficulties,
+which he was destined to meet and surmount before the way should be
+fully open for the performance of the great work for which he
+afterward became so renowned. Although the people generally of Sparta
+greatly applauded the conduct of Lycurgus, and placed the utmost
+confidence in him, there were still a few who hated and opposed him.
+Of course, the queen herself, whose designs he had thwarted, was
+extremely indignant at having been thus deceived. Not only was her own
+personal ambition disappointed by the failure of her design, but her
+womanly pride was fatally wounded in having been rejected by Lycurgus
+in the offer which she had made to become his wife. She and her
+friends, therefore, were implacably hostile to him. She had a brother,
+named Leonidas, who warmly espoused her cause. Leonidas quarreled
+openly with Lycurgus. He addressed him one day, in the presence of
+several witnesses, in a very violent and threatening manner. "I know
+very well," said he, "that your seeming disinterestedness, and your
+show of zeal for the safety and welfare of the young king, are all an
+empty pretense. You are plotting to destroy him, and to raise yourself
+to the throne in his stead; and if we wait a short time, we shall see
+you accomplishing the results at which you are really aiming, in your
+iniquitous and hypocritical policy."
+
+On hearing these threats and denunciations, Lycurgus, instead of
+making an angry reply to them, began at once calmly to consider what
+it would be best for him to do. He reflected that the life of the
+child was uncertain, notwithstanding every precaution which he might
+make for the preservation of it; and if by any casualty it should die,
+his enemies might charge him with having secretly murdered it. He
+resolved, therefore, to remove at once and forever all possible
+suspicion, present or prospective, of the purity of his motives, by
+withdrawing altogether from Sparta until the child should come of age.
+He accordingly made arrangements for placing the young king under
+protectors who could not be suspected of collusion with him for any
+guilty purpose, and also organized an administration to govern the
+country until the king should be of age. Having taken these steps, he
+bade Sparta farewell, and set out upon a long and extended course of
+travels.
+
+He was gone from his native land many years, during which period he
+visited all the principal states and kingdoms of the earth, employing
+himself, wherever he went, in studying the history, the government,
+and the institutions of the countries through which he journeyed, and
+in visiting and conversing with all the most distinguished men. He
+went first to Crete, a large island which lay south of the Ĉgean Sea,
+its western extremity being not far from the coast of Peloponnesus.
+After remaining for some time in Crete, visiting all its principal
+cities, and making himself thoroughly acquainted with its history and
+condition, he sailed for Asia Minor, and visited all the chief
+capitals there. From Asia Minor he went to Egypt, and, after finishing
+his observations and studies in the cities of the Nile, he journeyed
+westward, and passed through all the countries lying on the northern
+coast of Africa, and then from Africa he crossed over into Spain. He
+remained long enough in each place that he visited to make himself
+very thoroughly acquainted with its philosophy, its government, its
+civilization, its state of progress in respect to the arts and usages
+of social life--with every thing, in fact, which could have a bearing
+upon national prosperity and welfare.
+
+In the mean time, the current of affairs at Sparta flowed by no means
+smoothly. As years rolled on, and the young prince, Charilaus,
+advanced toward the period of manhood, he became involved in various
+difficulties, which greatly embarrassed and perplexed him. He was of a
+very amiable and gentle disposition, but was wholly destitute of the
+strength and energy of character required for the station in which he
+was placed. Disagreements arose between him and the other king. They
+both quarreled, too, with their nobles and with the people. The people
+did not respect them, and gradually learned to despise their
+authority. They remembered the efficiency and the success of
+Lycurgus's government, and the regularity and order which had marked
+the whole course of public affairs during his administration. They
+appreciated now, too, more fully than before, the noble personal
+qualities which Lycurgus had evinced--his comprehensiveness of view,
+his firmness of purpose, his disinterestedness, his generosity; and
+they contrasted the lofty sentiments and principles which had always
+governed him with the weakness, the childishness, and the petty
+ambition of their actual kings. In a word, they all wished that
+Lycurgus would return.
+
+Even the kings themselves participated in this wish. They perceived
+that their affairs were getting into confusion, and began to feel
+apprehension and anxiety. Lycurgus received repeated messages from
+them and from the people of Sparta, urging him to return, but he
+declined to accept these proposals, and went on with his travels and
+his studies as before.
+
+At last, however, the Spartans sent a formal embassy to Lycurgus,
+representing to him the troubled condition of public affairs in
+Sparta, and the dangers which threatened the commonwealth, and urging
+him in the most pressing manner to return. These embassadors, in their
+interview with Lycurgus, told him that they had kings, indeed, at
+Sparta, so far as birth, and title, and the wearing of royal robes
+would go, but as for any royal qualities beyond this mere outside
+show, they had seen nothing of the kind since Lycurgus had left them.
+
+Lycurgus finally concluded to comply with the request. He returned to
+Sparta. Here he employed himself for a time in making a careful
+examination into the state of the country, and in conversing with the
+principal men of influence in the city, and renewing his acquaintance
+with them. At length he formed a plan for an entire organization of
+the government. He proposed this plan to the principal men, and,
+having obtained the consent of a sufficient number of them to the
+leading provisions of his new constitution, he began to take measures
+for the public promulgation and establishment of it.
+
+The first step was to secure a religious sanction for his proceedings,
+in order to inspire the common people with a feeling of reverence and
+awe for his authority. He accordingly left Sparta, saying that he was
+going to consult the oracle at Delphi. In due time he returned,
+bringing with him the response of the oracle. The response was as
+follows:
+
+"Lycurgus is beloved of the gods, and is himself divine. The laws
+which he has framed are perfect, and under them a commonwealth shall
+arise which shall hereafter become the most famous in the world."
+
+This response, having been made known in Sparta, impressed every one
+with a very high sense of the authority of Lycurgus, and disposed all
+classes of people to acquiesce in the coming change. Lycurgus did not,
+however, rely entirely on this disposition. When the time came for
+organizing the new government, he stationed an armed force in the
+market-place one morning at a very early hour, so that the people,
+when they came forth, as usual, into the streets, found that Lycurgus
+had taken military possession of the city. The first feeling was a
+general excitement and alarm. Charilaus, the king, who, it seems, had
+not been consulted in these movements at all, was very much terrified.
