The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
of the enemy's country. At that time he kept about his person two
hundred Lucanian exiles, as faithful attendants, but whose fidelity,
according to the general disposition of people of that description, was
ever ready to follow the changes of fortune. When continual rains spread
such an inundation over all the plains, as cut off from the three
separate divisions of the army all means of mutual aid, the two parties,
in neither of which the king was present, were suddenly attacked and
overpowered by the enemy, who, after putting them to the sword, employed
their whole force in blockading the king himself. From this place the
Lucanian exiles sent emissaries to their countrymen, and stipulating a
safe return for themselves, promised to deliver the king, either alive
or dead, into their power. But he, bravely resolving to make an
extraordinary effort, at the head of a chosen band, broke through the
midst of their forces; engaged singly, and slew the general of the
Lucanians, and collecting together his men, who had been scattered in
the retreat, arrived at a river which pointed out his road by the ruins
of a bridge which had been recently broken by the violence of the flood.
Here, while the party was fording the river on a very uneven bottom, a
soldier, almost spent with fatigue and apprehension, cried out as a
reflection on the odious name of it,--"You are justly named Acheros
(dismal):" which expression reaching the king's ears, and instantly
recalling to his mind the fate denounced on him, he halted, hesitating
whether he should cross over or not. Then Sotimus, one of the royal band
of youths which attended him, asking why he delayed in such a critical
moment, showed him that the Lucanians were watching an opportunity to
perpetrate some act of treachery: whereupon the king, looking back, and
seeing them coming towards him in a body, drew his sword, and pushed on
his horse through the middle of the river. When he had now reached the
shallow, a Lucanian exile from a distance transfixed him with a javelin:
after his fall, the current carried down his lifeless body, with the
weapon sticking in it, to the posts of the enemy: there a shocking
mangling of it took place; for dividing it in the middle, they sent one
half to Consentia, and kept the other, as a subject of mockery, to
themselves. While they were throwing darts and stones at it, a woman
mixing with the crowd, who were enraged to a degree beyond the credible
extent of human resentment, prevailed on them to stop for a moment. She
then told them with tears in her eyes that she had a husband and
children, prisoners among the enemy; and that she hoped to be able with
the king's body, however disfigured, to ransom her friends: this put an
end to their outrages. The remnants of his limbs were buried at
Consentia, entirely through the care of the woman; and his bones were
sent to Metapontum to the enemy, from whence they were conveyed to
Epirus to his wife Cleopatra and his sister Olympias; the latter of whom
was the mother, the former the sister, of Alexander the Great. Such was
the melancholy end of Alexander of Epirus; of which, although fortune
did not allow him to engage in hostilities with the Romans, yet, as he
waged war in Italy, I have thought it proper to give this brief account.
This year, the fifth time since the building of the city, the
lectisternium was performed at Rome for procuring the favour of the same
deities to whom it was addressed before.
25. When the new consuls had, by order of the people, sent persons to
declare war against the Samnites, and they themselves were making all
preparations with greater energy than against the Greeks, a new
accession of strength also came to them when expecting no such thing.
The Lucanians and Apulians, nations who, until that time, had no kind of
intercourse with the Roman people, proposed an alliance with them,
promising a supply of men and arms for the war: a treaty of friendship
was accordingly concluded. At the same time, their affairs went on
successfully in Samnium. Three towns fell into their hands, Allifæ,
Callifæ, and Ruffrium; and the adjoining country to a great extent was,
on the first arrival of the consuls, laid entirely waste. Whilst the war
on this side was commenced with so much success, so the war in the other
quarter where the Greeks were held besieged, now drew towards a
conclusion. For, besides the communication between the two posts of the
enemy being cut off, by the besiegers having possession of part of the
works through which it had been carried on, they now suffered within the
walls hardships far more grievous than those with which the enemy
threatened them, and as if made prisoners by their own garrison, they
were now subjected to the greatest indignities in the persons of their
wives and children, and to such extremities as are generally felt on the
sacking of cities. When, therefore, intelligence arrived that
reinforcements were to come from Tarentum and from the Samnites, all
agreed that there were more of the latter already within the walls than
they wished; but the young men of Tarentum, who were Greeks as well as
themselves, they earnestly longed for, as they hoped to be enabled by
their means to oppose the Samnites and Nolans, no less than to resist
their Roman enemies. At last a surrender to the Romans appeared to be
the lightest evil. Charilaus and Nymphius, the two principal men in the
state, consulting together on the subject, settled the part which each
was to act; it, was, that one should desert to the Roman general, and
the other stay behind to manage affairs in the city, so as to facilitate
the execution of their plan. Charilaus was the person who came to
Publilius Philo; he told him that "he had taken a resolution, which he
hoped would prove advantageous, fortunate, and happy to the Palæpolitans
and to the Roman people, of delivering the fortifications into his
hands. Whether he should appear by that deed to have betrayed or
preserved his country, depended on the honour of the Romans. That for
himself in particular, he neither stipulated nor requested any thing;
but, in behalf of the state, he requested rather than stipulated, that
in case the design should succeed, the Roman people would consider more
especially the zeal and hazard with which it sought a renewal of their
friendship, than its folly and rashness in deviating from its duty." He
was commended by the general, and received a body of three thousand
soldiers, with which he was to seize on that part of the city which was
possessed by the Samnites; this detachment was commanded by Lucius
Quinctius, military tribune.
