THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN.
B.C. 291-276
Lanassa.--The tyrant her father.--His adventures.--Agathocles's flight
from Africa.--Terrible consequences.--The sea dyed with blood.--Shocking
story.--Texina and her children.--Extraordinary story.--Maenon's
contrivance for administering poison.--Dangers of usurpation.--Maenon's
career.--Pyrrhus receives two tempting invitations.--Pyrrhus's
perplexity.--He decides to go to Sicily.--He makes great preparations
at Tarentum.--The Tarentines remonstrate.--Their arguments.--Pyrrhus
sends Cineas in advance to Sicily.--Form of Sicily.--Situation of
Messana.--Conduct of the Mamertines in Sicily.--The Mamertines take
complete possession of Messana.--Three objects to be accomplished in
Sicily.--The grand expedition sails to Sicily.--He determines to take
Eryx by storm.--Pyrrhus at the head of the column.--Combat on the
walls.--Pyrrhus victorious.--Grand celebration.--Result of the
battle.--He attacks the Mamertines.--Is victorious.--Pyrrhus forms
new schemes.--Want of seamen.--The Sicilians are opposed to his
plans.--General rebellion in Sicily.--Pyrrhus's character.--He
possesses no perseverance.--New plan.--Disastrous attempt to get back
to Italy.--Terrible conflict.--Pyrrhus is wounded in the head.--Shocking
spectacle.--The Mamertine champion.--Pyrrhus succeeds in reaching
Tarentum.
The fact has already been mentioned that one of the wives whom Pyrrhus
had married after the death of Antigone, the Egyptian princess, was
Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, the King of Sicily. Agathocles
was a tyrannical monster of the worst description. His army was little
better than an organized band of robbers, at the head of which he went
forth on marauding and plundering expeditions among all the nations
that were within his reach. He made these predatory excursions
sometimes into Italy, sometimes into the Carthaginian territories on
the African coast, and sometimes among the islands of the
Mediterranean Sea. In these campaigns he met with a great variety of
adventures, and experienced every possible fate that the fortune of
war could bring. Sometimes he was triumphant over all who opposed him,
and became intoxicated with prosperity and success. At other times,
through his insane and reckless folly, he would involve himself in
the most desperate difficulties, and was frequently compelled to give
up every thing, and to fly alone in absolute destitution from the
field of his attempted exploits to save his life.
On one such occasion, he abandoned an army in Africa, which he had
taken there on one of his predatory enterprises, and, flying secretly
from the camp, he made his escape with a small number of attendants,
leaving the army to its fate. His flight was so sudden on this
occasion that he left his two sons behind him in the hands and at the
mercy of the soldiers. The soldiers, as soon as they found that
Agathocles had gone and left them, were so enraged against him that
they put his sons to death on the spot, and then surrendered in a body
to the enemy. Agathocles, when the tidings of this transaction came to
him in Sicily, was enraged against the soldiers in his turn, and, in
order to revenge himself upon them, he immediately sought out from
among the population of the country their wives and children, their
brothers and sisters, and all who were in any way related to them.
These innocent representatives of the absent offenders he ordered to
be seized and slain, and their bodies to be cast into the sea toward
Africa as an expression of revengeful triumph and defiance. So great
was the slaughter on this occasion, that the waters of the sea were
dyed with blood to a great distance from the shore.
Of course, such cruelty as this could not be practiced without
awakening, on the part of those who suffered from it, a spirit of
hatred and revenge. Plots and conspiracies without number were formed
against the tyrant's life, and in his later years he lived in
continual apprehension and distress. His fate, however, was still more
striking as an illustration of the manner in which the old age of
ambitious and unprincipled men is often embittered by the ingratitude
and wickedness of their children. Agathocles had a grandson named
Archagathus, who, if all the accounts are true, brought the old king's
gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. The story is too shocking to be
fully believed, but it is said that this grandson first murdered
Agathocles's son and heir, his own uncle, in order that he might
himself succeed to the throne--his own father, who would have been the
next heir, being dead. Then, not being willing to wait until the old
king himself should die, he began to form plots against his life, and
against the lives of the remaining members of the family. Although
several of Agathocles's sons were dead, having been destroyed by
violence, or having fallen in war, he had a wife, named Texina, and
two children still remaining alive. The king was so anxious in respect
to these children, on account of Archagathus, that he determined to
send them with their mother to Egypt, in order to place them beyond
the reach of their merciless nephew. Texina was very unwilling to
consent to such a measure. For herself and her sons the proposed
retiring into Egypt was little better than going into exile, and she
was, moreover, extremely reluctant to leave her husband alone in
Syracuse, exposed to the machinations and plots which his unnatural
grandson might form against him. She, however, finally submitted to
the hard necessity and went away, bidding her husband farewell with
many tears. Very soon after her departure her husband died.