+He supposed that an insurrection had taken place against his
+authority, and that his life was in danger. To save himself, he fled
+to one of the temples as to a sanctuary. Lycurgus sent to him,
+informing him that those engaged in the revolution which had taken
+place intended no injury to him, either in respect to his person or
+his royal prerogatives. By these assurances the fears of Charilaus
+were allayed, and thenceforth he co-operated with Lycurgus in carrying
+his measures into effect.
+
+This is not the place for a full account of the plan of government
+which Lycurgus introduced, nor of the institutions which gradually
+grew up under it. It is sufficient to say that the system which he
+adopted was celebrated throughout the world during the period of its
+continuance, and has since been celebrated in every age, as being the
+most stern and rugged social system that was ever framed. The
+commonwealth of Sparta became, under the institutions of Lycurgus,
+one great camp. The nation was a nation of soldiers. Every possible
+device was resorted to to inure all classes of the population, the
+young and the old, the men and the women, the rich and the poor, to
+every species of hardship and privation. The only qualities that were
+respected or cultivated were such stern virtues as courage, fortitude,
+endurance, insensibility to pain and grief, and contempt for all the
+pleasures of wealth and luxury. Lycurgus did not write out his system.
+He would not allow it to be written out. He preferred to put it in
+operation, and then leave it to perpetuate itself, as a matter of
+usage and precedent. Accordingly, after fully organizing the
+government on the plan which he had arranged, and announcing the laws,
+and establishing the customs by which he intended that the ordinary
+course of social life should be regulated, he determined to withdraw
+from the field and await the result. He therefore informed the people
+that he was going away again on another journey, and that he would
+leave the carrying forward of the government which he had framed for
+them and initiated in their hands; and he required of them a solemn
+oath that they would make no change in the system until he returned.
+In doing this, his secret intention was _never_ to return.
+
+Such was the origin, and such the general character of the Spartan
+government. In the time of Pyrrhus, the system had been in operation
+for about five hundred years.[O] During this period the state passed
+through many and various vicissitudes. It engaged in wars, offensive
+and defensive; it passed through many calamitous and trying scenes,
+suffering, from time to time, under the usual ills which, in those
+days, so often disturbed the peace and welfare of nations. But during
+all this time, the commonwealth retained in a very striking degree the
+extraordinary marks and characteristics which the institutions of
+Lycurgus had enstamped upon it. The Spartans still were terrible in
+the estimation of all mankind, so stern and indomitable was the spirit
+which they manifested in all the enterprises in which they engaged.
+
+[Footnote O: The precise time at which the events connected with the
+early history of Sparta really occurred is not satisfactorily
+determined, so that the dates placed at the heads of the pages can
+only be regarded as approximations.]
+
+It was from Sparta that the message came to Pyrrhus asking his
+assistance in a war that was then waging there. The war originated in
+a domestic quarrel which arose in the family of one of the lines of
+kings. The name of the prince who made application to Pyrrhus was
+Cleonymus. He was a younger son of one of the Spartan kings. He had
+had an older brother named Acrotatus. The crown, of course, would have
+devolved on this brother, if he had been living when the father died.
+But he was not. He died before his father, leaving a son, however,
+named Areus, as his heir. Areus, of course, claimed the throne when
+his grandfather died. He was not young himself at this time. He had
+advanced beyond the period of middle life, and had a son who had grown
+up to maturity.
+
+Cleonymus was very unwilling to acquiesce in the accession of Areus to
+the throne. He was himself the son of the king who had died, while
+Areus was only the grandson. He maintained, therefore, that he had the
+highest claim to the succession. He was, however, overruled, and Areus
+assumed the crown.
+
+Soon after his accession, Areus left Sparta and went to Crete,
+intrusting the government of his kingdom, in the mean time, to his
+son. The name of this son was Acrotatus. Cleonymus, of course, looked
+with a particularly evil eye upon this young man, and soon began to
+form designs against him. At length, after the lapse of a considerable
+period, during which various events occurred which can not be here
+described, a circumstance took place which excited the hostility which
+Cleonymus felt for Acrotatus to the highest degree. The circumstances
+were these:
+
+Cleonymus, though far advanced in life, married, about the time that
+the events occurred which we are here describing, a very young lady
+named Chelidonis. Chelidonis was a princess of the royal line, and was
+a lady of great personal beauty. She, however, had very little
+affection for her husband, and at length Acrotatus, who was young and
+attractive in person, succeeded in winning her love, and enticing her
+away from her husband. This affair excited the mind of Cleonymus to a
+perfect phrensy of jealousy and rage. He immediately left Sparta, and,
+knowing well the character and disposition of Pyrrhus, he proceeded
+northward to Macedon, laid his case before Pyrrhus, and urged him to
+fit out an expedition and march to the Peloponnesus, with a view of
+aiding him to put down the usurpers, as he called them, and to
+establish him on the throne of Sparta instead. Pyrrhus immediately saw
+that the conjuncture opened before him a prospect of a very brilliant
+campaign, in a field entirely new, and he at once determined to embark
+forthwith in the enterprise. He resolved, accordingly, to abandon his
+interests in Macedon and march into Greece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF PYRRHUS.
