himself master of the Colonies of Venusia and Luceria, so that the Romans might be forced to quit that country and leave him master of all Southern Italy. But he failed. We are ignorant of the details of the campaign till we find the Consuls strongly encamped on the hills which command the plain of Apulian Asculum.d Here Pyrrhus encountered them. After some skilful manœuvring he drew the Romans down into the plain, where his phalanx and cavalry could act freely. He placed the Tarentines in the centre, the Italian allies on his left wing, and his Epirotes and Macedonians in phalanxes on the right; his cavalry and elephants he kept in reserve. What success the Roman Legions had against the Tarentines and Italians we know not, but they wasted their strength upon the phalanxes. Again and again they charged that iron wall with unavailing bravery. At length, when they were well nigh exhausted, Pyrrhus brought up his cavalry and elephants, as at Heraclea, and the Romans were broken. But this time they made good their retreat to their entrenched camp, and Pyrrhus did not think it prudent to pursue them. He had little confidence in his Italian allies, who hated the Greeks even more than they hated the Romans, and gave signal proof of their perfidy by plundering the king's camp while he was in action. The loss on both sides was heavy. The second victory was now won; but the king's saying was fast being fulfilled. In these two battles he had lost many of his chief officers and a great number of the Epirotes, the only troops on whom he could rely. He dared not advance.

When he returned to Tarentum news awaited him which dispirited him still more. The Romans, he heard, had concluded a defensive alliance with Carthage, so that the superiority of Tarentum at sea would be lost; Ptolemy Ceraunus, who had promised him fresh troops from Macedon, had been slain by the Gauls, and these barbarians were threatening to overrun the whole of Greece.'

§ 11. Under these circumstances he seized the first occasion of making peace with Rome. This was afforded early in the

d Otherwise called Apulum, now Ascoli di Satriano. This town must not be confounded with Asculum (Ascoli) in Picenum.

e

Polyb. iii. 25.

See above, Chapt. xiv. § 3.

next year by a communication he received from the new Consuls Q Æmilius and C. Fabricius. They sent to give him notice that his physician or cup-bearer (the accounts vary) had offered to take him off by poison. Pyrrhus returned his warmest thanks, sent back all his prisoners fresh-clothed and without ransom, and told his allies he should accept an invitation he had just received to take the command of a Sicilian-Greek army against the Carthaginians and Mamertines. Accordingly he sailed from Locri to Sicily, evading the Carthaginian fleet which had been lying in wait for him. He left the Italians to the mercy of the Romans, but Milo still kept hold of the citadel of Tarentum, and Alexander, the king's son, remained in garrison at Locri.

He had been a little more than two years in Italy, for he came at the end of the year 281 B.C. and departed early in 278: he returned towards the close of 276, so that his stay in Sicily was about two years and a half. The events of this period may be very briefly summed up.

§ 12. The Samnites and Lucanians continued a sort of partisan warfare against Rome, in which, though the Consuls were honoured with triumphs, no very signal advantages seem to have been gained. The Romans no doubt took back the places on the Latin road which had submitted to the king; they also made themselves masters of Locri, and utterly destroyed the ancient city of Croton, but they failed to take Rhegium, which was stoutly maintained by Decius Jubellius and his Campanians against Pyrrhus and Romans alike. Meanwhile Pyrrhus was pursuing a triumphant career in Sicily. He confined the Mamertines within the walls of Messana, and in a brilliant campaign drove the Carthaginians to the extreme west of the island. At length, in an evil hour and by the advice of evil counsellors, he undertook the siege of Lilybæum, a place which the Carthaginians had made almost impregnable. He was obliged to raise the siege, and with this first reverse of fortune he lost the confidence of his fickle Greek allies. Before this also death had deprived him of the services of Cineas. Left to himself, he was guilty of many harsh and arbitrary acts, which proceeded rather from impatience and disappointment than from a cruel or tyrannical temper. It now became clear that he could hold Sicily no

longer, and he gladly accepted a new invitation to return to Italy.

§ 13. Accordingly, late in the year 276 B.C., he set sail for Tarentum. On the passage he was intercepted by a Carthaginian fleet, and lost the larger number of his ships; and, on landing between Rhegium and Locri, he suffered further loss by an assault from the Campanians, who still held the former city. Yet, once in Italy, he found himself at the head of a large army, composed partly of his veteran Epirotes, and partly of soldiers of fortune who had followed him from Sicily. His first act was to assault and recover possession of Locri; and here, in extreme want of money, he again listened to evil counsellors, and plundered the rich treasury of the temple of Proserpine. The ships that were conveying the plunder were wrecked, and Pyrrhus, conscience-stricken, restored all that was saved. But the memory of the deed haunted him he has recorded his belief that this sacrilegious act was the cause of all his future misfortunes.

