The Republic. R O M E. The Republic. 
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cavalry were ordered to make a great detour in order to cross 
sortie unprotected part of the river. Having succeeded in 
passing the Siris, the cavalry attacked the troops which 
Pyrrhus had drawn up in front of the Roman infantry, and 
thus gave time to the latter to cross the river by bridges 
which had been prepared for them. In the mean time, 
Pyrrhus advanced with his army in the hopes of destroying 
the Romans during the hurry and disorder of forming on 
the banks of the river; but the Roman cavalry kept the 
Epirots in check till the infantry were formed. At this early 
period of the action, Pyrrhus astonished the Romans by his 
bravery and skill. He had a horse killed under him at the 
first onset, and as a report had gone abroad that he was 
slain, he rode through all his ranks before he began the 
general attack. The richness of his equipments having 
marked him out to the enemy, he exchanged his dress and 
his helmet with his favourite Megacles, and thus masked he 
attacked the Romans with a vigour to which they had not 
been accustomed. The Romans bore the onset with un¬ 
daunted firmness. The Epirots and the Romans gave 
way by turns, and by turns were rallied, until Me¬ 
gacles, in the royal garb, was pursued by Dexter, a Roman 
knight, who slew him, and carried his dress and armour to 
the consul. When these were shown to the Epirots, they 
began to give way under the belief that their king had fallen; 
but Pyrrhus learning what had happened, rode bareheaded 
along the first lines of his army, and raised their hopes and 
their courage. 
Lsevinus now ordered his cavalry to advance; but the 
mornent this was observed by Pyrrhus, he brought twenty 
elephants in front of his army, having towers on their backs 
full of archers. Awed by the sight of these animals, which 
they had never seen before, the courage of the Roman cavalry 
began to abate; but as they advanced nearer to them, their 
horses took fright at the strange noise of the elephants,'and 
either threw their riders or carried them off - at full gallop. 
Although the cavalry were thus thrown into disorder, and 
many of them slain by the darts of the archers, yet the infan¬ 
try still maintained their position till Pyrrhus at the head of 
his Thessalian horse attacked them in a furious onset, and 
forced them to repass the river in disorder, and take refuge 
in Apulia. Although Pyrrhus remained master of the field, 
yet he lost in this engagement many of his best officers and 
soldiers, and was heard to confess that another such victory 
would compel him to return to Epirus. A. U. C. 473. 
While he was engaged in burying the dead, with which 
the field of battle was covered, Pyrrhus is said to have 
observed that the Romans had all fallen by honourable 
wounds, and that the dead still grasped their sw r ords in their 
hands. He remarked even in the faces of the slain a martial 
air and boldness of aspect which drew from him the cele¬ 
brated exclamation, “ Oh that Pyrrhus had the Romans for 
his soldiers, or the Romans Pyrrhus for their leader—together 
we should subdue the whole world.” 
After repairing the disasters of this bloody engagement, 
Pyrrhus followed the Romans into the territories of their 
allies, and after advancing even into the neighbourhood of 
Rome, he made himself master of the greater part of Cam¬ 
pania. Here he was joined by the Samnites, the Lucanians, 
and the Messapians, and with these reinforcements he laid 
siege, to Capua. Lsevinus, however, forced him to raise the 
siege, but Pyrrhus turning all on a sudden towards Rome 
by the Latin way, surprised Fregellfe, and passing through 
the territory of the Hernici, he arrived at Prseneste. Here he 
is said to have obtained a sight of Rome from the top of a 
hill, and even to have driven a cloud of dust into the city. 
Titus Coruncanius the other consul, having returned from 
the reduction of Etruria with his victorious army, compelled 
Pyrrhus to raise the siege of Prseneste, and to retrace his steps 
into Campania. Here he found Lsevinus with a more 
powerful army than the one he had defeated. The Roman 
consul endeavoured to bring him to a battle, but Pyrrhus 
declined it, and terminated the campaign by retiring to 
Tarentum. \ - . 1 . . 
