Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/625

Rh PYRRIIUS. Pyrrhus, and commanded Cineas to quit Rome on the same day. Cineas returned to Pyrrhus, and told him he must hope for nothing from negotiation. The king accordingly resolved to prosecute the war with vigour. He advanced by rapid marches towards Rome, plundering the country of the Roman allies as he went along. He was followed by the consnl Laevinus, whose army had been reinforced by two legions, which had been levied in the city while the senate was considering the king's proposals of peace. Laevinus, however, did not venture to attack the superior forces of the enemy, but con- tented himself with harassing their march and delaying their advance by petty skirmishes. Pyr- rhus, therefore, continued to advance steadily without meeting with any serious opposition, and at length arrived at Praeneste, which fell into his hands. He was now only twenty-four miles from Rome, and his outposts advanced six miles further. Another march would have brought him under the walls of the city ; but here his progress was stop- ped. At this moment he was informed that peace Avas concluded with the Etruscans, and that the other consul, Ti. Coruncanius, had returned with his army to Rome. All hope was now gone of compelling the Romans to accept the peace, and he therefore resolved to retreat. He retired slowly into Campania, and from thence withdrew into winter-quarters to Tarentum. No other battle was fought this year. As soon as the armies were quartered for the winter, the Romans sent an embassy to Pyrrhus, to endeavour to obtain the ransom of the Roman prisoners or their exchange for an equal number of tlie Tarentines or their allies. The ambassadors were received by Pyrrhus in the most distinguished manner ; and his interviews with C. Fabricius Luscinus, who was at the head of the embassy, form one of the most celebrated stories in Roman history, and have been briefly related elsewhere. [Vol, II, p. 842, a.] He refused, however, to comply with the request of the Romans ; but at the same time to show them his trust in their honour, and his admiration of their character, he al- lowed them to go to Rome in order to celebrate the Saturnalia, stipulating that they were to return to Tarentum if the senate would not accept the terms which he had previously offered them through Cineas. The senate remained firm in their resolve, and all the prisoners returned to Pyrrhus, the punishment of death having been denounced against those who should remain in the city. This is the account in Appian (Samn. x. 4, 5), and Plutarch {Pyrrh. 20); but other writers state with less probability that the prisoners were set free by Pyrrhus unconditionally and without ransom. (Liv. Epll. 13 ; Zonar, viii. 4 ; Flor. i. 18; Eutrop. ii. 7 ; Aurel. Vict, de Fir. 111. 35,) Of the campaign of the following year, B,c. 279, we know but little. The consuls were P, Decius Mus and P. Sulpicius Saverrio. Apulia was the field of operations, and the great battle of the cam- paign was fought near Asculum. The first en- counter took place near the banks of a river, where the uneven nature of the ground was ill adapted for the movements of the phalanx, and the Romans accordingly gained the advantage. But Pyrrhus manoeuvred so as to bring the enemy into the open plain, where the Romans were defeated, and fled to their camp. This was so near to the field PYRRHUS. 613 of battle, that not more than GOOO of the Romans fell, while Pyrrhus, according to his own state- ment in his commentaries, lost 3505 men. This was the account of Hieronymus, which is pre- served by Plutarch, and is doubtless correct in the main. The Roman annalists, on the contrary, either represented it as a drawn battle, or claimed the victory for their own nation (Liv. Epit. 13; Zonar. viii. 5 ; Eutrop. ii. 13 ; Oros. iv, I ; Flor, i. 18. § 9; comp. Mus, Decius, No. 3.) The vic^ tory however yielded Pyrrhus no advantage, and he Avas obliged to retire to Tarentum for the winter without effecting any thing more during the cam- paign. In the last battle, as well as in the first, the brunt of the action had fallen almost ex- clusively on the Greek troops of the king ; and the state of Greece, which was overrun by the Gauls in this year, made it hopeless for him to obtain any reinforcements from Epeirus. He was therefore unwilling to hazard his surviving Greeks by another campaign with the Romans, and accordingly lent a ready ear to the invitations of the Greeks in Sicily, who begged him to come to their assistance against the Carthaginians. This seemed an easier enterprise than the one he was already engaged in, and it had moreover the charm of novelty, which always had great attractions for Pyrrhus. It was neces^arj^, however, first to suspend hostilities with the Romans, who were likewise anxious to get rid of so formidable an opponent that they might com- plete the subjugation of southern Italy without further interruption. When both parties had the same wishes, it was not difficult to find a fair pre- text for bringing the war to a conclusion. This was aflforded at the beginning of the following year, b.c. 278, by one of the servants of Pyrrhus deserting to the Romans and proposing to the consuls to poison his master. The consuls Fa- bricius and Aemilius sent back the deserter to the king, stating that they abhorred a victory gained by treason. Thereupon Pyrrhus, to show his gra- titude, sent Cineas to Rome with all the Roman prisoners without ransom and without conditions ; and the Romans appear to have granted him a truce, though not a formal peace, as he had not consented to evacuate Italy. Pyrrhus was now at liberty to cross over into Sicil}'-, which he did immediately afterwards, leaving Milo with part of his troops in possession of Tarentum, and his son Alexander with another garrison at Locri (Justin, xviii, 2 ; Zonar, viii. 5.) The Tarentines had demanded that his troops should be withdrawn, if he would not assist them in the field ; but Pyrrhus paid no heed to their remonstrances, and retained possession of their town, as well as of Locri, in hopes of being soon able to return to Italy at the head of the Greeks of Sicily, of which island his warm imagination had already pictured him as the sovereign. Pyrrhus remained in Sicily upwards of two years, namely from the middle of n. c. 478, to the latter end of B. c. 476. At first he met with bril- liant success in Sicily. He drove the Cartha- ginians before him, and took the strongly fortified city of Eryx, in the assault of which he was the first to mount the scaling ladders, and distin- guished himself as usual by his daring and im- petuous valour. The Carthaginians became so alarmed at his success, that they offered him both ships and money on condition of his formiiig an alliance with them, although they had only a R R 3