The Athenians also have a statue of Pyrrhus. This Pyrrhus was only
related to Alexander by ancestry. For Pyrrhus was the son of Æacides
the son of Arybbas, whereas Alexander was the son of Olympias the
daughter of Neoptolemus. Now, Neoptolemus and Arybbas had the same
father, Alcetas the son of Tharypus. And from Tharypus to Pyrrhus,
the son of Achilles, are fifteen generations. For he first, after the
capture of Ilium, neglected, returning home to Thessaly, and removed to
Epirus and dwelt there in accordance with the oracles of Helenus. And
he had no son by Hermione, but by Andromache he had Molossus and Pielus
and the youngest Pergamus. And Helenus also had a son Cestrinus by
Andromache, whom he married after the death of Pyrrhus at Delphi. And
when Helenus died having handed over the kingdom to Molossus the son
of Pyrrhus, Cestrinus with the Epirotes who volunteered to go with him
occupied the region across the river Thyamis, and Pergamus, crossing
into Asia Minor, killed Arius the king of Teuthrania in single combat
for the sovereignty of the country, and gave the city his own name,
which it now has. There is also to this day a temple of Andromache, who
accompanied him, in the city. But Pielus remained at home in Epirus,
and it was to him and not to Molossus that Pyrrhus the son of Æacides
and his fathers traced up their ancestry. Now up to the days of Alcetas
the son of Tharypus Epirus was under one king; but the sons of Alcetas
after some quarrelling changed the government to an equal share for
each, and remained loyal to that agreement; and afterwards Alexander
the son of Neoptolemus died in Lucania, and Olympias returned to
Epirus from fear of Antipater, and Æacides, the son of Arybbas, in all
respects remained loyal to Olympias, and even joined her in fighting
against Aridæus and the Macedonians, though the people of Epirus were
unwilling to enter into it. But as Olympias, when she conquered, had
acted infamously in connection with the death of Aridæus, and far more
so to the Macedonians, and consequently was thought afterwards to
have only met with her deserts from Cassander, the Epirotes would not
receive Æacides for a time owing to their hostility against Olympias;
and when he obtained pardon from them some time after Cassander again
prevented his return to Epirus. And a battle being fought between
Philip (the brother of Cassander) and Æacides at Œnidæ, Æacides was
wounded and died no long time after. And the people of Epirus made
Alcetas king, the son of Arybbas and elder brother of Æacides, a man
on previous occasions of ungovernable temper, and for that very reason
banished by his father. And now on his arrival he immediately so madly
raged against the people of Epirus, that they rose up against him by
night and killed him and his sons. And when they had killed him they
brought back from exile Pyrrhus the son of Æacides. And immediately
on his arrival Cassander marched against him, as being young and not
firmly established in the sovereignty. But Pyrrhus, on the invasion of
the Macedonians, went to Egypt to Ptolemy the son of Lagus; and Ptolemy
gave him as wife the uterine sister of his own children, and restored
him with a force of Egyptians. And Pyrrhus, on becoming king, attacked
the Corcyræans first of the Greeks, seeing that the island of Corcyra
lay opposite to his own territory, and not wishing it to be a base
for operations against him. And after the capture of Corcyra all the
defeats he met with fighting against Lysimachus, and how after he had
driven Demetrius out of Macedonia he ruled there until he in turn was
ejected by Lysimachus,--all these, the most important events at that
time in Pyrrhus’ life, have been already narrated by me in connection
with Lysimachus. And we know of no Greek before Pyrrhus that warred
with the Romans. For there is no record of any engagement between
Æneas and Diomede and the Argives with him; and the Athenians, who
were very ambitious and desired to reduce all Italy, were prevented by
the disaster at Syracuse from attacking the Romans; and Alexander the
son of Neoptolemus, of the same race as Pyrrhus but older in age, was
prevented by his death in Lucania from coming to blows with the Romans.