Pyrrhus Attacks Rome

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Introduction
The Romans, in B.C. 290, had conquered the Samnites and this extended the Roman power to the very gates of the Grecian cities on the Gulf of Tarentine. Tarentum, the chief city among them, was almost totally controlled by a party which advised a peaceful submission to the Roman conquerors. The opposing party of patriots, against such cowardly measures, looked abroad for aid and found a ready ally in Pyrrhus, the Molossian king of Epirus. He was warlike and adventurous and a member of the royal family of Macedonia, through Olympias, who was the mother of Alexander the Great.

Pyrrhus had established a reputation for fighting. Not alone had he fought at the memorable battle of Ipsus, in Phrygia but he had proven a formidable opponent to Demetinus, king of Macedonia, having forced the latter powerful monarch to conclude a truce with him, though afterward he had been conquered and driven back to his little kingdom of Epirus. At the time the Tarentines sent to him to help them against Rome he was eager for a field in which he might do something to prove his mettle. This was the greatest opportunity of his life and he seized upon it. The campaign is memorable for having brought the Romans and Greeks into conflict on the battle-field for the first time.

This selection is by Plutarch.

Time: 280 BC
Place: Southern Italy

Pyrrhus, now that he had lost Macedonia, might have spent his days peacefully ruling his own subjects in Epirus; but he could not endure repose, thinking that not to trouble others and be troubled by them was a life of unbearable ennui and, like Achilles in the Iliad,

he could not rest in indolence at home,
He longed for battle and the joys of war.”

As he desired some new adventures he embraced the following opportunity. The Romans were at war with the Tarentines; and as that people were not sufficiently powerful to carry on the war and yet were not allowed by the audacious folly of their mob orators to make peace, they proposed to make Pyrrhus their leader and to invite him to be their ally in the war, because he was more at leisure than any of the other kings and also was the best general of them all. Of the older and more sensible citizens some endeavored to oppose this fatal decision but were overwhelmed by the clamor of the war party, while the rest, observing this, ceased to attend the public assembly.

There was one citizen of good repute, named Meton, who, on the day when the final decision was to be made, when the people were all assembled, took a withered garland and a torch and like a drunkard, reeled into the assembly with a girl playing the flute before him. At this, as one may expect in a disorderly popular meeting, some applauded and some laughed but no one stopped him. They next bade the girl play and Meton come forward and dance to the music; and he made as though he would do so. When he had obtained silence he said: “Men of Tarentum, you do well in encouraging those who wish to be merry and amuse themselves while they may. If you are wise you will all enjoy your freedom now, for when Pyrrhus is come to our city you will have very different things to think of and will live very differently.” By these words he made an impression on the mass of the Tarentine people and a murmur ran through the crowd that he had spoken well. But those politicians who feared that if peace were made they should be delivered up to the Romans, reproached the people for allowing anyone to insult them by such a disgraceful exhibition and prevailed on them to turn Meton out of the assembly.

Thus the vote for war was passed and ambassadors were sent to Epirus, not from Tarentum alone but from the other Greek cities in Italy, carrying with them presents for Pyrrhus, with instructions to tell him that they required a leader of skill and renown and that they possessed a force of Lucanians, Messapians, Samnites and Tarentines, which amounted to twenty thousand cavalry and three hundred and fifty thousand infantry. This not only excited Pyrrhus but also made all the Epirotes eager to take part in the campaign.

There was one Cineas, a Thessalian, who was thought to be a man of good sense and who, having heard Demosthenes the orator speak, was better able than any of the speakers of his age to delight his hearers with an imitation of the eloquence of that great master of rhetoric. He was now in the service of Pyrrhus and being sent about to various cities, proved the truth of the Euripidean saw, that

“All can be done by words Which foemen wish to do with conquering swords.”

Pyrrhus at any rate used to say that more cities were won for him by Cineas with words than he himself won by force of arms. This man, observing that Pyrrhus was eagerly preparing for his Italian expedition, once when he was at leisure conversed with him in the following manner. “Pyrrhus,” said he, “the Romans are said to be good soldiers and to rule over many warlike nations. Now, if heaven grants us the victory over them, what use shall we make of it?”

“You ask what is self-evident,” answered Pyrrhus. “If we can conquer the Romans, there is no city, Greek or barbarian, that can resist us and we shall gain possession of the whole of Italy, a country whose size, richness and power no one knows better than yourself.” Cineas then, after waiting for a short time, said: “O King, when we have taken Italy, what shall we do then?”

Pyrrhus, not yet seeing his drift, answered: “Close to it Sicily invites us, a noble and populous island and one which is very easy to conquer; for, my Cineas, now that Agathocles is dead, there is nothing there but revolution and faction and the violence of party spirit.”

“What you say,” answered Cineas, “is very probably true. But is this conquest of Sicily to be the extreme limit of our campaign?”

Continued.

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