 Chapter 10 of Pyrrhus by Jacob Abbott This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Jines, Celtic City, Utah. The Reconquest of Macedon, B.C. 273-272 It was the great misfortune of Pyrrhus's life, a misfortune resulting apparently from an inherent and radical defect in his character that he had no settled plans or purposes, but embarked in one project after another as accident or caprice might incline him, apparently without any forethought, consideration or design. He seemed to form no plan, to live for no object, to contemplate no end, but was governed by a sort of blind and instinctive impulse which led him to love danger and to take a wild and savage delight in the performance of military exploits on their own account, and without regard to any ultimate end or aim to be accomplished by them. Thus although he evinced great power, he produced no permanent effects. There was no steadiness or perseverance in his action, and there could be none, for in his whole course of policy there were no ulterior ends in view by which perseverance could be sustained. He was consequently always ready to abandon any enterprise in which he might be engaged as soon as it began to be involved in difficulties, requiring the exercise of patience, endurance, and self-denial, and to embark in any new undertaking, provided that it promised to bring him speedily upon a field of battle. He was, in a word, the type and exemplar of that large class of able men who waste their lives in a succession of efforts, which though they evince great talent in those who perform them, being still without plan or aim, and without producing any result, such men often, like Pyrrhus, attain to a certain species of greatness. They are famed among men for what they seem to have the power to do, and not for anything that they have actually done. In accordance with this view of Pyrrhus's character, we see him changing continually the sphere of his action from one country to another, gaining great victories everywhere and evincing in all his operations, in the organizing and assembling of his armies, in his marches, in his encampments, and in the disposition of his troops on the field of battle, and especially in his conduct during the period of actual conflict, the most indomitable energy and the most consummate military skill. But when the battle was fought and the victory gained, and an occasion supervened requiring a cool and calculating deliberation in the forming of future plans, and a steady adherence to them when formed, the character and resources of Pyrrhus's mind were found woefully wanting. The first summons from any other quarter, inviting him to a field of more immediate excitement and action, was always sufficient to call him away. Thus he changed his field of action successively from Macedon to Italy, from Sicily back to Italy, and from Italy to Macedon again, perpetually making new beginnings, but nowhere attaining any ends. His determination to invade Macedon once more on his return to Epirus from Italy was prompted apparently by the mere accident that the government was unsettled and that Antigonus was insecure in his possession of the throne. He had no intention when he first embarked on this scheme of attempting the conquest of Macedon, but only designed to make a predatory incursion into the country for the purpose of plunder, its defenseless condition affording him, as he thought, a favorable opportunity of doing this The plea on which he justified this invasion was that Antigonus was his enemy. Ptolemy Serranus had made a treaty of alliance with him and had furnished him with troops for recruiting and reinforcing his armies in Italy, as has already been stated, but Antigonus, when called upon, had refused to do this. This of course gave Pyrrhus ample justification as he imagined for his intended incursion into the Macedonian realms. Besides this, however, there was another justification, namely that of necessity. Although Pyrrhus had been compelled to withdraw from Italy, he had not returned by any means alone, but had brought quite a large army with him, consisting of many thousands of men, all of whom must now be fed and paid. All the resources of his own kingdom had been well nigh exhausted by the drafts which he had made upon them to sustain himself in Italy, and it was now necessary, he thought, to embark in some war as a means of finding employment and subsistence for these troops. He determined, therefore, on every account to make a foray into Macedon. Before setting off on his expedition he contrived to obtain a considerable force from among the Gauls as auxiliaries. Antigonus also had Gauls in his service, for they themselves were divided, as it would seem, in respect both to their policy and their leaders, as well as the Macedonians. And Antigonus, taking advantage of their dissensions, had contrived to enlist some portion of them in his cause, while the rest were the more easily, on that very account, induced to join the expedition of Pyrrhus. Things being in this state, Pyrrhus, after completing his preparations, commenced his march and soon crossed the Macedonian frontier. As was usually the case with the enterprises which he engaged in, he was, in the outset, very successful. He conquered several cities and towns as he advanced, and soon began to entertain higher views in respect to the object of his expedition than he had at first formed. Instead of merely plundering the frontier as he had at first intended, he began to think that it would be possible for him to subdue Antigonus entirely and re-annex the whole of Macedon to his dominions. He was well known in Macedon, his former campaigns in that country, having brought him very extensively before the people and the army there. He had been a general favorite, too, among them at the time when he had been their ruler. The people admired his personal qualities as a soldier, and had been accustomed to compare him with Alexander, whom in his appearance and manners, and in a certain air of military frankness and generosity which characterized him, he was said strongly to resemble. Pyrrhus now found, as he advanced into the country of Macedonia, that the people were disposed to regard him with the same sentiments of favor which they had formerly entertained for him. Several of the garrisons of the cities joined his standard, and the detachments of troops which Antigonus sent forward to the frontier to check his progress, instead of giving him battle, went over to him in a body and espoused his cause. In a word, Pyrrhus found that, unexpectedly to himself, his expedition, instead of being merely an incursion across the frontiers on a plundering foray, was assuming the character of a regular invasion. In short, the progress that he made was such that it soon became manifest that to meet Antigonus in one pitched battle and to gain one victory was all that was required to complete the conquest of the country. He accordingly concentrated his forces more and more, strengthened himself by every means in his power, and advanced further and further into the interior of the country. Antigonus began to retire, desirous perhaps, of reaching some ground where he could post himself advantageously. Pyrrhus, acting with his customary energy, soon overtook the enemy. He came up with the rear of Antigonus's army in a narrow defile among the mountains. At least the place is designated as a narrow defile by the ancient historian who narrates these events, though from the number of men that were engaged in the action which ensued, as well as from the nature of the action itself as a historian describes it, it would seem that there must have been a considerable breadth of level ground in the bottom of the gorge. The main body of Antigonus's troops was the phalanx. The Macedonian phalanx is considered one of the most extraordinary military contrivances of ancient times. The invention of it was ascribed to Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, though it was probable that it was only improved and perfected and brought into general use, but not really originated by him. The single phalanx was formed of a body of about four thousand men. These men were arranged in a compact form, the whole body consisting of sixteen ranks and each rank of two hundred and fifty-six men. These men wore each a short sword to be used in cases of emergency and were defended by large shields. The main peculiarity, however, of their armor and the one on which the principal power of the phalanx depended as a military body was in the immensely long spears which they carried. These spears were generally twenty-one and sometimes twenty-four feet long. The handles were slender, though strong, and the points were tipped with steel. The spears were not intended to be thrown, but to be held firmly in the hands and pointed toward the enemy, and they were so long and the ranks of the men were so close together that the spears of the fifth rank projected several feet before the men who stood in the front rank. Thus each man in the front rank had five steel-pointed spears projecting two different distances before him, while the men who stood in ranks further behind rested their spears upon the shoulders of those who were before them, so as to elevate the points into the air. The men were protected by large shields which, when the phalanx was formed in close array, just touched each other and formed an impregnable defense. In a word the phalanx, as it moved slowly over the plane, presented the appearance of a vast monster covered with scales and bristling with points of steel, a sort of military porcupine which