26. At the same time also, Nymphius, on his part, artfully addressing
himself to the commander of the Samnites, prevailed upon him, as all the
troops of the Romans were employed either about Palæpolis or in Samnium,
to allow him to sail round with the fleet to the territory of Rome,
where he undertook to ravage, not only the sea-coast, but the country
adjoining the very city. But, in order to avoid observation, it was
necessary, he told him, to set out by night, and to launch the ships
immediately. That this might be effected with the greater despatch, all
the young Samnites, except the necessary guards of the city, were sent
to the shore. While Nymphius wasted the time there, giving contradictory
orders, designedly, to create confusion, which was increased by the
darkness, and by the crowd, which was so numerous as to obstruct each
other's operations, Charilaus, according to the plan concerted, was
admitted by his associates into the city; and have filled the higher
parts of it with Roman soldiers, he ordered them to raise a shout; on
which the Greeks, who had received previous directions from their
leaders, kept themselves quiet. The Nolans fled through the opposite
part of the town, by the road leading to Nola. The flight of the
Samnites, who were shut out from the city, was easier, but had a more
disgraceful appearance; for they returned to their homes without arms,
stripped, and destitute of every thing; all, in short, belonging to them
being left with their enemies; so that they were objects of ridicule,
not only to foreigners, but even to their own countrymen. I know that
there is another account of this matter, according to which the town is
represented to have been betrayed by the Samnites; but I have this
account on the authority most worthy of credit; besides, the treaty of
Neapolis, for to that place the seat of government of the Greeks was
then transferred, renders it more probable that the renewal of
friendship was voluntary on their side. A triumph was decreed to
Publilius, because people were well convinced that the enemy, reduced by
the siege, had adopted terms of submission. These two extraordinary
incidents, which never before occurred in any case, befell this man: a
prolongation of command never before granted to any one; and a triumph
after the expiration of his office.
27. Another war soon after arose with the Greeks of the other coast. For
the Tarentines having, for a considerable time, buoyed up the state of
Palæpolis with delusive hopes of assistance, when they understood that
the Romans had gotten possession of that city, as if they were the
persons who had suffered the disappointment, and not the authors of it,
they inveighed against the Palæpolitans, and became furious in their
anger and malice towards the Romans; on this account also, because
information was brought that the Lucanians and Apulians had submitted to
the Roman people; for a treaty of alliance had been this year concluded
with both these nations. "The business," they observed, "was now brought
almost to their doors; and that the matter would soon come to this, that
the Romans must either be dealt with as enemies, or received as masters:
that, in fact, their interests were involved in the war of the Samnites,
and in its issue. That that was the only nation which continued to make
opposition; and that with power very inadequate, since the Lucanians
left them: these however might yet be brought back, and induced to
renounce the Roman alliance, if proper skill were used in sowing
dissension between them." These reasonings being readily adopted, by
people who wished for a change, some young Lucanians of considerable
note among their countrymen, but devoid of honour, were procured for
money; these having lacerated each other's persons with stripes, after
they had come naked into a public meeting of their countrymen, exclaimed
that, because they had ventured to go into the Roman camp, they had been
thus beaten with rods, by order of the consul, and had hardly escaped
the loss of their heads. A circumstance, so shocking in its nature,
carrying strong proofs of the ill-treatment, none of artifice, the
people were so irritated, that, by their clamours, they compelled the
magistrates to call together the senate; and some standing round that
assembly, insisted on a declaration of war against the Romans, others
ran different ways to rouse to arms the multitude residing in the
country. Thus the tumult hurrying into imprudence the minds even of
rational men, a decree was passed, that the alliance with the Samnites
should be renewed, and ambassadors sent for that purpose. Because this
so sudden a proceeding was totally devoid of any obvious cause for its
adoption, and consequently was little relied on for its sincerity; they
were, however, obliged both to give hostages, and also to receive
garrisons into their fortified places; and they, blinded by fraud and
resentment, refused no terms. In a little time after, on the authors of
the false charges removing to Tarentum, the whole imposition came to
light. But as they had given all power out of their own hands, nothing
was left them but unavailing repentance.