Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
not to have made the acknowledgment of received favors, while they to
whom it is due can be sensible of it, afflicts a good and a worthy
nature. Some thinking it fit that Pyrrhus should banish a certain
ill-tongued fellow in Ambracia, who had spoken very indecently of
him, "Let him rather," said he, "speak against us here to a few, than
rambling about to a great many." And others who in their wine had
made redactions upon him, being afterward questioned for it, and
asked by him whether they had said such words, on one of the young
fellows answering, "Yes, all that, king; and should have said more if
we had had more wine;" he laughed and discharged them. After
Antigone's death, he married several wives to enlarge his interest
and power. He had the daughter of Autoleon, king of the Paeonians,
Bircenna, Bardyllis the Illyrian's daughter, Lanassa, daughter of
Agathocles the Syracusan, who brought with her in dower the city of
Corcyra which had been taken by Agathocles. By Antigone he had
Ptolemy, Alexander by Lanassa, and Helenus, his youngest son, by
Bircenna; he brought them up all in arms, hot and eager youths, and
by him sharpened and whetted to war from their very infancy. It is
said, when one of them, while yet a child, asked him to which he
would leave the kingdom, he replied, to him that had the sharpest
sword, which indeed was much like that tragical curse of Oedipus to
his sons:
Not by the lot decide.
But with the sword the heritage divide.
So unsocial and wild-beast-like is the nature of ambition and
cupidity.
After this battle Pyrrhus, returning gloriously home, enjoyed his
fame and reputation, and being called "Eagle" by the Epirots, "By
you," said he, "I am an eagle; for how should I not be such, while I
have your arms as wings to sustain me?" A little after, having
intelligence that Demetrius was dangerously sick, he entered on a
sudden into Macedonia, intending only an incursion, and to harass the
country; but was very near seizing upon all, and taking the kingdom
without a blow. He marched as far as Edessa unresisted, great
numbers deserting, and coming in to him. This danger excited
Demetrius beyond his strength, and his friends and commanders in a
short time got a considerable army together, and with all their
forces briskly attacked Pyrrhus, who, coming only to pillage, would
not stand a fight but retreating lost part of his army, as he went
off, by the close pursuit of the Macedonians. Demetrius, however,
although he had easily and quickly forced Pyrrhus out of the country,
yet did not slight him, but having resolved upon great designs, and
to recover his father's kingdom with an army of one hundred thousand
men, and a fleet of five hundred ships, would neither embroil himself
with Pyrrhus, nor leave the Macedonians so active and troublesome a
neighbor; and since he had no leisure to continue the war with him,
he was willing to treat and conclude a peace, and to turn his forces
upon the other kings. Articles being agreed upon, the designs of
Demetrius quickly discovered themselves by the greatness of his
preparation. And the other kings, being alarmed, sent to Pyrrhus
ambassadors and letters, expressing their wonder that he should
choose to let his own opportunity pass by, and wait till Demetrius
could use his; and whereas he was now able to chase him out of
Macedon, involved in designs and disturbed, he should expect till
Demetrius at leisure, and grown great, should bring the war home to
his own door, and make him fight for his temples and sepulchers in
Molossia; especially having so lately, by his means, lost Corcyra and
his wife together. For Lanassa had taken offense at Pyrrhus for too
great an inclination to those wives of his that were barbarians, and
so withdrew to Corcyra, and desiring to marry some king, invited
Demetrius, knowing of all the kings he was most ready to entertain
offers of marriage; so he sailed thither, married Lanassa, and placed
a garrison in the city. The kings having written thus to Pyrrhus,
themselves likewise contrived to find Demetrius work, while he was
delaying and making his preparations. Ptolemy, setting out with a
great fleet, drew off many of the Greek cities. Lysimachus out of
Thrace wasted the upper Macedon; and Pyrrhus, also, taking arms at
the same time, marched to Beroea, expecting, as it fell out, that
Demetrius, collecting his forces against Lysimachus, would leave the
lower country undefended. That very night he seemed in his sleep to
be called by Alexander the Great, and approaching saw him sick abed,
but was received with very kind words and much respect, and promised
zealous assistance. He making bold to reply: "How, Sir, can you,
being sick, assist me?" "With my name," said he, and mounting a
Nisaean horse, seemed to lead the way. At the sight of this vision
he was much assured, and with swift marches overrunning all the
interjacent places, takes Beroea, and making his head-quarters there,
reduced the rest of the country by his commanders. When Demetrius
received intelligence of this, and perceived likewise the Macedonians
ready to mutiny in the army, he was afraid to advance further, lest
coming near Lysimachus, a Macedonian king, and of great fame, they
should revolt to him. So returning, he marched directly against
Pyrrhus, as a stranger, and hated by the Macedonians. But while he
lay encamped there near him, many who came out of Beroea infinitely
praised Pyrrhus as invincible in arms, a glorious warrior, who
treated those he had taken kindly and humanely. Several of these
Pyrrhus himself sent privately, pretending to be Macedonians, and
saying, now was the time to be delivered from the severe government
of Demetrius, by coming over to Pyrrhus, a gracious prince, and a
lover of soldiers. By this artifice a great part of the army was in
a state of excitement, and the soldiers began to look every way
about, inquiring for Pyrrhus. It happened he was without his helmet,
till understanding they did not know him, he put it on again, and so
was quickly recognized by his lofty crest, and the goat's horns he
wore upon it. Then the Macedonians, running to him, desired to be
told his password, and some put oaken boughs upon their heads,
because they saw them worn by the soldiers about him. Some persons
even took the confidence to say to Demetrius himself, that he would
be well advised to withdraw, and lay down the government. And he,
indeed, seeing the mutinous movements of the army to be only too
consistent with what they said, privately got away, disguised in a
broad hat, and a common soldier's coat. So Pyrrhus became master of
the army without fighting, and was declared king of the Macedonians.
