Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
by the irruption of a sea or an earthquake, before which it seemed
better to give way than to die without doing anything, and not gain
the least advantage by suffering the utmost extremity, the retreat to
their camp not being far. Hieronymus says, there fell six thousand
of the Romans, and of Pyrrhus's men, the king's own commentaries
reported three thousand five hundred and fifty lost in this action.
Dionysius, however, neither gives any account of two engagements at
Asculum, nor allows the Romans to have been certainly beaten, stating
that once only, after they had fought till sunset, both armies were
unwillingly separated by the night, Pyrrhus being wounded by a
javelin in the arm, and his baggage plundered by the Samnites, that
in all there died of Pyrrhus's men and the Romans above fifteen
thousand. The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to
one that gave him joy of his victory, that one other such would
utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he
brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal
commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found
the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a
fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was
quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating
in courage for the losses they sustained, but even from their very
anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.
Among these difficulties he fell again into new hopes and projects
distracting his purposes. For at the same time some persons arrived
from Sicily, offering into his hands the cities of Agrigentum,
Syracuse, and Leontini, and begging his assistance to drive out the
Carthaginians, and rid the island of tyrants; and others brought him
news out of Greece that Ptolemy, called Ceraunus, was slain in a
fight, and his army cut in pieces by the Gauls, and that now, above
all others, was his time to offer himself to the Macedonians, in
great need of a king. Complaining much of fortune for bringing him
so many occasions of great things all together at a time, and
thinking that to have both offered to him, was to lose one of them,
he was doubtful, balancing in his thoughts. But the affairs of
Sicily seeming to hold out the greater prospects, Africa lying so
near, he turned himself to them, and presently dispatched away
Cineas, as he used to do, to make terms beforehand with the cities.
Then he placed a garrison in Tarentum, much to the Tarentines'
discontent, who required him either to perform what he came for, and
continue with them in a war against the Romans, or leave the city as
he found it. He returned no pleasing answer, but commanded them to
be quiet and attend his time, and so sailed away. Being arrived in
Sicily, what he had designed in his hopes was confirmed effectually,
and the cities frankly surrendered to him; and wherever his arms and
force were necessary, nothing at first made any considerable
resistance. For advancing with thirty thousand foot, and twenty-five
hundred horse, and two hundred ships, he totally routed the
Phoenicians, and overran their whole province, and Eryx being the
strongest town they held, and having a great garrison in it, he
resolved to take it by storm. The army being in readiness to give
the assault, he put on his arms, and coming to the head of his men,
made a vow of plays and sacrifices in honor to Hercules, if he
signalized himself in that day's action before the Greeks that dwelt
in Sicily, as became his great descent and his fortunes. The sign
being given by sound of trumpet, he first scattered the barbarians
with his shot, and then brought his ladders to the wall, and was the
first that mounted upon it himself, and, the enemy appearing in great
numbers, he beat them back; some he threw down from the walls on each
side, others he laid dead in a heap round about him with his sword,
nor did he receive the least wound, but by his very aspect inspired
terror in the enemy; and gave a clear demonstration that Homer was in
the right, and pronounced according to the truth of fact, that
fortitude alone, of all the virtues, is wont to display itself in
divine transports and frenzies. The city being taken, he offered to
Hercules most magnificently, and exhibited all varieties of shows and
plays.
A sort of barbarous people about Messena, called Mamertines, gave
much trouble to the Greeks, and put several of them under
contribution. These being numerous and valiant (from whence they had
their name, equivalent in the Latin tongue to warlike), he first
intercepted the collectors of the contribution money, and cut them
off, then beat them in open fight, and destroyed many of their places
of strength. The Carthaginians being now inclined to composition,
and offering him a round sum of money, and to furnish him with
shipping, if a peace were concluded, he told them plainly, aspiring
still to greater things, there was but one way for a friendship and
right understanding between them, if they, wholly abandoning Sicily,
would consent to make the African sea the limit between them and the
Greeks. And being elevated with his good fortune, and the strength
of his forces, and pursuing those hopes in prospect of which he first
sailed thither, his immediate aim was at Africa; and as he had
abundance of shipping, but very ill equipped, he collected seamen,
not by fair and gentle dealing with the cities, but by force in a
haughty and insolent way, and menacing them with punishments. And as
at first he had not acted thus, but had been unusually indulgent and
kind, ready to believe, and uneasy to none; now of a popular leader
becoming a tyrant by these severe proceedings, he got the name of an
ungrateful and a faithless man. However, they gave way to these
things as necessary, although they took them very ill from him; and
especially when he began to show suspicion of Thoenon and
Sosistratus, men of the first position in Syracuse, who invited him
over into Sicily, and when he was come, put the cities into his
power, and were most instrumental in all he had done there since his
arrival, whom he now would neither suffer to be about his person, nor
leave at home; and when Sosistratus out of fear withdrew himself, and
then he charged Thoenon, as in a conspiracy with the other, and put
him to death, with this all his prospects changed, not by little and
little, nor in a single place only, but a mortal hatred being raised
in the cities against him, some fell off to the Carthaginians, others
called in the Mamertines. And seeing revolts in all places, and
desires of alteration, and a potent faction against him, at the same
time he received letters from the Samnites and Tarentines, who were
beaten quite out of the field, and scarce able to secure their towns
against the war, earnestly begging his help. This served as a color
to make his relinquishing Sicily no flight, nor a despair of good
success; but in truth not being able to manage Sicily, which was as a
ship laboring in a storm, and willing to be out of her, he suddenly
threw himself over into Italy. It is reported that at his going off
he looked back upon the island, and said to those about him, "How
brave a field of war do we leave, my friends, for the Romans and
Carthaginians to fight in," which, as he then conjectured, fell out
indeed not long after.