The story that is told of the manner of his death is this: There was
in his court a man named Maenon, whom Agathocles had taken captive when
a youth, and ever since retained in his court. Though originally a
captive, taken in war, Maenon had been made a favorite with Agathocles,
and had been raised to a high position in his service. The indulgence
however, and the favoritism with which he had been regarded, were not
such as to awaken any sentiments of gratitude in Maenon's mind, or to
establish any true and faithful friendship between him and his master;
and Archagathus, the grandson, found means of inducing him to
undertake to poison the king. As all the ordinary modes of
administering poison were precluded by the vigilance and strictness
with which the usual avenues of approach to the king were guarded,
Maenon contrived to accomplish his end by poisoning a quill which the
king was subsequently to use as a tooth-pick. The poison was
insinuated thus into the teeth and gums of the victim, where it soon
took effect, producing dreadful ulceration and intolerable pain. The
infection of the venom after a short time pervaded the whole system of
the sufferer, and brought him to the brink of the grave; and at last,
finding that he was speechless, and apparently insensible, his
ruthless murderers, fearing, perhaps, that he might revive again,
hurried him to the funeral pile before life was extinct, and the fire
finished the work that the poison had begun.
The declaration of Scripture, "They that take the sword shall perish
by the sword," is illustrated and confirmed by the history of almost
every ancient tyrant. We find that they almost all come at last to
some terrible end. The man who usurps a throne by violence seems, in
all ages and among all nations, very sure to be expelled from it by
greater violence, after a brief period of power; and he who poisons or
assassinates a precedent rival whom he wishes to supplant, is almost
invariably cut off by the poison or the dagger of a following one, who
wishes to supplant him.
The death of Agathocles took place about nine years before the
campaign of Pyrrhus in Italy, as described in the last chapter, and
during that period the kingdom of Sicily had been in a very distracted
state. Maenon, immediately after the poisoning of the king, fled to the
camp of Archagathus, who was at that time in command of an army at a
distance from the city. Here, in a short time, he contrived to
assassinate Archagathus, and to seize the supreme power. It was not
long, however, before new claimants and competitors for possession of
the throne appeared, and new wars broke out, in the course of which
Maenon was deposed. At length, in the midst of the contests and
commotions that prevailed, two of the leading generals of the
Sicilian army conceived the idea of bringing forward Pyrrhus's son by
Lanassa as the heir to the crown. This prince was, of course, the
grandson of the old King Agathocles, and, as there was no other
descendant of the royal line at hand who could be made the
representative of the ancient monarchy, it was thought, by the
generals above referred to, that the only measure which afforded any
hope of restoring peace to the country was to send an embassy to
Pyrrhus, and invite him to come and place his young son upon the
throne. The name of Lanassa's son was Alexander. He was a boy, perhaps
at this time about twelve years old.
At the same time that Pyrrhus received the invitation to go to Sicily,
a message came to him from certain parties in Greece, informing him
that, on account of some revolutions which had taken place there, a
very favorable opportunity was afforded him to secure for himself the
throne of that country, and urging him to come and make the attempt.
Pyrrhus was for some time quite undecided which of these two proposals
to accept. The prize offered him in Greece was more tempting, but the
expedition into Sicily seemed to promise more certain success. While
revolving the question in his mind which conquest he should first
undertake, he complained of the tantalizing cruelty of fortune, in
offering him two such tempting prizes at the same time, so as to
compel him to forego either the one or the other. At length he decided
to go first to Sicily.