The knowledge which Pyrrhus had acquired of Roman 
valour, pointed out to him the prudence of seeking an 
honourable peace. The conditions, however, which he 
proposed, though by no means unfavourable to Rome, were 
nevertheless violently opposed by Appius Claudius, an old 
senator, who prevailed upon the conscript fathers to reject 
all offers of peace till the invader had quitted Italy. 
Pyrrhus now prepared for a new campaign. The Roman 
army under the consuls, P. Sulpicius Saverrio and P. Decius 
Mus, marched into Apulia, and having found him encamped 
near Asculum, they fortified a position at the foot of the 
Appennines, separated from the enemy by a broad river 
which flowed through the plain. The Romans crossed the 
river, and drew up in order of battle on the plain; their 
centre, consisting of four legions, who were to engage the 
phalanx of the enemy, while the Roman cavalry and the 
light armed auxiliaries were placed in the wings. Pyrrhus 
so marshalled his troops that he had in the centre his phalanx, 
on the right wing his Epirots and Samnites, and on his left 
Lucanians, Bruttians, and Salentines. The Romans had 
provided chariots armed with scythes, and filled with 
soldiers carrying firebrands, to frighten the elephants and 
burn their wooden towers, and they directed a body of 
Apulians to attack Pyrrhus’s camp during the battle. The 
contest at last began. The central phalanx of Pyrrhus 
sustained the furious attack of the four legions; but it was 
compelled to give way. Pyrrhus how marched round his 
elephants against the Roman cavalry which were thus thrown 
into disorder, the phalanx again returned to the charge, and 
drove back the Roman legion, who left their consul Decius 
among the dead. The preconcerted attack of the Apulians, 
however, upon the enemy’s camp turned the fortune of the 
day. The king was obliged to send a strong body to defend if, 
and the Epirots thinking that their entrenchments were forced, 
lost their courage and began to retile. The whole army 
followed their example, and though Pyrrhus strove to rally 
them, yet his gallant exertions were fruitless, and after being 
severely wounded, he retired, and left the Romans in 
possession of the field. Unable to pursue the advantage 
which he had gained, Sulpicius recrossed the river, and 
returned to his camp; but when he found that Pyrrhus had 
retreated to Tarentum, he put his army into winter quarters 
in Apulia. 
The Roman army again took the field under the command 
of the new consuls, C. Fabricius and Q. Emilius Pappus. 
Advancing into the territory of Tarentum, they came up 
with Pyrrhus, and while they were waiting for a favourable 
opportunity of giving battle, his physician Nicias brought a 
letter to Fabricius offering to poison his master. The con¬ 
suls were so shocked with the proposal, that they wrote a 
letter to Pyrrhus informing him of the traitorous plans of 
those arround him. Grateful for this mark of kindness, 
Pyrrhus immediately released the Roman prisoners without 
ransom; but the consuls, unwilling to accept of a favour, 
sent back to Pyrrhus an equal number of Tarentines and 
Samnites. Unable to procure an honourable peace with the 
Romans, and sensible of his want of resources to withstand 
them, Pyrrhus accepted of an invitation from the Sicilians to 
assist them against the Carthaginians. 
After the disastrous adventures of that expedition were at 
an end, he returned to Italy and was soon opposed to two 
Roman armies, under the consuls Curius Dentatus and 
Cornelius Lentulus. Having repulsed the vanguard of 
Pyrrhus, Dentatus drew up his army in the Taurasian fields, 
and gave battle to the enemy. The narrowness of the plain 
was unfavourable to the large army of Pyrrhus, and though 
one of his wings began to give way, yet that which he 
commanded drove back the Ronians to their entrenchmenfs 
by the aid of the armed elephants. Curius immediately 
ordered a corps of reserve to attack the elephants with 
torches in one hand, and swords in the other, and having 
put them to flight, the elephants broke into the phalanx of 
the Epirots and threw their ranks into the utmost confusion. 
The Romans took 1200 prisoners,, and 8 elephants, and the 