§ 14. The Consuls of the next year were L. Cornelius Lentulus and M' Curius Dentatus. On Curius depended the fortunes of Rome. The people were much disheartened, for pestilence was raging. The statue of Capitoline Jupiter had been struck by lightning, and men's hearts were filled with ominous forebodings. When the Consuls held their levy, the citizens summoned for service did not answer their names. Then Curius ordered the goods of the first recusant to be sold, a sentence which was followed by the loss of all political rights. This severe measure had its effect, and the required legions were made up.

§ 15. Lentulus marched into Lucania, Curius into Samnium. Pyrrhus chose the latter country for the seat of war. He found Curius encamped above Beneventum, and he resolved on a night attack, so as to surprise him before he could be joined by his colleague. But night attacks seldom succeed: part of the army missed its way, and it was broad daylight before the Epirote army appeared before the camp of the Consul. Curius immediately drew out his legions, and assaulted the enemy while they were entangled in the mountains. He had instructed his archers to shoot arrows wrapped in burning tow at the elephants, and to this device is attributed the victory he won. One of the females, Β 'Ως καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Πύρρος ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ὑπομνήμασι γράφει.-Dionys. xix. 11.

hearing the cries of her young one, which had been wounded in this way, rushed furiously into the ranks of her own men. Curius now brought up the main body of his foot and attacked the disordered phalanxes: they were broken, and became helpless. The defeat was complete: Pyrrhus fell back at once upon Tarentum, and resolved to leave the shores of Italy. However, he left Milo still in the citadel, as if he intended to return.

§ 16. But the glory of his life was ended; the two or three years that remained of it were passed in hopeless enterprises. One day he was proclaimed King of Macedon, and the next he lost his kingdom. Then he attacked Sparta, and nearly took that famous city. Lastly, he assaulted Argos, and was killed by a tile thrown by a woman from the roof of a house.

Such was the end of this remarkable man. Like Richard I. of England or Charles XII. of Sweden, he passed his life in winning battles without securing any fruits of victory; and, like them, a life passed in the thick of danger was ended in a petty war and by an unknown hand. His chivalric disposition won him the admiration even of his enemies; his impetuous temper and impatience of misfortune prevented him from securing the confidence of his friends. Yet he left a name worthy of his great ancestry; and we part with regret from the history of his Italian wars, for it is the most frank and generous conflict in which Rome was ever engaged.

CHAPTER XXVII.

FINAL REDUCTION AND SETTLEMENT OF ITALY. (274-264 B.C.)

§ 1. Milo left by Pyrrhus in Tarentum. § 2. Final reduction of Samnites and Italians of South. § 3. Surrender of Tarentum: embassy of Ptolemy Philadelphus to Rome. § 4. Campanian soldiers in Rhegium compelled to surrender: their fate. § 5. Submission of Sallentines and Messapians: Colony of Brundusium. § 6. Reduction of Picenians and Umbrians. § 7. Of Etruscans. § 8. Account of Settlement of Italy: present extent of Roman Territory: none but its inhabitants admitted to a share in government. § 9. Principles adopted in regulating Italy: Isolation and Selfgovernment. § 10. How Isolation was produced: different conditions of Italian Towns. § 11. Prefectures. § 12. Municipal Towns. § 13. Colonies. § 14. Colonies of Roman Citizens. § 15. Latin Colonies. § 16. Jus Latii. § 17. Free and Confederate States. § 18. Constitutions of Italian Towns. § 19. Admirable results of the system.

§ 1. THE departure of Pyrrhus left Italy at the mercy of Rome. Yet Milo, the king's lieutenant, still held the citadel of Tarentum, and none of the nations who had lately joined the Epirote standard submitted without a final struggle. Of this struggle, what few particulars have survived shall be related, the affairs of the south being taken first, and then those of the north.

§ 2. AFFAIRS OF THE SOUTH.-The Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttians, and other tribes continued a kind of guerilla warfare for which their mountains afforded great facilities. To put an end to this, in the year 272 B.C., L. Papirius Cursor the younger, and Sp. Carvilius, who had been the instruments of crushing the Samnites at the close of the third war, were again elected Consuls together and sent southward with all their legions. Papirius invested Tarentum; and while the lines were being formed, he received the submission of the Lucanians and Bruttians.

Meanwhile Carvilius attacked the Samnites in their mountains, and the scattered remnants of that brave people, deserted by all, saw themselves compelled to submit finally to Rome, after a