+
+B.C. 272
+
+Pyrrhus makes preparations for his campaign.--Pyrrhus's
+designs.--Excitement in Greece.--Pyrrhus's army advances toward
+Sparta.--Embassadors.--Pyrrhus arrives at Sparta.--He postpones
+the attack.--Plans of the Spartans.--They propose to remove
+the women.--The women send a delegation into the
+senate-chamber.--Preparations for receiving Cleonymus.--His
+wife.--The Spartans resolve to attack Pyrrhus in the morning.--Ditch
+dug.--Ramparts raised.--The labors of the women.--Digging the
+trench.--Citizens at work all night.--The women assist.--Effect of
+the trench.--The wagons.--Ptolemy, the son of Pyrrhus, removes the
+wagons.--The triumph of Acrotatus.--Pyrrhus's dream.--The dream
+produces no effect.--Pyrrhus tries another plan.--The battle.--Work
+of the women.--Pyrrhus leads the troops forward.--Pyrrhus's horse is
+wounded.--Pyrrhus himself in great danger.--The army retires.--Areus
+and Acrotatus.--Areus comes to succor the city.--Pyrrhus receives
+a new invitation.--Argos.--Pyrrhus leaves Sparta, and is
+pursued.--Death of Ptolemy.--Combat with Evalcus.--Pyrrhus's
+revenge.--Pyrrhus before the walls of Argos.--A stratagem.--Attempt
+of the elephants to enter the city.--Consternation of the
+inhabitants of Argos.--Confusion of the soldiers.--Pyrrhus waits
+for morning.--The bronze statue.--Ancient prophecy.--Pyrrhus's
+alarm.--He resolves to retreat from the city.--Pyrrhus finds the
+streets blocked up.--Dreadful confusion.--The fallen elephant in the
+gateway.--Pyrrhus is greatly alarmed.--He lays aside his plume.--He
+is struck by a tile thrown down upon him.--His dreadful death.--The
+head borne away.--Summary of Pyrrhus's character.--Conclusion.
+
+
+Immediately on receiving the invitation of Cleonymus, Pyrrhus
+commenced making preparations on a very extensive scale for the
+intended campaign. He gathered all the troops that he could command,
+both from Macedon and Epirus. He levied taxes and contributions,
+provided military stores of every kind, and entered into all the other
+arrangements required for such an enterprise. These preliminary
+operations required a considerable time, so that he was not ready to
+commence his march until the following year. When all was ready, he
+found that his force consisted of twenty-five thousand foot, two
+thousand horse, and a troop of twenty-four elephants. He had two sons,
+neither of whom, it would seem, was old enough to be intrusted with
+the command, either in Macedon or Epirus, during his absence, and he
+accordingly determined to take them with him. Their names were Ptolemy
+and Helenus. Pyrrhus himself at this time was about forty-five years
+of age.
+
+Although in this expedition Cleonymus supposed that Pyrrhus was going
+into Greece only as his ally, and that the sole object of the war was
+to depose Areus and place Cleonymus on the throne in his stead,
+Pyrrhus himself entertained far different designs. His intention was,
+while invading the country in Cleonymus's name, to overrun and conquer
+it all, with a view of adding it to his own dominions. Of course, he
+gave no intimation to Cleonymus that he entertained any such designs.
+
+The approach of Pyrrhus naturally produced great excitement and
+commotion in Sparta. His fame as a military commander was known
+throughout the world; and the invasion of their country by such a
+conqueror, at the head of so large a force, was calculated to awaken
+great alarm among the people. The Spartans, however, were not much
+accustomed to be alarmed. They immediately began to make preparations
+to defend themselves. They sent forward an embassage to meet Pyrrhus
+on the way, and demand wherefore he was coming. Pyrrhus made evasive
+and dishonest replies. He was not intending, he said, to commit any
+hostilities against Sparta. His business was with certain other
+cities of the Peloponnesus, which had been for some time under a
+foreign yoke, and which he was now coming to free. The Spartans were
+not deceived by these protestations, but time was gained, and this was
+Pyrrhus's design.
+
+His army continued to advance, and in its progress began to seize and
+plunder towns belonging to the Spartan territory. The Spartans sent
+embassadors again, demanding what these proceedings meant. The
+embassadors charged it upon Pyrrhus, that, contrary to the laws and
+usages of nations, he was making war upon them without having
+previously declared war.
+
+"And do you Spartans," said Pyrrhus, in reply, "always tell the world
+whatever you are going to do before you do it?" Such a rejoinder was
+virtually acknowledging that the object of the expedition was an
+attack on Sparta itself. The embassadors so understood it, and bid the
+invader defiance.
+
+"Let there be war, then," said they, "if you will have it so. We do
+not fear you, whether you are a god or a man. If you are a god, you
+will not be disposed to do us any injury, for we have never injured
+you. If you are a man, you can not harm us, for we can produce men in
+Sparta able to meet any other man whatever."
+
+The embassadors then returned to Sparta, and the people immediately
+pushed forward with all diligence their preparations for putting the
+city in an attitude of defense.
+
+Pyrrhus continued his march, and at length, toward evening, approached
+the walls of the city. Cleonymus, who knew well what sort of enemies
+they had to deal with, urgently recommended that an assault should be
+made that night, supposing that the Spartans would succeed in making
+additional defenses if the attack were postponed until the morning.
+Pyrrhus, however, was disposed not to make the attack until the
+following day. He felt perfectly sure of his prize, and was,
+accordingly, in no haste to seize it. He thought, it was said, that if
+the attack were made in the night, the soldiers would plunder the
+city, and thus he should lose a considerable part of the booty which
+he hoped otherwise to secure for himself. He could control them better
+in the daytime. He accordingly determined to remain in his camp,
+without the city, during the night, and to advance to the assault in
+the morning. So he ordered the tents to be pitched on the plain, and
+sat quietly down.