nothing could approach or in any way injure. Missiles thrown toward it were intercepted by the shields and fell harmless to the ground. Darts, arrows, javelins, and every other weapon which could be projected from a distance were equally ineffectual, and no one could come near enough to men thus protected to strike at them with the sword. Even cavalry were utterly powerless in attacking such chauvaux de frise as the phalanx presented. No charge, however furious, could break its serrated ranks. An onset upon it could only end in impaling the men and the horses that made it together on the points of the innumerable spears. To form a phalanx and to maneuver it successfully required a special training both on the part of the officers and men, and in the Macedonian armies the system was carried to very high perfection. When foreign auxiliaries, however, served under Macedonian generals they were not generally formed in this way, but were allowed to fight under their own leaders and in the accustomed manner of their respective nations. The army of Antigonus accordingly, as he was retiring before Pyrrhus, consisted of two portions. The phalanx was in advance and large bodies of gulls armed and arrayed in their usual manner were in the rear. Of course Pyrrhus, as he came up with this force in the ravine or valley, encountered the gulls first. Their lines it would seem filled up the whole valley at the place where Pyrrhus overtook them so that at the outset of the contest Pyrrhus had them only to engage. There was not space sufficient for the phalanx to come to their aid. Besides the phalanx and the bodies of gulls there was a troop of elephants in Antigonus's army. Their position as it would seem was between the phalanx and the gulls. This being the state of things and Pyrrhus coming up to the attack in the rear would of course encounter first the gulls then the elephants and lastly the most formidable of all the phalanx itself. Pyrrhus advanced to the attack of the gulls with the utmost fury and though they made a very determined resistance they were soon overpowered and almost all cut to pieces. The troop of elephants came next. The army of Pyrrhus flushed with their victory over the gulls pressed eagerly on and soon so surrounded the elephants and hemmed them in that the keepers of them perceived that all hope of resistance was vain. They surrendered without an effort to defend themselves. The phalanx now remained. It had hastily changed its front and it stood on the defensive. Pyrrhus advanced to ward it with his forces bringing his men up in array in front of the long lines of spears and paused. The bristling monster remained immovable even seeing no disposition to advance against its enemy but awaiting apparently an attack. Pyrrhus rode out in front of his lines and surveyed the body of Macedonians before him. He found that he knew the officers personally having served with them before in the wars in which he had been engaged in Macedon in former years. He saluted them calling them by name. They were pleased with being thus remembered and recognized by a personage so renowned. Pyrrhus urged them to abandon Antigonus who had, as he maintained, no just title to the crown and whose usurped power he was about to overthrow and invited them to enter into his service as the ancient and rightful sovereign of their country. The officers seemed much disposed to listen to these overtures in fine. They soon decided to accede to them. The phalanx went over to Pyrrhus' side in a body and Antigonus, being thus deprived of his last remaining support, left the field in company with a few personal followers and fled for his life. Of course Pyrrhus found himself at once in complete possession of the Macedonian kingdom. Antigonus did not indeed entirely give up the contest. He retreated toward the coast where he contrived to hold possession for a time of a few maritime towns, but his power as king of Macedon was gone. Some few of the interior cities attempted for a time to resist Pyrrhus' rule, but he soon overpowered them. Some of the cities that he thus conquered he garrisoned with Gauls. Of course after such a revolution as this a great deal was required to be done to settle the affairs of the government on their new footing and to make the kingdom secure in the hands of the conqueror. But no one in the least degree acquainted with the character and tendencies of Pyrrhus' mind could expect that he would be at all disposed to attend to these duties. He had neither the sagacity to plan nor the steadiness of purpose to execute such measures. He could conquer, but that was all. To secure the results of his conquest was utterly beyond his power. In fact, far from making such a use of his power as to strengthen his position and establish a permanent and settled government, he so administered the affairs of state, or rather he so neglected them, that very soon and extended discontent and dissatisfaction began to prevail. The Gauls whom he had left as garrisons in the conquered cities governed them in so arbitrary a manner and plundered them so recklessly as to produce extreme irritation among the people. They complained earnestly to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus paid little attention to their representations. To fight a battle with an open enemy on the field was always a pleasure to him. But to meet and grapple with difficulties of this kind, to hear complaints and listen to evidence and discuss and consider remedies was all weariness and toil to him. What he would have done and what would have been the end of his administration in Macedon had he been left to himself cannot now be known. For very fortunately, as he deemed it, he was suddenly relieved of all the embarrassment in which he was gradually getting involved as he had often been relieved in similar circumstances before by an invitation which came to him just at this time to embark in a new military enterprise which would draw him away from the country altogether. It is scarcely necessary to say that Pyrrhus accepted the invitation with the most eager alacrity. The circumstances of the case will be explained in the next chapter, end of chapter 10. Chapter 11 of Pyrrhus by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. Sparta, BC 1272. The war in which Pyrrhus was invited to engage at the time referred to at the close of the last chapter arose out of a domestic quarrel in one of the royal families of Sparta. Sparta was one of the principal cities of the Peloponnesus and the capital of a very powerful and warlike kingdom. The institutions of government in this Commonwealth were very peculiar, and among the most extraordinary of them all was the arrangement made in respect to the kingly power. There were two dynasties or lines of kings reigning conjointly. The division of power between the two incumbents who reigned at any one time may have been somewhat similar to that made in Rome between the consuls, but the system differed from that of the consular government in the fact that the Spartan kings were not elected magistrates like the Roman consuls but hereditary sovereigns, deriving their power from their ancestors each in his own line. The origin of this extraordinary system was said to be this. At a very early period of the Spartan history, a king died suddenly leaving two children, twins, as his heirs, but without designating either one of them as his successor. The Spartans then applied to the mother of the two children to know which of them was the firstborn. She pretended that she could not tell. They then applied to the oracle at Delphi asking what they should do. The response of the oracle directed them to make both the children kings, but to bestow the highest honors upon the oldest. By this answer the Spartans were only partially relieved from their dilemma for under the directions of the oracle the necessity of determining the question of priority in respect to the birth of the two children remained without any light or guidance being afforded them in respect to the mode of doing it. At last some persons suggested that a watch should be set over the mother with a view to ascertain for which of her children she had the strongest affection. They supposed that she really knew which was the firstborn and that she would involuntarily give to the one whom she regarded in that light the precedents in the maternal services and duties which she rendered to the babes. This plan succeeded. It was discovered which was the firstborn and which was the younger, and the Spartans accordingly made both the children kings but gave the highest rank to the former as the oracle had directed. The children both lived and grew up to be men and in due time were married. By a singular coincidence they married twin sisters. In the two families thus arising originated the Spartan lines of kings that reigned jointly over the kingdom for many successive generations. To express this extraordinary system of government it has sometimes been said that Sparta though governed by kings was not a monarchy but a diarchy. The diarchy however as might have been expected was found not to work very successfully in practice. Various dissensions and difficulties arose and at length about 200 years after the original establishment of the two lines the kingdom became almost wholly disorganized. At this juncture the celebrated law giver Lysurgis arose. He framed a system of laws and regulations for the kingdom which were immediately put in force and resulted not only in restoring the public affairs to order at the time but were the means in the end of raising Sparta to the highest