But Lysimachus now arriving, and claiming the defeat of Demetrius as
the joint exploit of them both, and that therefore the kingdom should
be shared between them, Pyrrhus, not as yet quite assured of the
Macedonians, and in doubt of their faith, consented to the
proposition of Lysimachus, and divided the country and cities between
them accordingly. This was for the present useful, and prevented a
war; but shortly after they found the partition not so much a
peaceful settlement, as an occasion of further complaint and
difference. For men whose ambition neither seas nor mountains, nor
unpeopled deserts can limit, nor the bounds dividing Europe from Asia
confine their vast desires, it would be hard to expect to forbear
from injuring one another when they touch, and are close together.
These are ever naturally at war, envying and seeking advantages of
one another, and merely make use of those two words, peace and war,
like current coin, to serve their occasions, not as justice but as
expediency suggests, and are really better men when they openly enter
on a war, than when they give to the mere forbearance from doing
wrong, for want of opportunity, the sacred names of justice and
friendship. Pyrrhus was an instance of this; for setting himself
against the rise of Demetrius again, and endeavoring to hinder the
recovery of his power, as it were from a kind of sickness, he
assisted the Greeks, and came to Athens, where, having ascended the
Acropolis, he offered sacrifice to the goddess, and the same day came
down again, and told the Athenians he was much gratified by the
good-will and the confidence they had shown to him; but if they were
wise, he advised them never to let any king come thither again, or
open their city gates to him. He concluded also a peace with
Demetrius, but shortly after he was gone into Asia, at the persuasion
of Lysimachus, he tampered with the Thessalians to revolt, and
besieged his cities in Greece; finding he could better preserve the
attachment of the Macedonians in war than in peace, and being of his
own inclination not much given to rest. At last, after Demetrius had
been overthrown in Syria, Lysimachus, who had secured his affairs,
and had nothing to do, immediately turned his whole forces upon
Pyrrhus, who was in quarters at Edessa, and falling upon and seizing
his convoy of provisions, brought first a great scarcity into the
army; then partly by letters, partly by spreading rumors abroad, he
corrupted the principal officers of the Macedonians, reproaching them
that they had made one their master who was both a stranger and
descended from those who had ever been servants to the Macedonians,
and that they had thrust the old friends and familiars of Alexander
out of the country. The Macedonian soldiers being much prevailed
upon, Pyrrhus withdrew himself with his Epirots and auxiliary forces,
relinquishing Macedon just after the same manner he took it. So
little reason have kings to condemn popular governments for changing
sides as suits their interests, as in this they do but imitate them
who are the great instructors of unfaithfulness and treachery;
holding him the wisest that makes the least account of being an
honest man.
Pyrrhus having thus retired into Epirus, and left Macedon, fortune
gave him a fair occasion of enjoying himself in quiet, and peaceably
governing his own subjects; but he who thought it a nauseous course
of life not to be doing mischief to others, or receiving some from
them, like Achilles, could not endure repose,
-- But sat and languished far,
Desiring battle and the shout of war,
and gratified his inclination by the following pretext for new
troubles. The Romans were at war with the Tarentines, who, not being
able to go on with the war, nor yet, through the foolhardiness and
the viciousness of their popular speakers, to come to terms and give
it up, proposed now to make Pyrrhus their general, and engage him in
it, as of all the neighboring kings the most at leisure, and the most
skillful as a commander. The more grave and discreet citizens
opposing these counsels, were partly overborne by the noise and
violence of the multitude; while others, seeing this, absented
themselves from the assemblies; only one Meton, a very sober man, on
the day this public decree was to be ratified, when the people were
now seating themselves, came dancing into the assembly like one quite
drunk, with a withered garland and a small lamp in his hand, and a
woman playing on a flute before him. And as in great multitudes met
at such popular assemblies, no decorum can be well observed, some
clapped him, others laughed, none forbade him, but called to the
woman to play, and to him to sing to the company, and when they
thought he was going to do so, "'Tis only right of you, O men of
Tarentum," he said, "not to hinder any from making themselves merry,
that have a mind to it, while it is yet in their power; and if you
are wise, you will take out your pleasure of your freedom while you
can, for you must change your course of life, and follow other diet