+
+In the mean time, great activity prevailed within the walls. The
+senate was convened, and was engaged in debating and deciding the
+various questions that necessarily arise in such an emergency. A plan
+was proposed for removing the women from the city, in order to save
+them from the terrible fate which would inevitably await them, should
+the army of Pyrrhus be successful on the following day. It was thought
+that they might go out secretly on the side opposite to that on which
+Pyrrhus was encamped, and thence be conducted to the sea-shore, where
+they might be conveyed in ships and galleys to the island of Crete,
+which, as will appear from the map, was situated at no great distance
+from the Spartan coast. By this means the mothers and daughters, it
+was thought, would be saved, whatever might be the fate of the
+husbands and brothers. The news that the senate were discussing such a
+plan as this was soon spread abroad among the people. The women were
+aroused to the most strenuous opposition against this plan. They
+declared that they never would seek safety for themselves by going
+away, and leaving their fathers, husbands, and brothers in such
+danger. They commissioned one of their number, a princess named
+Archidamia, to make known to the senate the views which they
+entertained of this proposal. Archidamia went boldly into the
+senate-chamber, with a drawn sword in her hand, and there arrested the
+discussion in which the senators were engaged by demanding how they
+could entertain such an opinion of the women of Sparta as to suppose
+that they could survive the destruction of the city and the death of
+all whom they loved. They did not wish to be saved, she said, unless
+all could be saved together; and she implored the senate to abandon at
+once all ideas of sending them away, and allow them, instead, to take
+their share in the necessary labors required for the defense of the
+city. The senate yielded to this appeal, and, abandoning the design
+which they had entertained of sending the women away, turned their
+attention immediately to plans of defense.
+
+While these earnest consultations and discussions were going on in the
+senate, and in the streets and dwellings of the city, there was one
+place which presented a scene of excitement of a very different
+kind--namely, the palace of Cleonymus. There all were in a state of
+eager anticipation, expecting the speedy arrival of their master. The
+domestics believed confidently that an attack would be made upon the
+city that night by the combined army of Cleonymus and Pyrrhus; and
+presuming that it would be successful, they supposed that their
+master, as soon as the troops should obtain possession of the city,
+would come home at once to his own house, bringing his distinguished
+ally with him. They busied themselves, therefore, in adorning and
+preparing the apartments of the house, and in making ready a splendid
+entertainment, in order that they might give to Cleonymus and his
+friend a suitable reception when they should arrive.
+
+Chelidonis, however, the young and beautiful, but faithless wife of
+Cleonymus, was not there. She had long since left her husband's
+dwelling, and now she was full of suspense and anxiety in respect to
+his threatened return. If the city should be taken, she knew very well
+that she must necessarily fall again into her husband's power, and she
+determined that she never would fall into his power again alive. So
+she retired to her apartment, and there putting a rope around her
+neck, and making all other necessary preparations, she awaited the
+issue of the battle, resolved to destroy herself the moment she should
+hear tidings that Pyrrhus had gained the victory.
+
+In the mean time, the military leaders of the Spartans were engaged in
+strengthening the defenses, and in making all the necessary
+preparations for the ensuing conflict. They did not, however, intend
+to remain within the city, and await the attack of the assailants
+there. With the characteristic fearlessness of the Spartan character,
+they determined, when they found that Pyrrhus was not intending to
+attack the city that night, that they would themselves go out to meet
+him in the morning.
+
+One reason, however, for this determination doubtless was, that the
+city was not shut in with substantial walls and defenses, like most of
+the other cities of Greece, as it was a matter of pride with the
+Spartans to rely on their own personal strength and courage for
+protection, rather than on artificial bulwarks and towers. Still, such
+artificial aids were not wholly despised, and they now determined to
+do what was in their power in this respect, by throwing up a rampart
+of earth, under cover of the darkness of the night, along the line
+over which the enemy must march in attacking the city. This work was
+accordingly begun. They would not, however, employ the soldiers in the
+work, or any strong and able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. They
+wished to reserve the strength of all these for the more urgent and
+dreadful work of the following day. The ditch was accordingly dug, and
+the ramparts raised by the boys, the old men, and especially by the
+women. The women of all ranks in the city went out and toiled all
+night at this labor, having laid aside half their clothes, that their
+robes might not hinder them in the digging. The reader, however, must
+not, in his imagination, invest these fair laborers with the delicate
+forms, and gentle manners, and timid hearts which are generally deemed
+characteristic of women, for the Spartan females were trained
+expressly, from their earliest life, to the most rough and bold
+exposures and toils. They were inured from infancy to hardihood, by
+being taught to contend in public wrestlings and games, to endure
+every species of fatigue and exposure, and to despise every thing like
+gentleness and delicacy. In a word, they were little less masculine in
+appearance and manners than the men; and accordingly, when Archidamia
+went into the senate-chamber with a drawn sword in her hand, and
+there, boldly facing the whole assembly, declared that the women would
+on no account consent to leave the city, she acted in a manner not at
+all inconsistent with what at Sparta was considered the proper
+position and character of her sex. In a word, the Spartan women were
+as bold and stern, and almost as formidable, as the men.
+
+All night long the work of excavation went on. Those who were too
+young or too feeble to work were employed in going to and fro,
+carrying tools where they were required, or bringing food and drink to
+those who were digging in the trench, while the soldiers remained
+quietly at rest within the city, awaiting the duties which were to
+devolve upon them in the morning. The trench was made wide and deep
+enough to impede the passage of the elephants and of the cavalry, and
+it was guarded at the ends by wagons, the wheels of which were half
+buried in the ground at the places chosen for them, in order to render
+them immovable. All this work was performed in such silence and
+secrecy that it met with no interruption from Pyrrhus's camp, and the
+whole was completed before the morning dawned.
+
+As soon as it began to be light, the camp of Pyrrhus was in motion.
+All was excitement and commotion, too, within the city. The soldiers
+assumed their arms and formed in array. The women gathered around
+them while they were making these preparations, assisting them to
+buckle on their armor, and animating them with words of sympathy and
+encouragement. "How glorious it will be for you," said they, "to gain
+a victory here in the precincts of the city, where we can all witness
+and enjoy your triumph; and even if you fall in the contest, your
+mothers and your wives are close at hand to receive you to their arms,
+and to soothe and sustain you in your dying struggles!"