condition of prosperity and renown. Lysurgis was indebted for his success in the measures which he adopted not merely to the sagacity which he exercised in framing them and the energy with which he carried them into effect. He occupied personally a very peculiar position which afforded him great facilities for the performance of his work. He was a member of one of the royal families being a younger son of one of the kings. He had an elder brother named Polydectus. His father died suddenly from a stab that he received in a fray. He was not personally engaged in the fray himself as one of the combatants but only went into it to separate other persons who had by some means become involved in a sudden quarrel. In the struggle he received a stab from a kitchen knife with which one of the combatants was armed and immediately died. Polydectus of course being the eldest son succeeded to the throne. He however very soon died leaving a wife but no children. About eight months after his death however a child was born to his widow and this child according to the then received principles of hereditary descent was entitled to succeed his father. As however at the time of Polydectus's death the child was not born Lysurgis the brother was then apparently the heir. He accordingly assumed the government so far as the government devolved upon the line to which his brother had belonged intending only to hold it in the interim and to give it up ultimately when the proper heir should appear. In the meantime the widow supposed very naturally that he would like to retain the power permanently. She was herself also ambitious of reigning as queen and she accordingly made to Lysurgis the atrocious and unnatural proposal to destroy the life of her child on condition that he would marry her and allow her to share the kingdom with him. Lysurgis was much shocked at receiving such a proposition but he deemed it best for the time being to appear to exceed to it. He accordingly represented to the queen that it would not be best for her to make the attempt which she had proposed lest she should thereby endanger her own safety. Wait said he and let me know as soon as the child is born then leave everything to me I will do myself whatever is required to be done. Lysurgis moreover had attendance provided with orders to keep themselves in readiness when the child should be born and if it proved to be a son to bring the babe to him immediately wherever he might be or however he might be engaged. If it proved to be a daughter they were to leave it in the hands of the woman who had charge of the queen. The babe proved to be a son. The officers took it accordingly and brought it at once to Lysurgis. The unnatural mother of course understood that it was taken away from her to be destroyed and she acquiesced in the supposed design in order by sacrificing her child to perpetuate her own queenly dignity and power. Lysurgis however was intending to conduct the affair to a very different result. At the time when the attendance brought the newborn babe to Lysurgis's house Lysurgis was engaged with a party of friends whom he had invited to a festival. These friends consisted of nobles generals ministers of state and other principal personages of the Spartan common wealth whom Lysurgis had thus assembled in anticipation probably of what was to take place. The attendance had been ordered to bring the child to him without delay wherever they might find him. They accordingly came into the apartment where Lysurgis and his friends were assembled bringing the infant with them in their arms. Lysurgis received him and holding him up before the company called out to them in a loud voice, Spartans I present to you your newborn king. The people received the young prince with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy and Lysurgis named him Charles which means dear to the people. The conduct of Lysurgis on this occasion was thought to be very generous and noble since by bringing the child forward as the true heir to the crown he surrendered at once all his own pretensions to the inheritance and made himself a private citizen. Very few of the sons of kings either in ancient or modern times would have pursued such a course, but though in respect to his position he abased himself by thus descending from his place upon the throne to the rank of a private citizen he exalted himself very highly in respect to influence and character. He was at once made protector of the person of the child and regent of the realm during the young king's minority and all the people of the city applauding the noble deed which he had performed began to entertain toward him feelings of the highest respect and veneration. It proved however that there were yet very serious difficulties which he was destined to meet and surmount before the way should be fully open for the performance of the great work for which he afterward became so renowned. Although the people generally of Sparta greatly applauded the conduct of Lysurgis and placed the utmost confidence in him there were still a few who hated and opposed him. Of course the queen herself whose designs he had thwarted was extremely indignant at having then thus deceived not only was her own personal ambition disappointed by the failure of her design but her womanly pride was fatally wounded in having been rejected by Lysurgis in the offer which she had made to become his wife. She and her friends therefore were implacably hostile to him. She had a brother named Leonidas who warmly espoused her cause. Leonidas quarreled openly with Lysurgis. He addressed him one day in the presence of several witnesses in a very violent and threatening manner. I know very well said he that your seeming disinterestedness and your show of zeal for the safety and welfare of the young king are all an empty pretense you are plotting to destroy him and to raise yourself to the throne in his stead and if we wait a short time we shall see you accomplishing the results at which you are really aiming in your iniquitous and hypocritical policy. On hearing these threats and denunciations Lysurgis instead of making an angry reply to them began at once calmly to consider what it would be best for him to do. He reflected that the life of the child was uncertain notwithstanding every precaution which he might make for the preservation of it and if by any casualty it should die his enemies might charge him with having secretly murdered it. He resolved therefore to remove at once and forever all possible suspicion present or prospective of the purity of his motives by withdrawing altogether from Sparta until the child should come of age. He accordingly made arrangements for placing the young king under protectors who could not be suspected of collusion with him for any guilty purpose and also organized an administration to govern the country until the king should be of age. Having taken these steps he bade Sparta farewell and set out upon a long and extended course of travels. He was gone from his native land many years during which period he visited all the principal states and kingdoms of the earth employing himself wherever he went in studying the history the government and the institutions of the countries through which he journeyed and in visiting and conversing with all the most distinguished men. He went first to Crete a large island which lay south of the Aegean Sea its western extremity being not far from the coast of Peloponnesus. After remaining for some time in Crete visiting all its principal cities and making himself thoroughly acquainted with its history and condition he sailed for Asia Minor and visited all the chief capitals there. From Asia Minor he went to Egypt and after finishing his observations and studies in the cities of the Nile he journeyed westward and passed through all the countries lying on the northern coast of Africa and then from Africa he crossed over into Spain. He remained long enough in each place that he visited to make himself very thoroughly acquainted with its philosophy, its government, its civilization, its state of progress in respect to the arts and usages of social life with everything in fact which could have a bearing upon national prosperity and welfare. In the meantime the current of affairs at Sparta flowed by no means smoothly. As years rolled on and the young prince, Charles, advanced toward the period of manhood he became involved in various difficulties which greatly embarrassed and perplexed him. He was of a very amiable and gentle disposition but was wholly destitute of the strength and energy of character required for the station in which he was placed. Disagreements arose between him and the other king. They both quarreled too with their nobles and with the people. The people did not respect them and gradually learned to despise their authority. They remembered the efficiency and the success of Lysergis's government and the regularity and order which had marked the whole course of public affairs during his administration. They appreciated now too more fully than before the noble personal qualities which Lysergis had events, his comprehensiveness of view, his firmness of purpose, his disinterestedness, his generosity, and they contrasted the lofty sentiments and principles which had always governed him with the weakness, the childishness, and the petty ambition of their actual kings. In a word they all wished that Lysergis would return. Even the kings themselves participated in this wish. They perceived that their affairs were getting into confusion and began to feel apprehension and anxiety. Lysergis received repeated