When he was sailing off, the barbarians having conspired together, he
was forced to a fight with the Carthaginians in the very road, and
lost many of his ships; with the rest he fled into Italy. There,
about one thousand Mamertines, who had crossed the sea a little
before, though afraid to engage him in open field, setting upon him
where the passages were difficult, put the whole army in confusion.
Two elephants fell, and a great part of his rear was cut off. He,
therefore, coming up in person, repulsed the enemy, but ran into
great danger among men long trained and bold in war. His being
wounded in the head with a sword, and retiring a little out of the
fight, much increased their confidence, and one of them advancing a
good way before the rest, large of body and in bright armor, with an
haughty voice challenged him to come forth if he were alive.
Pyrrhus, in great anger, broke away violently from his guards, and,
in his fury, besmeared with blood, terrible to look upon, made his
way through his own men, and struck the barbarian on the head with
his sword such a blow, as with the strength of his arm, and the
excellent temper of the weapon, passed downward so far that his body
being cut asunder fell in two pieces. This stopped the course of the
barbarians, amazed and confounded at Pyrrhus, as one more than man;
so that continuing his march all the rest of the way undisturbed, he
arrived at Tarentum with twenty thousand foot and three thousand
horse, where, reinforcing himself with the choicest troops of the
Tarentines, he advanced immediately against the Romans, who then lay
encamped in the territories of the Samnites, whose affairs were
extremely shattered, and their counsels broken, having been in many
fights beaten by the Romans. There was also a discontent amongst
them at Pyrrhus for his expedition into Sicily, so that not many came
in to join him.
He divided his army into two parts, and dispatched the first into
Lucania to oppose one of the consuls there, so that he should not
come in to assist the other; the rest he led against Manius Curius,
who had posted himself very advantageously near Beneventum, and
expected the other consul's forces, and partly because the priests
had dissuaded him by unfavorable omens, was resolved to remain
inactive. Pyrrhus, hastening to attack these before the other could
arrive, with his best men, and the most serviceable elephants,
marched in the night toward their camp. But being forced to go round
about, and through a very woody country, their lights failed them,
and the soldiers lost their way. A council of war being called,
while they were in debate, the night was spent, and, at the break of
day, his approach, as he came down the hills, was discovered by the
enemy, and put the whole camp into disorder and tumult. But the
sacrifices being auspicious, and the time absolutely obliging them to
fight, Manius drew his troops out of the trenches, and attacked the
vanguard, and, having routed them all, put the whole army into
consternation, so that many were cut off, and some of the elephants
taken. This success drew on Manius into the level plain, and here,
in open battle, he defeated part of the enemy; but, in other
quarters, finding himself overpowered by the elephants and forced
back to his trenches, he commanded out those who were left to guard
them, a numerous body, standing thick at the ramparts, all in arms
and fresh. These coming down from their strong position, and
charging the elephants, forced them to retire; and they in the flight
turning back upon their own men, caused great disorder and confusion,
and gave into the hands of the Romans the victory, and the future
supremacy. Having obtained from these efforts and these contests the
feeling, as well as the fame of invincible strength, they at once
reduced Italy under their power, and not long after Sicily too.
Thus fell Pyrrhus from his Italian and Sicilian hopes, after he had
consumed six years in these wars, and though unsuccessful in his
affairs, yet preserved his courage unconquerable among all these
misfortunes, and was held, for military experience, and personal
valor and enterprise much the bravest of all the princes of his time,
only what he got by great actions he lost again by vain hopes, and by
new desires of what he had not, kept nothing of what he had. So that