Pyrrhus Attacks Rome – 5

Today’s installment concludes Pyrrhus Attacks Rome,
our selection by Plutarch.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of five thousand words. Congratulations!

Previously in Pyrrhus Attacks Rome.

Time: 280 BC
Place: Southern Italy

Fabricius is said to have quietly answered: “That, O King, will not be to your advantage; for those who now obey you and look up to you, if they had any experience of me, would prefer me to you for their king.” Pyrrhus was not angry at this speech but spoke to all his friends about the magnanimous conduct of Fabricius and intrusted the prisoners to him alone, on the condition that, if the senate refused to make peace, they should be allowed to embrace their friends and spend the festival of the Saturnalia with them and then be sent back to him. And they were sent back after the Saturnalia, for the senate decreed that any of them who remained behind should be put to death.

After this, when C. Fabricius was consul, a man came into his camp bringing a letter from King Pyrrhus’ physician, in which he offered to poison the King if he could be assured of a suitable reward for his services in thus bringing the war to an end without a blow. Fabricius, disgusted at the man’s treachery, brought his colleague to share his views and in haste sent off a letter to Pyrrhus, bidding him be on his guard. The letter ran as follows: “Caius Fabricius and Quintus Aemilius, the Roman consuls, greet King Pyrrhus. You appear to be a bad judge both of your friends and of your enemies. You will perceive, by reading the enclosed letter which has been sent to us, that you are fighting against good and virtuous men and trusting to wicked and treacherous ones. We do not give you this information out of any love we bear you but for fear that we might be charged with having assassinated you and be thought to have brought the war to a close by treachery because we could not do so by manhood.”

Pyrrhus on receiving this letter and discovering the plot against his life, punished his physician and, in return for the kindness of Fabricius and the Romans, delivered up their prisoners without ransom and sent Cineas a second time to arrange terms of peace. However, the Romans refused to receive their prisoners back without ransom, being unwilling either to receive a favor from their enemy or to be rewarded for having abstained from treachery toward him but set free an equal number of Tarentines and Samnites and sent them to him. As to terms of peace, they refused to entertain the question unless Pyrrhus first placed his entire armament on board the ships in which it came and sailed back to Epirus with it.

As it was now necessary that Pyrrhus should fight another battle, he advanced with his army to the city of Asculum and attacked the Romans. Here he was forced to fight on rough ground, near the swampy banks of a river, where his elephants and cavalry were of no service and he was forced to attack with his phalanx. After a drawn battle, in which many fell, night parted the combatants. Next day Pyrrhus maneuvered so as to bring the Romans fairly into the plain, where his elephants could act upon the enemy’s line. He occupied the rough ground on either side, placed many archers and slingers among his elephants and advanced with his phalanx in close order and irresistible strength.

The Romans, who were unable on the level ground to practice the bush-fighting and skirmishing of the previous day, were compelled to attack the phalanx in front. They endeavored to force their way through that hedge of spears before the elephants could come up and showed marvelous courage in hacking at the spears with their swords, exposing themselves recklessly, careless of wounds or death. After a long struggle, it is said that they first gave way at the point where Pyrrhus was urging on his soldiers in person, though the defeat was chiefly due to the weight and crushing charge of the elephants. The Romans could not find any opportunity in this sort of battle for the display of their courage but thought it their duty to stand aside and save themselves from a useless death, just as they would have done in the case of a wave of the sea or an earthquake coming upon them. In the flight to their camp, which was not far off, Hieronymus says that six thousand Romans perished and that in Pyrrhus’ commentaries his loss is stated at three thousand five hundred and five.

Dionysius, on the other hand, does not admit that there were two battles at Asculum or that the Romans suffered a defeat but tells us that they fought the whole of one day until sunset and then separated, Pyrrhus being wounded in the arm by a javelin and the Samnites having plundered his baggage. He also states the total loss on both sides to be above fifteen thousand.

The armies separated after the battle and it is said that Pyrrhus, when congratulated on his victory by his friends, said in reply: “If we win one more such victory over the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” For a large part of the force which he had brought with him had perished and very nearly all his friends and officers and there were no more to send for at home.

This ends our series of passages on Pyrrhus Attacks Rome by Plutarch. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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