messages from them and from the people of Sparta urging him to return, but he declined to accept these proposals and went on with his travels and his studies as before. At last, however, the Spartans sent a formal embassy to Lysergis representing to him the troubled condition of public affairs in Sparta and the dangers which threatened the Commonwealth and urging him in the most pressing manner to return. These ambassadors in their interview with Lysergis told him that they had kings indeed at Sparta so far as birth and title and the wearing of royal robes would go, but as for any royal qualities beyond this mere outside show they had seen nothing of the kind since Lysergis had left them. Lysergis finally concluded to comply with the request. He returned to Sparta. Here he employed himself for a time in making a careful examination into the state of the country and in conversing with the principal men of influence in the city and renewing his acquaintance with them. At length he formed a plan for an entire organization of the government. He proposed this plan to the principal men and having obtained the consent of a sufficient number of them to the leading provisions of his new constitution, he began to take measures for the public promulgation and establishment of it. The first step was to secure a religious sanction for his proceedings in order to inspire the common people with a feeling of reverence and awe for his authority. He accordingly left Sparta saying that he was going to consult the oracle at Delphi. In due time he returned, bringing with him the response of the oracle. The response was as follows. Lysergis is beloved of the gods and is himself divine. The laws which he has framed are perfect and under them a common wealth shall arise which shall hereafter become the most famous in the world. This response, having been made known in Sparta, impressed everyone with a very high sense of the authority of Lysergis and disposed all classes of people to acquiesce in the coming change. Lysergis did not, however, rely entirely on this disposition. When the time came for organizing the new government, he stationed an armed force in the marketplace one morning at a very early hour so that the people, when they came forth as usual into the streets, found that Lysergis had taken military possession of the city. The first feeling was a general excitement and alarm. Charles the king, who it seems had not been consulted in these movements at all, was very much terrified. He supposed that an insurrection had taken place against his authority and that his life was in danger. To save himself he fled to one of the temples as to a sanctuary. Lysergis sent to him informing him that those engaged in the revolution which had taken place intended no injury to him, either in respect to his person or his royal prerogatives. By these assurances, the fears of Charles were allayed and, henceforth, he cooperated with Lysergis in carrying his measures into effect. This is not the place for a full account of the plan of government which Lysergis introduced nor any of the institutions which gradually grew up under it. It is sufficient to say that the system which he adopted was celebrated throughout the world during the period of its continuance and has since been celebrated in every age as being the most stern and rugged social system that was ever framed. The Commonwealth of Sparta became under the institutions of Lysergis one great camp. The nation was a nation of soldiers. Every possible device was resorted to to ignore all classes of the population, the young and the old, the men and the women, the rich and the poor, to every species of hardship and privation. The only qualities that were respected or cultivated were such stern virtues as courage, fortitude, endurance, insensibility to pain and grief, and contempt for all the pleasures of wealth and luxury. Lysergis did not write out his system. He would not allow it to be written out. He preferred to put it in operation and then leave it to perpetuate itself as a matter of usage and precedent. Accordingly, after fully organizing the government on the plan which he had arranged and announcing the laws and establishing the customs by which he intended that the ordinary course of social life should be regulated, he determined to withdraw from the field and await the result. He therefore informed the people that he was going away again on another journey and that he would leave the carrying forward of the government which he had framed for them and initiated in their hands, and he required of them a solemn oath that they would make no change in the system until he returned. In doing this, his secret intention was never to return. Such was the origin and such the general character of the Spartan government. In the time of Pyrrhus the system had been in operation for about 500 years. During this period the state passed through many and various vicissitudes. It engaged in wars, offensive and defensive. It passed through many calamitous and trying scenes, suffering from time to time under the usual ills which in those days so often disturbed the peace and welfare of nations. But during all this time the Commonwealth retained in a very striking degree the extraordinary marks and characteristics which the institutions of Lyserges had instamped upon it. The Spartans still were terrible in the estimation of all mankind. So stern and indomitable was the spirit which they manifested in all the enterprises in which they engaged. It was from Sparta that the message came to Pyrrhus asking his assistance in a war that was then waging there. The war originated in a domestic quarrel which arose in the family of one of the Lines of Kings. The name of the prince who made the application to Pyrrhus was Cleonimus. He was the younger son of one of the Spartan kings. He had had an older brother named Acretatus. The crown of course would have devolved on this brother if he had been living when the father died. But he was not. He died before his father, having a son however named Arius as his heir. Arius, of course, claimed the throne when his grandfather died. He was not young himself at this time. He had advanced beyond the period of middle life and had a son who had grown up to maturity. Cleonimus was very unwilling to acquiesce in the accession of Arius to the throne. He was himself the son of the king who had died while Arius was only the grandson. He maintained, therefore, that he had the highest claim to the accession. He was, however, overruled, and Arius assumed the crown. Soon after his accession Arius left Sparta and went to Crete in trusting the government of his kingdom in the meantime to his son. The name of this son was Acretatus. Cleonimus, of course, looked with a particularly evil eye upon this young man and soon began to form designs against him. At length, after the lapse of a considerable period during which various events occurred which cannot be here described, a circumstance took place which excited the hostility which Cleonimus felt for Acretatus to the highest degree. The circumstances were these. Cleonimus, though far advanced in life, married about the time that the events occurred which we are here describing, a very young lady named Shaladanus. Shaladanus was a princess of the royal line and was a lady of great personal beauty. She, however, had very little affection for her husband, and at length, Acretatus, who was young and attractive in person, succeeded in winning her love and enticing her away from her husband. This affair excited the mind of Cleonimus to a perfect frenzy of jealousy and rage. He immediately left Sparta and, knowing well the character and disposition of Pyrrhus, he proceeded northward to Macedon, laid his case before Pyrrhus, and urged him to fit out an expedition and march to the Peloponnesus with a view of aiding him to put down the usurpers, as he called them, and to establish him on the throne of Sparta instead. Pyrrhus immediately saw that the conjuncture opened before him a prospect of a very brilliant campaign in a field entirely new, and he at once determined to embark forthwith in the enterprise. He resolved accordingly to abandon his interests in Macedon and march into Greece. Chapter 12 of Pyrrhus by Jacob Abbott This Librivox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Giants, Sutleck City, Utah. The last campaign of Pyrrhus, BC 272. Immediately on receiving the invitation of Cleonimus, Pyrrhus commenced making preparations on a very extensive scale for the intended campaign. He gathered all the troops that he could command, both from Macedon and Epirus. He levied taxes and contributions, provided military stores of every kind, and entered into all the other arrangements required for such an enterprise. These preliminary operations required a considerable time, so that he was not ready to commence his march until the following year. When all was ready, he found that his force consisted of 25,000 foot, 2,000 horse, and a troop of 24 elephants. He had two sons, neither of whom it would seem, was old enough to be entrusted with the command, either in Macedon or Epirus during his absence, and he accordingly determined to take them with him. Their names were Ptolemy and Hellenus. Pyrrhus himself at this time was about 45 years of age. Although in this expedition, Cleonimus supposed that Pyrrhus was going into Greece only as his ally, and that the sole object of the war was to depose Arius and place Cleonimus on the throne in his stead, Pyrrhus himself entertained far different designs. His intention was, while invading the country in