+
+When all was ready, the men marched forth to meet the advancing
+columns of Pyrrhus's army, and the battle soon began. Pyrrhus soon
+found that the trench which the Spartans had dug in the night was
+destined greatly to obstruct his intended operations. The horse and
+the elephants could not cross it at all; and even the men, if they
+succeeded in getting over the ditch, were driven back when attempting
+to ascend the rampart of earth which had been formed along the side of
+it, by the earth thrown up in making the excavation, for this earth
+was loose and steep, and afforded them no footing. Various attempts
+were made to dislodge the wagons that had been fixed into the ground
+at the ends of the trench, but for a time all these efforts were
+fruitless. At last, however, Ptolemy, the son of Pyrrhus, came very
+near succeeding. He had the command of a force of about two thousand
+Gauls, and with this body he made a circuit, so as to come upon the
+line of wagons in such a manner as to give him a great advantage in
+attacking them. The Spartans fought very resolutely in defense of
+them; but the Gauls gradually prevailed, and at length succeeded in
+dragging several of the wagons up out of the earth. All that they thus
+extricated they drew off out of the way, and threw them into the
+river.
+
+Seeing this, young Acrotatus, the prince whom Areus his father, now
+absent, as the reader will recollect, in Crete, had left in command in
+Sparta when he went away, hastened to interpose. He placed himself at
+the head of a small band of two or three hundred men, and, crossing
+the city on the other side, he went unobserved, and then, making a
+circuit, came round and attacked the Gauls, who were at work on the
+wagons in the rear. As the Gauls had already a foe in front nearly
+strong enough to cope with them, this sudden assault from behind
+entirely turned the scale. They were driven away in great confusion.
+This feat being accomplished, Acrotatus came back at the head of his
+detachment into the city, panting and exhausted with the exertions he
+had made, and covered with blood. He was received there with the
+loudest applause and acclamations. The women gathered around him, and
+overwhelmed him with thanks and congratulations. "Go to Chelidonis,"
+said they, "and rest. She ought to be yours. You have deserved her.
+How we envy her such a lover!"
+
+The contest continued all the day, and when night came on Pyrrhus
+found that he had made no sensible progress in the work of gaining
+entrance into the city. He was, however, now forced to postpone all
+further efforts till the following day. At the proper time he retired
+to rest, but he awoke very early in the morning in a state of great
+excitement; and, calling up some of the officers around him, he
+related to them a remarkable dream which he had had during the night,
+and which, he thought, presaged success to the efforts which they were
+to make on the following day. He had seen, he said, in his dream, a
+flash of lightning dart from the sky upon Sparta, and set the whole
+city on fire. This, he argued, was a divine omen which promised them
+certain success; and he called upon the generals to marshal the
+troops and prepare for the onset, saying, "We are sure of victory
+now."
+
+Whether Pyrrhus really had had such a dream, or whether he fabricated
+the story for the purpose of inspiring anew the courage and confidence
+of his men, which, as would naturally be supposed, might have been
+somewhat weakened by the ill success of the preceding day, can not be
+absolutely ascertained. Whichever it was, it failed wholly of its
+intended effect. Pyrrhus's generals said, in reply, that the omen was
+adverse, and not propitious, for it was one of the fundamental
+principles of haruspicial science that lightning made sacred whatever
+it touched. It was forbidden even to step upon the ground where a
+thunder-bolt had fallen; and they ought to consider, therefore, that
+the descent of the lightning upon Sparta, as figured to Pyrrhus in the
+dream, was intended to mark the city as under the special protection
+of heaven, and to warn the invaders not to molest it. Finding thus
+that the story of his vision produced a different effect from the one
+he had intended, Pyrrhus changed his ground, and told his generals
+that no importance whatever was to be attached to visions and dreams.
+They might serve, he argued, very well to amuse the ignorant and
+superstitious, but wise men should be entirely above being influenced
+by them in any way. "You have something better than these things to
+trust in," said he. "You have arms in your hands, and you have Pyrrhus
+for your leader. This is proof enough for you that you are destined to
+conquer."
+
+How far these assurances were found effectual in animating the courage
+of the generals we do not know; but the result did not at all confirm
+Pyrrhus's vain-glorious predictions. During the first part of the day,
+indeed, he made great progress, and for a time it appeared probable
+that the city was about to fall into his hands. The plan of his
+operations was first to fill up the ditch which the Spartans had made;
+the soldiers throwing into it for this purpose great quantities of
+materials of every kind, such as earth, stones, fagots, trunks of
+trees, and whatever came most readily to hand. They used in this work
+immense quantities of dead bodies, which they found scattered over the
+plain, the results of the conflict of the preceding day. By means of
+the horrid bridging thus made, the troops attempted to make their way
+across the ditch, while the Spartans, formed on the top of the
+rampart of earth on the inner side of it, fought desperately to repel
+them. All this time the women were passing back and forth between them
+and the city, bringing out water and refreshments to sustain the
+fainting strength of the men, and carrying home the wounded and dying,
+and the bodies of the dead.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHARGE.]
+
+At last a considerable body of troops, consisting of a division that
+was under the personal charge of Pyrrhus himself, succeeded in
+breaking through the Spartan lines, at a point near one end of the
+rampart which had been thrown up. When the men found that they had
+forced their way through, they raised loud shouts of exultation and
+triumph, and immediately rushed forward toward the city. For a moment
+it seemed that for the Spartans all was lost; but the tide of victory
+was soon suddenly turned by a very unexpected incident. An arrow
+pierced the breast of the horse on which Pyrrhus was riding, and gave
+the animal a fatal wound. The horse plunged and reared in his agony
+and terror, and then fell, throwing Pyrrhus to the ground. This
+occurrence, of course, arrested the whole troop in their progress. The
+horsemen wheeled suddenly about, and gathered around Pyrrhus to rescue
+him from his danger. This gave the Spartans time to rally, and to
+bring up their forces in such numbers that the Macedonian soldiers
+were glad to be able to make their way back again, bearing Pyrrhus
+with them beyond the lines. After recovering a little from the
+agitation produced by this adventure, Pyrrhus found that his troops,
+discouraged, apparently, by the fruitlessness of their efforts, and
+especially by this last misfortune, were beginning to lose their
+spirit and ardor, and were fighting feebly and falteringly all along
+the line. He concluded, therefore, that there was no longer any
+prospect of accomplishing his object that day, and that it would be
+better to save the remaining strength of his troops by withdrawing
+them from the field, rather than to discourage and enfeeble them still
+more by continuing what was now very clearly a useless struggle. He
+accordingly put a stop to the action, and the army retired to their
+encampment.