Cleonimus's name, to overrun and conquer it all, with a view of adding it to his own dominions. Of course he gave no intimation to Cleonimus that he entertained any such designs. The approach of Pyrrhus naturally produced great excitement and commotion in Sparta. His fame as a military commander was known throughout the world, and the invasion of their country by such a conqueror at the head of so large a force was calculated to awaken great alarm among the people. The Spartans, however, were not much accustomed to be alarmed. They immediately began to make preparations to defend themselves. They sent forward an embassage to meet Pyrrhus on the way and demand wherefore he was coming. Pyrrhus made evasive and dishonest replies. He was not intending, he said, to commit any hostilities against Sparta. His business was with certain other cities of the Peloponnesus which had been for some time under a foreign yoke, and which he was now coming to free. The Spartans were not deceived by these protestations, but time was gained, and this was Pyrrhus's design. His army continued to advance, and in its progress began to seize and plunder towns belonging to the Spartan territory. The Spartans sent ambassadors again demanding what these proceedings meant. The ambassadors charged it upon Pyrrhus that contrary to the laws and usages of nations, he was making war upon them without having previously declared war. And do you, Spartans, said Pyrrhus in reply, always tell the world whatever you are going to do before you do it? Such a rejoinder was virtually acknowledging that the object of the expedition was an attack on Sparta itself. The ambassadors so understood it and bid the invader defiance. Let there be war then, said they. If you will have it so, we do not fear you, whether you are a God or a man. If you are a God, you will not be disposed to do us any injury, for we have never injured you. If you are a man, you cannot harm us, for we can produce men in Sparta able to meet any other man, whatever. The ambassadors then returned to Sparta and the people immediately pushed forward with all diligence, their preparations for putting the city in an attitude of defense. Pyrrhus continued his march and at length toward evening approached the walls of the city. Cleonomus, who knew well what sort of enemies they had to deal with, urgently recommended that an assault should be made that night, supposing that the Spartans would succeed in making additional defenses if the attack were postponed until the morning. Pyrrhus, however, was disposed not to make the attack until the following day. He felt perfectly sure of his prize and was accordingly in no haste to seize it. He thought it was said that if the attack were made in the night, the soldiers would plunder the city, and thus he should lose a considerable part of the booty which he hoped otherwise to secure for himself. He could control them better in the daytime. He accordingly determined to remain in his camp without the city during the night and to advance to the assault in the morning, so he ordered the tents to be pitched on the plane and sat quietly down. In the meantime, great activity prevailed within the walls. The Senate was convened and was engaged in debating and deciding the various questions that necessarily arise in such an emergency. A plan was proposed for removing the women from the city in order to save them from the terrible fate which would inevitably await them should the army of Pyrrhus be successful on the following day. It was thought that they might go out secretly on the side opposite to that on which Pyrrhus was in count, and thus be conducted to the seashore where they might be conveyed in ships and galleys to the island of Crete which as will appear from the map was situated at no great distance from the Spartan coast. By this means the mothers and daughters it was thought would be saved whatever might be the fate of the husbands and brothers. The news that the Senate were discussing such a plan as this was soon spread abroad among the people. The women were aroused to the most strenuous opposition against this plan. They declared that they never would seek safety for themselves by going away and leaving their fathers, husbands, and brothers in such danger. They commissioned one of their number, a princess named Arcadamia, to make known to the Senate the views which they entertained of this proposal. Arcadamia went boldly into the Senate chamber with a drawn sword in her hand and there arrested the discussion in which the senators were engaged by demanding how they could entertain such an opinion of the women of Sparta as to suppose that they could survive the destruction of the city and the death of all whom they loved. They did not wish to be saved, she said, unless all could be saved together and she implored the Senate to abandon at once all ideas of sending them away and allow them instead to take their share in the necessary labor required for the defense of the city. The Senate yielded to this appeal and abandoning the design which they had entertained of sending the women away, turned their attention immediately to plans of defense. While these earnest consultations and discussions were going on in the Senate and in the streets and dwellings of the city, there was one place which presented a scene of excitement of a very different kind, namely the palace of Cleonimus. There all were in a state of eager anticipation, expecting the speedy arrival of their master. The domestics believed confidently that an attack would be made upon the city that night by the combined army of Cleonimus and Pyrrhus and presuming that it would be successful. They supposed that their master as soon as the troops should obtain possession of the city would come home at once to his own house, bringing his distinguished ally with him. They busied themselves, therefore, in adorning and preparing the apartments of the house and in making ready a splendid entertainment in order that they might give to Cleonimus and his friend a suitable reception when they should arrive. Chaladanus, however, the young and beautiful but faithless wife of Cleonimus, was not there. She had long since left her husband's dwelling and now she was full of suspense and anxiety in respect to his threatened return. If the city should be taken, she knew very well that she must necessarily fall again into her husband's power and she determined that she never would fall into his power again alive. So she retired to her apartment and there, putting a rope around her neck and making all other necessary preparations, she awaited the issue of the battle, resolved to destroy herself the moment she should hear tidings that Pyrrhus had gained the victory. In the meantime, the military leaders of the Spartans were engaged in strengthening the defenses and in making all the necessary preparations for the ensuing conflict. They did not, however, intend to remain within the city and await the attack of the assailants there. With the characteristic fearlessness of the Spartan character, they determined when they found that Pyrrhus was not intending to attack the city that night that they would themselves go out to meet him in the morning. One reason, however, for this determination, doubtless was that the city was not shut in with substantial walls and defenses like most of the other cities of Greece as it was a matter of pride with the Spartans to rely on their own personal strength and courage for protection rather than on artificial bulwarks and towers. Still, such artificial aids were not wholly despised and they now determined to do what was in their power in this respect by throwing up a rampart of earth under cover of the darkness of the night along the line over which the enemy must march in attacking the city. This work was accordingly begun. They would not, however, employ the soldiers in this work or any strong and able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. They wished to reserve the strength of all these for the more urgent and dreadful work of the following day. The ditch was accordingly dug and the ramparts raised by the boys, the old men, and especially by the women. The women of all ranks in the city went out and toiled all night at this labor, having laid aside half their clothes that their robes might not hinder them in the digging. The reader, however, must not, in his imagination, invest these fair laborers with the delicate forms and gentle manners and timid hearts which are generally deemed characteristic of women. For the Spartan females were trained expressly from their earliest life to the most rough and bold exposures and toiles. They were inured from infancy to hardyhood by being taught to contend in public wrestling and games, to endure every species of fatigue and exposure, and to despise everything like gentleness and delicacy. In a word, they were little less masculine in appearance and manners than the men. And accordingly, when Arcadamia went into the Senate chamber with a drawn sword in her hand and there boldly facing the whole assembly declared that the women would on no account consent to leave the city, she acted in a manner not at all inconsistent with what at Sparta was considered the proper position and character of her sex. In a word, the Spartan women were as bold and stern and almost as formidable as the men. All night long the work of excavation went on. Those who were too young or too feeble to work were employed in going to and fro, carrying tools where they were required or bringing food and drink to those who were digging in the trench, while the soldiers remained quietly at rest within the city awaiting the duties which were to devolve upon them in the morning. The trench was made wide and deep enough to impede the passage of the elephants and of the cavalry, and it was guarded at the ends by wagons, the wheels of which were half-buried in the ground at the places chosen for them in order to render them immovable. All this work was performed in such silence and secrecy that it met with no interruption from Pyrrhus' camp, and the whole was completed before the morning dawned. As soon as it began to be light, the camp of Pyrrhus was in motion. All was excitement and commotion too within the city. The soldiers assumed their arms and formed in array. The women gathered around them while they were making these preparations, assisting them to buckle on their armor and animating them with words of sympathy and encouragement. How glorious it will be for you, said they, to gain a victory here in the precincts of the city, where we can all witness and enjoy your triumph, and even if you fall in the contest, your mothers and your wives are close at hand to receive you to their arms and to soothe and sustain you in your dying struggles. When all was ready, the men marched forth to meet the advancing columns of Pyrrhus' army, and the battle soon began. Pyrrhus soon found that the trench, which the Spartans had dug in the night, was destined greatly to obstruct his intended operations. The horse and the elephants could not cross it at all, and even the men, if they succeeded in getting over the ditch, were driven back when attempting to ascend the rampart of earth, which had been formed along the side of it by the earth thrown up in making the excavation. For this earth was loose and steep, and afforded them no footing. Various attempts were made to dislodge the wagons that had been fixed into the ground at the ends of the trench, but for a time all these efforts were fruitless. At last, however, Pallamy, the son of Pyrrhus, came very near succeeding. He had the command of a force of about two thousand gulls, and with this body he made a circuit so as to come upon the line of wagons in such a manner as to give him a great advantage in attacking them. The Spartans fought very resolutely in defense of them, but the gulls gradually prevailed, and at length succeeded in dragging several of the wagons up out of the earth. All that they thus extricated they drew off out of the way, and threw them into the river. Seeing this, young Akretatus, the prince whom Arius, his father now absent, as the reader will recollect in Crete, had left in command in Sparta when he went away, hastened to interpose. He placed himself at the head of a small band of two or three hundred men, and crossing the city on the other side, he went unobserved, and then making a circuit, came round and attacked the gulls who were at work on the wagons in the rear. As the gulls had already a foe in front, nearly strong enough to cope with them, this sudden assault from behind entirely turned the scale. They were driven away in great confusion. This feat being accomplished, Akretatus came back to the head of his detachment into the city, panting and exhausted with the exertions he had made, and covered with blood. He was received there with the loudest applause and acclamations the women gathered around him, and overwhelmed him with thanks and congratulations. Go to Celadonis, said they and rest, she ought to be yours, you have deserved her, how we envy her such a lover. The contest continued all the day, and when night came on Pyrrhus found that he had made no sensible progress in the work of gaining entrance into the city. He was however now forced to postpone all further efforts till the following day. At the proper time he retired to rest, but he awoke very early in the morning in a state of great excitement, and calling up some of the officers around him, he related to them a remarkable dream, which he had had during the night, and which he thought presaged success to the efforts which they were to make on the following day. He had seen, he said in his dream, a flash of lightning dart from the sky upon Sparta, and set the whole city on fire. This, he argued, was a divine omen which promised them certain success, and he called upon the generals to marshal the troops and prepare for the onset, saying, we are sure of victory now. Whether Pyrrhus really had had such a dream, or whether he fabricated this story for the purpose of inspiring anew the courage and confidence of his men, which as would naturally be supposed might have been somewhat weakened by the ill success of the preceding day, cannot be absolutely ascertained. Whichever it was, it failed wholly of its intended effect. Pyrrhus's generals said in reply that the omen was adverse, and not propitious, for it was one of the fundamental principles of Haru's special science, that lightning made sacred whatever it touched. It was forbidden even to step upon the ground where a thunderbolt had fallen, and they ought to consider therefore that the descent of the lightning upon Sparta, as figured to Pyrrhus in the dream, was intended to mark the city as under the special protection of heaven, and to warn the invaders not to molest it. Finding thus that the story of his vision produced a different effect from the one he had intended, Pyrrhus changed his ground and told his generals that no importance whatever was to be attached to visions and dreams. They might serve, he argued, very well to amuse the ignorant and superstitious, but wise men should be entirely above being influenced by them in any way. You have something better than these things to trust in, said he. You have arms in your hands, and you have Pyrrhus for your leader. This is proof enough for you that you are destined to conquer. How far these assurances were found effectual in animating the courage of the generals we do not know, but the result did not at all confirm Pyrrhus's vain glorious predictions. During the first part of the day, indeed, he made great progress, and for a time it appeared probable that the city was about to fall into his hands. The plan of his operations was first to fill up the ditch which the Spartans had made the soldiers throwing into it for this purpose great quantities of materials of every kind such as earth, stones, faggots, trunks of trees, and whatever came most readily to hand. They used in this work immense quantities of dead bodies which they found scattered over the plain the results of the conflict of the preceding day. By the means of the horrid bridging thus made the troops attempted to make their way across the ditch while the Spartans formed on the top of the rampart of earth on the inner side of it fought desperately to repel them. All this time the women were passing back and forth between them and the city bringing out water and refreshments to sustain the fainting strength of the men and carrying home the wounded and dying and the bodies of the dead. At last a considerable body of troops consisting of a division that was under the personal charge of Pyrrhus himself succeeded in breaking through the Spartan lines at a point near one end of the rampart which had been thrown up. When the men found that they had forced their way through they raised loud shouts of exultation and triumph and immediately rushed forward toward the city. For a moment it seemed that for the Spartans all was lost but the tide of victory was soon suddenly turned by a very unexpected incident. An arrow pierced the breast of the horse on which Pyrrhus was riding and gave the animal a fatal wound. The horse plunged and reared in his agony and terror and then fell throwing Pyrrhus to the ground. This occurrence of course arrested the whole troop in their progress. The horsemen wheeled suddenly about and gathered around Pyrrhus to rescue him from his danger. This gave the Spartans time to rally and to bring up their forces in such numbers that the Macedonian soldiers were glad to be able to make their way back again bearing Pyrrhus with them beyond the lines. After recovering a little from the agitation produced by this adventure Pyrrhus found that his troops discouraged apparently by the fruitlessness of their efforts and especially by this last misfortune were beginning to lose their spirit and ardor and were fighting feebly and falteringly all along the line. He concluded therefore that there was no longer any prospect of accomplishing his object that day and that it would be better to save the remaining strength of his troops by withdrawing them from the field rather than to discourage and enfeeble them still more by continuing what was now very clearly a useless struggle. He accordingly put a stop to the action and the army retired to their encampment. Before he had opportunity to make a third attempt events occurred which entirely changed the whole aspect of the controversy. The reader will recollect that Arius the king of Sparta was absent in Crete at the time of Pyrrhus' arrival and that the command of the army devolved during his absence on Acretatus his son. For the kings of the other line for some reason or other took a very small part in the public affairs of the city at this time and Arselta mentioned in history. Arius as soon as he heard of the Macedonian invasion immediately collected a large force and set out on his return to Sparta and he entered into the city at the head of two thousand men just after the second repulse which Acretatus had given to their enemies at the same time to another body of reinforcements came in from Corinth consisting of allies of