+
+Before he had opportunity to make a third attempt, events occurred
+which entirely changed the whole aspect of the controversy. The reader
+will recollect that Areus, the king of Sparta, was absent in Crete at
+the time of Pyrrhus's arrival, and that the command of the army
+devolved, during his absence, on Acrotatus, his son; for the kings of
+the other line, for some reason or other, took a very small part in
+the public affairs of the city at this time, and are seldom mentioned
+in history. Areus, as soon as he heard of the Macedonian invasion,
+immediately collected a large force and set out on his return to
+Sparta, and he entered into the city at the head of two thousand men
+just after the second repulse which Acrotatus had given to their
+enemies. At the same time, too, another body of re-enforcements came
+in from Corinth, consisting of allies of the Spartans, gathered from
+the northern part of the Peloponnesus. The arrival of these troops in
+the city filled the Spartans with joy, and entirely dispelled their
+fears. They considered themselves as now entirely safe. The old men
+and the women, considering that their places were now abundantly
+supplied, thenceforth withdrew from all active participation in the
+contest, and retired to their respective homes, to rest and refresh
+themselves after their toils.
+
+Notwithstanding this, however, Pyrrhus was not yet prepared to give up
+the contest. The immediate effect, in fact, of the arrival of the
+re-enforcements was to arouse his spirit anew, and to stimulate him to
+a fresh determination that he would not be defeated in his purpose,
+but that he would conquer the city at all hazards. He accordingly made
+several more desperate attempts, but they were wholly unsuccessful;
+and at length, after a series of losses and defeats, he was obliged to
+give up the contest and withdraw. He retired, accordingly, to some
+little distance from Sparta, where he established a permanent camp,
+subsisting his soldiers by plundering the surrounding country. He was
+vexed and irritated by the mortifications and disappointments which he
+had endured, and waited impatiently for an opportunity to seek
+revenge.
+
+While he was thus pondering his situation, uncertain what to do next,
+he received one day a message from Argos, a city in the northern part
+of the Peloponnesus, asking him to come and take part in a contest
+which had been opened there. It seems that a civil war had broken out
+in that city, and one of the leaders, knowing the character of
+Pyrrhus, and his readiness to engage in any quarrel which was offered
+to him, had concluded to apply for his aid. Pyrrhus was, as usual,
+very ready to yield to this request. It afforded him, as similar
+proposals had so often done before, a plausible excuse for abandoning
+an enterprise in which he began to despair of being able to succeed.
+He immediately commenced his march to the northward. The Spartans,
+however, were by no means disposed to allow him to go off unmolested.
+They advanced with all the force they could command, and, though they
+were not powerful enough to engage him in a general battle, they
+harassed him and embarrassed his march in a very vexatious manner.
+They laid ambushes in the narrow defiles through which he had to pass;
+they cut off his detachments, and plundered and destroyed his
+baggage. Pyrrhus at length sent back a body of his guards under
+Ptolemy, his son, to drive them away. Ptolemy attacked the Spartans
+and fought them with great bravery, until at length, in the heat of
+the contest, a celebrated Cretan, of remarkable strength and activity,
+riding furiously up to Ptolemy, felled him to the ground, and killed
+him at a single blow. On seeing him fall, his detachment were struck
+with dismay, and, turning their backs on the Spartans, fled to Pyrrhus
+with the tidings.
+
+Pyrrhus was, of course, excited to the highest pitch of phrensy at
+hearing what had occurred. He immediately placed himself at the head
+of a troop of horse, and galloped back to attack the Spartans and
+avenge the death of his son. He assaulted his enemies, when he reached
+the ground where they were posted, in the most furious manner, and
+killed great numbers of them in the conflict that ensued. At one time,
+he was for a short period in the most imminent danger. A Spartan,
+named Evalcus, who came up and engaged him hand to hand, aimed a blow
+at his head, which, although it failed of its intended effect, came
+down close in front of his body, as he sat upon his horse, and cut
+off the reins of the bridle. The instant after, Pyrrhus transfixed
+Evalcus with his spear. Of course, Pyrrhus had now no longer the
+control of his horse, and he accordingly leaped from him to the ground
+and fought on foot, while the Spartans gathered around, endeavoring to
+rescue and protect the body of Evalcus. A furious and most terrible
+contest ensued, in which many on both sides were slain. At length
+Pyrrhus made good his retreat from the scene, and the Spartans
+themselves finally withdrew. Pyrrhus having thus, by way of comfort
+for his grief, taken the satisfaction of revenge, resumed his march
+and went to Argos.
+
+Arrived before the city, he found that there was an army opposed to
+him there, under the command of a general named Antigonus. His army
+was encamped upon a hill near the city, awaiting his arrival. The mind
+of Pyrrhus had become so chafed and irritated by the opposition which
+he had encountered, and the defeats, disappointments, and
+mortifications which he had endured, that he was full of rage and
+fury, and seemed to manifest the temper of a wild beast rather than
+that of a man. He sent a herald to the camp of Antigonus, angrily
+defying him, and challenging him to come down from his encampment and
+meet him in single combat on the plain. Antigonus very coolly replied
+that _time_ was a weapon which he employed in his contests as well as
+the sword, and that he was not yet ready for a battle; adding, that if
+Pyrrhus was weary of his life, and very impatient to end it, there
+were plenty of modes by which he could accomplish his desire.
+
+Pyrrhus remained for some days before the walls of Argos, during which
+time various negotiations took place between the people of the city
+and the several parties involved in the quarrel, with a view to an
+amicable adjustment of the dispute, in order to save the city from the
+terrors attendant upon a contest for the possession of it between such
+mighty armies. At length some sort of settlement was made, and both
+armies agreed to retire. Pyrrhus, however, had no intention of keeping
+his agreement. Having thrown the people of the city somewhat off their
+guard by his promise, he took occasion to advance stealthily to one of
+the gates at dead of night, and there, the gate being opened to him by
+a confederate within the city, he began to march his soldiers in. The
+troops were ordered to keep silence, and to step noiselessly, and thus
+a large body of Gauls gained admission, and posted themselves in the
+market-place without alarming or awakening the inhabitants. To render
+this story credible, we must suppose that the sentinels and guards had
+been previously gained over to Pyrrhus's side.
+
+The foot-soldiers having thus made their entrance into the city,
+Pyrrhus undertook next to pass some of his elephants in. It was found,
+however, when they approached the gate, that they could not enter
+without having the towers first removed from their backs, as the gates
+were only high enough to admit the animals alone. The soldiers
+accordingly proceeded to take off the towers, and then the elephants
+were led in. The towers were then to be replaced. The work of taking
+down the towers, and then of putting them on again, which all had to
+be done in the dark, was attended with great difficulty and delay, and
+so much noise was unavoidably made in the operation, that at length
+the people in the surrounding houses took the alarm, and in a very
+short period the whole city was aroused. Eager gatherings were
+immediately held in all quarters. Pyrrhus pressed forward with all
+haste into the market-place, and posted himself there, arranging his
+elephants, his horse, and his foot in the manner best adapted to
+protect them from any attack that might be made. The people of Argos
+crowded into the citadel, and sent out immediately to Antigonus to
+come in to their aid. He at once put his camp in motion, and,
+advancing toward the walls with the main body, he sent in some
+powerful detachments of troops to co-operate with the inhabitants of
+the city. All these scenes occurring in the midst of the darkness of
+the night, the people having been awakened from their sleep by a
+sudden alarm, were attended, of course, by a dreadful panic and
+confusion; and, to complete the complication of horrors, Areus, with
+the Spartan army under his command, who had followed Pyrrhus in his
+approach to the city, and had been closely watching his movements ever
+since he had arrived, now burst in through the gates, and attacked the
+troops of his hated enemy in the streets, in the market-place, and
+wherever he could find them, with shouts, outcries, and imprecations,
+that made the whole city one widespread scene of unutterable confusion
+and terror.
+
+The general confusion and terror, however, produced by the assaults of
+the Spartans were the only results that immediately followed them, for
+the troops soon found that no real progress could be made, and no
+advantage gained by this nocturnal warfare. The soldiers could not
+distinguish friends from foes. They could not see or hear their
+commander, or act with any concert or in any order. They were
+scattered about, and lost their way in narrow streets, or fell into
+drains or sewers, and all attempts on the part of the officers to
+rally them, or to control them in any way, were unavailing. At length,
+by common consent, all parties desisted from fighting, and
+awaited--all in an awful condition of uncertainty and suspense--the
+coming of the dawn.
+
+Pyrrhus, as the objects that were around him were brought gradually
+into view by the gray light of the morning, was alarmed at seeing that
+the walls of the citadel were covered with armed men, and at observing
+various other indications, by which he was warned that there was a
+very powerful force opposed to him within the city. As the light
+increased, and brought the boundaries of the market-place where he
+posted himself into view, and revealed the various images and figures
+which had been placed there to adorn it, he was struck with
+consternation at the sight of one of the groups, as the outlines of it
+slowly made themselves visible. It was a piece of statuary, in
+bronze, representing a combat between a wolf and a bull. It seems that
+in former times some oracle or diviner had forewarned him that when he
+should see a wolf encountering a bull, he might know that the hour of
+his death was near. Of course, he had supposed that such a spectacle,
+if it was indeed true that he was ever destined to see it, could only
+be expected to appear in some secluded forest, or in some wide and
+unfrequented spot among the mountains. Perhaps, indeed, he had paid
+very little attention to the prophecy, and never expected that it
+would be literally realized. When, however, this group in bronze came
+out to view, it reminded him of the oracle, and the dreadful
+foreboding which its appearance awakened, connected with the anxiety
+and alarm naturally inspired by the situation in which he was placed,
+filled him with consternation. He feared that his hour was come, and
+his only solicitude now was to make good his retreat as soon as
+possible from the fatal dangers by which he seemed to be surrounded.
+
+But how to escape was the difficulty. The gate was narrow, the body of
+troops with him was large, and he knew that in attempting to retire
+he would be attacked from all the streets in the vicinity, and from
+the tops of the houses and walls, and that his column would inevitably
+be thrown into disorder, and would choke up the gateway and render it
+wholly impassable, through their eagerness to escape and the confusion
+that would ensue. He accordingly sent out a messenger to his son
+Helenus, who remained all the time in command of the main body of the
+army, without the walls, directing him to come forward with all his
+force, and break down a portion of the wall adjoining the gateway, so
+as to open a free egress for his troops in their retreat from the
+city. He remained himself at his position in the market-place until
+time had elapsed sufficient, as he judged, for Helenus to have
+received his orders, and to have reached the gate in the execution of
+them; and then, being by this time hard pressed by his enemies, who
+began early in the morning to attack him on all quarters, he put his
+troops in motion, and in the midst of a scene of shouts, uproar,
+terror, and confusion indescribable, the whole body moved on toward
+the gate, expecting that, by the time they arrived there, Helenus
+would have accomplished his work, and that they should find a broad
+opening made, which would allow of an easy egress. Instead of this,
+however, they found, before they reached the gate, that the streets
+before them were entirely blocked up with an immense concourse of
+soldiers that were pouring tumultuously into the city. It seems that
+Helenus had, in some way or other, misunderstood the orders, and
+supposed that he was directed to enter the city himself, to re-enforce
+his father within the walls. The shock of the encounter produced by
+these opposing currents redoubled the confusion. Pyrrhus, and the
+officers with him, shouted out orders to the advancing soldiers of
+Helenus to fall back; but in the midst of the indescribable din and
+confusion that prevailed, no vociferation, however loud, could be
+heard. Nor, if the orders had been heard, could they have been obeyed,
+for the van of the coming column was urged forward irresistibly by the
+pressure of those behind, and the panic which by this time prevailed
+among the troops of Pyrrhus's command made them frantic and furious in
+their efforts to force their way onward and get out of the city. An
+awful scene of confusion and destruction ensued. Men pressed and
+trampled each other to death, and the air was filled with shrieks and
+cries of pain and terror. The destruction of life was very great, but
+it was produced almost entirely by the pressure and the
+confusion--men, horses, and elephants being mingled inextricably
+together in one vast living mass, which seemed, to those who looked
+down upon it from above, to be writhing and struggling in the most
+horrible contortions. There was no fighting, for there was no room for
+any one to strike a blow. If a man drew his sword or raised his pike,
+his arms were caught and pinioned immediately by the pressure around
+him, and he found himself utterly helpless. The injury, therefore,
+that was done, was the result almost altogether of the pressure and
+the struggles, and of the trampling of the elephants and the horses
+upon the men, and of the men upon each other.