the Spartans gathered from the northern part of the Peloponnesus. The arrival of these troops in the city filled the Spartans with joy and entirely dispelled their fears. They considered themselves as now entirely safe the old men and the women considering that their places were now abundantly supplied. Fenceforth withdrew from all active participation in the contest and retired to their respective homes to rest and refresh themselves after their toils. Notwithstanding this however Pyrrhus was not yet prepared to give up the contest. The immediate effect in fact of the arrival of the reinforcements was to arouse his spirit anew and to stimulate him to a fresh determination that he would not be defeated in his purpose but that he would conquer the city at all hazards. He accordingly made several more desperate attempts but they were wholly unsuccessful and at length after a series of losses and defeats he was obliged to give up the contest and withdraw. He retired accordingly to some little distance from Sparta where he established a permanent camp subsisting his soldiers by plundering the surrounding country. He was vexed and irritated by the mortifications and disappointments which he had endured and waited impatiently for an opportunity to seek revenge. While he was thus pondering his situation uncertain what to do next he received one day a message from Argos a city in the northern part of the Peloponnesus asking him to come and take part in a contest which had been opened there. It seems that a civil war had broken out in that city and one of the leaders knowing the character of Pyrrhus and his readiness to engage in any quarrel which was offered to him had concluded to apply for his aid. Pyrrhus was as usual very ready to yield to this request. It afforded him as similar proposals had so often done before a plausible excuse for abandoning an enterprise in which he began to despair of being able to succeed. He immediately commenced his march to the northward. The Spartans however were by no means disposed to allow him to go off un molested. They advanced with all the force they could command and though they were not powerful enough to engage him in a general battle they harassed him and embarrassed his march in a very vexatious manner. They laid ambushes in the narrow defiles through which he had to pass. They cut off his detachments and plundered and destroyed his baggage. Pyrrhus at length sent back a body of his guards under Ptolemy, his son, to drive them away. Ptolemy attacked the Spartans and fought them with great bravery until at length in the heat of the contest. A celebrated cretin of remarkable strength and activity riding furiously up to Ptolemy failed him to the ground and killed him at a single blow. On seeing him fall his detachment were struck with dismay and turning their backs on the Spartans fled to Pyrrhus with the tidings. Pyrrhus was of course excited to the highest pitch of frenzy at hearing what had occurred. He immediately placed himself at the head of a troop of horse and galloped back to attack the Spartans and avenge the death of his son. He assaulted his enemies when he reached the ground where they were posted in the most furious manner and killed great numbers of them in the conflict that ensued. At one time he was for a short period in the most imminent danger. A Spartan named Evelkas who came up and engaged him hand to hand, aimed a blow at his head which, although it failed of its intended effect, came down close in front of his body as he sat upon his horse and cut off the reins of the bridle. The instant after, Pyrrhus transfixed Evelkas with his spear. Of course Pyrrhus had now no longer the control of his horse and he accordingly leaped from him to the ground and fought on foot while the Spartans gathered around, endeavouring to rescue and protect the body of Evelkas. A furious and most terrible contest ensued in which many on both sides were slain. At length Pyrrhus made good his retreat from the scene and the Spartans themselves finally withdrew. Pyrrhus having thus, by way of comfort for his grief, taken the satisfaction of revenge, resumed his march and went to Argos. Arrived before the city he found that there was an army opposed to him there under the command of a general named Antigonus. His army was encamped upon a hill near the city awaiting his arrival. The mind of Pyrrhus had become so chafed and irritated by the opposition which he had encountered and the defeats, disappointments and mortifications which he had endured that he was full of rage and fury and seemed to manifest the temper of a wild beast rather than that of a man. He sent a herald to the camp of Antigonus angrily defying him and challenging him to come down from his encampment and meet him in single combat on the plain. Antigonus very coolly replied that time was a weapon which he employed in his contests as well as the sword and that he was not yet ready for a battle. Adding that if Pyrrhus was weary of his life and very impatient to end it there were plenty of modes by which he could accomplish his desire. Pyrrhus remained for some days before the walls of Argos during which time various negotiations took place between the people of the city and the several parties involved in the quarrel with a view to an amicable adjustment of the dispute in order to save the city from the terror attendant upon a contest for the possession of it between such mighty armies. At length some sort of settlement was made and both armies agreed to retire. Pyrrhus however had no intention of keeping his agreement. Having thrown the people of the city somewhat off their guard by his promise he took occasion to advance stealthily to one of the gates at dead of night and there the gate being opened to him by a confederate within the city he began to march his soldiers in. The troops were ordered to keep silence and to step noiselessly and thus a large body of Gauls gained admission and posted themselves in the marketplace without alarming or awakening the inhabitants. To render this story credible we must suppose that the sentinels and guards had been previously gained over to Pyrrhus's side. The foot soldiers having thus made their entrance into the city Pyrrhus undertook next to pass some of his elephants in. It was found however when they approached the gate that they could not enter without having the towers first removed from their backs as the gates were only high enough to admit the animals alone. The soldiers accordingly proceeded to take off the towers and then the elephants were led in. The towers were then to be replaced. The work of taking down the towers and then of putting them on again which all had to be done in the dark was attended with great difficulty and delay and so much noise was unavoidably made in the operation that at length the people in the surrounding houses took the alarm and in a very short period the whole city was aroused. Eagle gatherings were immediately held in all quarters. Pyrrhus pressed forward with all haste into the marketplace and posted himself there arranging his elephants, his horse, and his foot in the manner best adapted to protect them from any attack that might be made. The people of Argos crowded into the citadel and sent out immediately to Antigonus to come in to their aid. He at once put his camp in motion and advancing toward the walls with the main body he sent in some powerful detachments of troops to cooperate with the inhabitants of the city. All these scenes occurring in the midst of the darkness of the night the people having been awakened from their sleep by a sudden alarm were attended of course by a dreadful panic and confusion and to complete the complication of horrors areas with the Spartan army under his command who had followed Pyrrhus in his approach to the city and had been closely watching his movements ever since he had arrived now burst in through the gates and attacked the troops of his hated enemy in the streets in the marketplace and wherever he could find them with shouts out cries and implications that made the whole city one widespread scene of unutterable confusion and terror. The general confusion and terror however produced by the assaults of the Spartans were the only results that immediately followed them for the troops soon found that no real progress could be made and no advantage gained by this nocturnal warfare the soldiers could not distinguish friends from foes they could not see or hear their commander or act with any concert or in any order they were scattered about and lost their way in narrow streets or fell into drains or sewers and all attempts on the part of the officers to rally them or to control them in any way were unavailing at length by common consent all parties desisted from fighting and awaited all in an awful condition of uncertainty and suspense the coming of the dawn. Pyrrhus as the objects that were around him were brought gradually into view by the gray light of the morning was alarmed at seeing that the walls of the citadel were covered with armed men and at observing various other indications by which he was warned that there was a very powerful force opposed to him within the city as the light increased and brought the boundaries of the marketplace where he posted himself into view and revealed the various images and figures which had been placed there to adorn it he was struck with consternation at the site of one of the groups as the outlines of it slowly made themselves visible it was a piece of statuary in bronze representing a combat between a wolf and a bull it seems that in former times some oracle or diviner had forewarned him that when he should see a wolf encountering a bull he might know that the hour of his death was near of course he had supposed that such a spectacle if it was indeed true that he was ever destined to see it could only be expected to appear in some secluded forest or in some wide and unfrequented spot among the mountains perhaps indeed he had paid very little attention to the prophecy and never expected that it would be literally realized when however this group in bronze came out to view it reminded him of the oracle and the dreadful foreboding which its appearance awakened connected with the anxiety and alarm naturally inspired by the situation in which he was placed filled him with consternation he feared that his hour was come and his only solicitude now was to make good his retreat as soon as possible from the fatal dangers by which he seemed to be surrounded but how to escape was the difficulty the gate was narrow the body of troops with him was large and he knew that in attempting to retire he would be attacked from all the streets in the vicinity and from the tops of the houses and walls and that his column would inevitably be thrown into disorder and would choke up the gateway and render it wholly impossible through their eagerness to escape and the confusion that would ensue he accordingly sent out a messenger to his son Hellenus who remained all the time in command of the main body of the army without the walls directing him to come forward with all his force and break down a portion of the wall adjoining the gateway so as to open a free egress for his troops in their retreat from the city he remained himself at his position in the marketplace until time had elapsed sufficient as he judged for Hellenus to have received his orders and to have reached the gate in the execution of them and then being by this time hard pressed by his enemies who began early in the morning to attack him on all quarters he put his troops in motion and in the midst of a scene of shouts of terror and confusion indescribable the whole body moved on toward the gate expecting that by the time they arrived there Hellenus would have accomplished his work and that they should find a broad opening made which would allow of an easy egress instead of this however they found before they reached the gate that the streets before them were entirely blocked up with an immense concourse of soldiers that were pouring tumultuously into the city it seems that Hellenus had in some way or other misunderstood the orders and supposed that he was directed to enter the city himself to reinforce his father within the walls the shock of the encounter produced by these opposing currents redoubled the confusion Pyrrhus and the officers with him shouted out orders to the advancing soldiers of Hellenus to fall back but in the midst of the indescribable din and confusion that prevailed no vociferation however loud could be heard nor if the orders had been heard could they have been obeyed for the van of the coming column was urged forward irresistibly by the pressure of those behind and the panic which by this time prevailed among the troops of Pyrrhus's command made them frantic and furious in their efforts to force their way onward and get out of the city an awful scene of confusion and destruction ensued men pressed and trampled each other to death and the air was filled with shrieks and cries of pain and terror the destruction of life was very great but it was produced almost entirely by the pressure and the confusion man horses and elephants being mingled in extricably together in one vast living mass which seemed to those who looked down upon it from above to be writhing and struggling in the most horrible contortions there was no fighting for there was no room for anyone to strike a blow if a man drew his sword or raised his pike his arms were caught and pinioned immediately by the pressure around him and he found himself utterly helpless the injury therefore that was done was the result almost altogether of the pressure and the struggles and of the trampling of the elephants and the horses upon the men and of the men upon each other the elephants added greatly to the confusion of the scene one of the largest in the troop fell in the gateway and lay there for some time on his side unable to rise and brain in a terrific manner another was excited to a frenzy by the loss of his master who had fallen off from his head wounded by a dart or a spear the faithful animal turned around to save him with his trunk he threw the men who were in the way off to the right hand and the left and then taking up the body of his master with his trunk he placed it carefully upon his tusks and then attempted to force a passage through the crowd trampling down all who came in his way history has awarded to this elephant a distinction which he well deserved by recording his name it was Nikon all this time pyrrhus was near the rear of his troops and thus was in some degree removed from the greatest severity of the pressure he turned and fought from time to time with those who were pressing upon his line from behind as the danger became more imminent he took out from his helmet the plume by which he was distinguished from the other generals and gave it to a friend who was near him in order that he might be a less conspicuous mark for the shafts of his enemies the combats however between his party and those who were harassing them in the rear were still continued and at length in one of them a man of Argos wounded him by throwing a javelin with so much force that the point of it passed through his breastplate and entered his side the wound was not dangerous but it had the effect of maddening pyrrhus against the man who had inflicted and he turned upon him with great fury as if he were intending to annihilate him at a blow he would very probably have killed the greek had it not been that just at that moment the mother of the man by a very singular coincidence was surveying the scene from a housetop which overlooked the street where these events were occurring she immediately seized a heavy tile from the roof and with all her strength hurled it into the street upon pyrrhus just as he was striking the blow the tile came down upon his head and striking the helmet heavily it carried both helmet and head down together and crushed the lower vertebra of the neck at their junction with the spine pyrrhus dropped the reins from his hands and fell over from his horse heavily to the ground it happened that no one knew him who saw him fall for so great had been the crowd and confusion that pyrrhus had got separated from his immediate friends those who were near him therefore when he fell pressed on intent only on their own safety and left him where he lay at last a soldier of antigonus's army named zoparis came up to the spot accompanied by several others of his party looked upon the wounded man and recognized him as pyrrhus they lifted him up and dragged him out of the street to a portico that was near zoparis drew his sword and raised it to cut off his prisoner's head at this instant pyrrhus opened his eyes and rolled them up with such a horrid expression as to strike zoparis with terror his arm consequently faltered in dealing the blow so that he missed his aim and instead of striking the neck only wounded and mutilated the mouth and chin he was obliged to repeat the stroke again and again before the neck was thundered at length however the dreadful deed was done and the head was severed from the body very soon after this halcyonsis the son of antigonus rode up to the spot and after learning what had occurred he asked the soldiers to lift up the head to him that he might look at it a moment as soon as it was within his reach he seized it and rode away in order to carry it to his father he found his father sitting with his friends and threw down the head at his feet as a trophy which he supposed his father would rejoice to see antigonus was however in fact extremely shocked at the spectacle he reproved his son in the severest terms for his brutality and then sending for the mutilated trunk he gave to the whole body an honorable burial that pierce was a man of great native power of mind and of extraordinary capacity as a military leader no one can deny his capacity and genius were in fact so great as to make him perhaps the most conspicuous example that the world has produced of the manner in which the highest power and the noblest opportunities may be wasted and thrown away he accomplished nothing he had no plan no aim no object but obeyed every momentary impulse and entered without thought and without calculation into any scheme that chance or the ambitious designs of others might lay before him he succeeded in creating a vast deal of turmoil and war in killing an immense number of men and in conquering though temporarily and to no purpose great many kingdoms it was mischief and only mischief that he did and though the scale on which he perpetrated mischief was great his fickleness and vacillation deprived it all together of the dignity of greatness his crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind did not arise from any peculiar depravity he was on the contrary naturally of a noble and generous spirit though in process of time through the reaction of his conduct upon his heart these good qualities almost entirely disappeared still he seems never really to have wished mankind ill he perpetrated his crimes against them thoughtlessly merely for the purpose of showing what great things he could do end of chapter 12 and of pyrrhus by jake of abbot