+
+The elephants added greatly to the confusion of the scene. One of the
+largest in the troop fell in the gateway, and lay there for some time
+on his side, unable to rise, and braying in a terrific manner. Another
+was excited to a phrensy by the loss of his master, who had fallen off
+from his head, wounded by a dart or a spear. The faithful animal
+turned around to save him. With his trunk he threw the men who were in
+the way off to the right hand and the left, and then, taking up the
+body of his master with his trunk, he placed it carefully upon his
+tusks, and then attempted to force a passage through the crowd,
+trampling down all who came in his way. History has awarded to this
+elephant a distinction which he well deserved, by recording his name.
+It was Nicon.
+
+[Illustration: DEATH OF PYRRHUS.]
+
+All this time Pyrrhus was near the rear of his troops, and thus was
+in some degree removed from the greatest severity of the pressure.
+He turned and fought, from time to time, with those who were
+pressing upon his line from behind. As the danger became more
+imminent, he took out from his helmet the plume by which he was
+distinguished from the other generals, and gave it to a friend who
+was near him, in order that he might be a less conspicuous mark for
+the shafts of his enemies. The combats, however, between his party
+and those who were harassing them in the rear were still continued;
+and at length, in one of them, a man of Argos wounded him, by
+throwing a javelin with so much force that the point of it passed
+through his breast-plate and entered his side. The wound was not
+dangerous, but it had the effect of maddening Pyrrhus against the
+man who had inflicted it, and he turned upon him with great fury,
+as if he were intending to annihilate him at a blow. He would very
+probably have killed the Greek, had it not been that just at that
+moment the mother of the man, by a very singular coincidence, was
+surveying the scene from a house-top which overlooked the street
+where these events were occurring. She immediately seized a heavy
+tile from the roof, and with all her strength hurled it into the
+street upon Pyrrhus just as he was striking the blow. The tile came
+down upon his head, and, striking the helmet heavily, it carried
+both helmet and head down together, and crushed the lower vertebrĉ
+of the neck at their junction with the spine.
+
+Pyrrhus dropped the reins from his hands, and fell over from his horse
+heavily to the ground. It happened that no one knew him who saw him
+fall, for so great had been the crowd and confusion, that Pyrrhus had
+got separated from his immediate friends. Those who were near him,
+therefore, when he fell, pressed on, intent only on their own safety,
+and left him where he lay. At last a soldier of Antigonus's army,
+named Zopyrus, coming up to the spot, accompanied by several others of
+his party, looked upon the wounded man and recognized him as Pyrrhus.
+They lifted him up, and dragged him out of the street to a portico
+that was near. Zopyrus drew his sword, and raised it to cut off his
+prisoner's head. At this instant Pyrrhus opened his eyes, and rolled
+them up with such a horrid expression as to strike Zopyrus with
+terror. His arm consequently faltered in dealing the blow, so that he
+missed his aim, and instead of striking the neck, only wounded and
+mutilated the mouth and chin. He was obliged to repeat the stroke
+again and again before the neck was sundered. At length, however, the
+dreadful deed was done, and the head was severed from the body.
+
+Very soon after this, Halcyoncus, the son of Antigonus, rode up to the
+spot, and after learning what had occurred, he asked the soldiers to
+lift up the head to him, that he might look at it a moment. As soon as
+it was within his reach, he seized it and rode away, in order to carry
+it to his father. He found his father sitting with his friends, and
+threw down the head at his feet, as a trophy which he supposed his
+father would rejoice to see. Antigonus was, however, in fact,
+extremely shocked at the spectacle. He reproved his son in the
+severest terms for his brutality, and then, sending for the mutilated
+trunk, he gave to the whole body an honorable burial.
+
+That Pyrrhus was a man of great native power of mind, and of
+extraordinary capacity as a military leader, no one can deny. His
+capacity and genius were in fact so great, as to make him, perhaps,
+the most conspicuous example that the world has produced of the manner
+in which the highest power and the noblest opportunities may be wasted
+and thrown away. He accomplished nothing. He had no plan, no aim, no
+object, but obeyed every momentary impulse, and entered, without
+thought and without calculation, into any scheme that chance, or the
+ambitious designs of others, might lay before him. He succeeded in
+creating a vast deal of turmoil and war, in killing an immense number
+of men, and in conquering, though temporarily and to no purpose, a
+great many kingdoms. It was mischief, and only mischief, that he did;
+and though the scale on which he perpetrated mischief was great, his
+fickleness and vacillation deprived it altogether of the dignity of
+greatness. His crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind did not
+arise from any peculiar depravity; he was, on the contrary, naturally
+of a noble and generous spirit, though in process of time, through
+the reaction of his conduct upon his heart, these good qualities
+almost entirely disappeared. Still, he seems never really to have
+wished mankind ill. He perpetrated his crimes against them
+thoughtlessly, merely for the purpose of showing what great things he
+could do.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to
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+
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+banners in the page headers, and have been moved to beginning of the
+chapter for the reader's convenience.
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