It was said that one reason which influenced his mind very strongly in
making this decision was the fact that Sicily was so near the coast of
Africa; and the Sicilians being involved in wars with the
Carthaginians, he thought that, if successful in his operations in
Sicily, the way would be open for him to make an expedition into
Africa, in which case he did not doubt but that he should be able soon
to overturn the Carthaginian power, and add all the northern coasts of
Africa to his dominions. His empire would thus embrace Epirus, the
whole southern part of Italy, Sicily, and the coasts of Africa. He
could afterward, he thought, easily add Greece, and then his dominions
would include all the wealthy and populous countries surrounding the
most important part of the Mediterranean Sea. His government would
thus become a naval power of the first class, and any further
extension of his sway which he might subsequently desire could easily
be accomplished.
In a word, Pyrrhus decided first to proceed to Sicily, and to postpone
for a brief period his designs on Greece.
He accordingly proceeded to withdraw his troops from the interior of
the country in Italy, and concentrate them in and around Tarentum. He
began to make naval preparations, too, on a very extensive scale. The
port of Tarentum soon presented a very busy scene. The work of
building and repairing ships--of fabricating sails and rigging--of
constructing and arming galleys--of disciplining and training
crews--of laying in stores of food and of implements of war, went on
with great activity, and engaged universal attention. The Tarentines
themselves stood by, while all these preparations were going on,
rather as spectators of the scene than as active participants. Pyrrhus
had taken the absolute command of their city and government, and was
exercising supreme power, as if he were the acknowledged sovereign of
the country. He had been invited to come over from his own kingdom to
_help_ the Tarentines, not to _govern_ them; but he had seized the
sovereign power, justifying the seizure, as is usual with military men
under similar circumstances, by the necessity of the case. "There must
be order and submission to authority in the city," he said, "or we
can make no progress in subduing our enemies." The Tarentines had thus
been induced to submit to his assumption of power, convinced, perhaps,
partly by his reasoning, and, at all events, silenced by the display
of force by which it was accompanied; and they had consoled themselves
under a condition of things which they could not prevent, by
considering that it was better to yield to a temporary foreign
domination, than to be wholly overwhelmed, as there was every
probability, before Pyrrhus came to them, that they would be, by their
domestic foes.
When, however, they found that Pyrrhus was intending to withdraw from
them, and to go to Sicily, without having really effected their
deliverance from the danger which threatened them, they at first
remonstrated against the design. They wished him to remain and finish
the work which he had begun. The Romans had been checked, but they had
not been subdued. Pyrrhus ought not, they said, to go away and leave
them until their independence and freedom had been fully established.
They remonstrated with him against his design, but their remonstrances
proved wholly unavailing.
When at length the Tarentines found that Pyrrhus was determined to go
to Sicily, they then desired that he should withdraw his troops from
their country altogether, and leave them to themselves. This, however,
Pyrrhus refused to do. He had no intention of relinquishing the power
which he had acquired in Italy, and he accordingly began to make
preparations for leaving a strong garrison in Tarentum to maintain his
government there. He organized a sort of regency in the city, and set
apart a sufficient force from his army to maintain it in power during
his absence. When this was done, he began to make preparations for
transporting the rest of his force to Sicily by sea.
He determined to send Cineas forward first, according to his usual
custom, to make the preliminary arrangements in Sicily. Cineas
consequently left Tarentum with a small squadron of ships and galleys,
and, after a short voyage, arrived safely at Syracuse. He found the
leading powers in that city ready to welcome Pyrrhus as soon as he
should arrive, and make the young Alexander king. Cineas completed and
closed the arrangements for this purpose, and then sent messengers to
various other cities on the northern side of the island, making known
to them the design which had been formed of raising an heir of King
Agathocles to the throne, and asking their co-operation in it. He
managed these negotiations with so much prudence and skill, that
nearly all that part of the island which was in the hands of the
Sicilians readily acceded to the plan, and the people were every where
prepared to welcome Pyrrhus and the young prince as soon as they
should arrive.
Sicily, as will be seen by referring to the map, is of a triangular
form. It was only the southern portion which was at this time in the
hands of the Sicilians. There were two foreign and hostile powers in
possession, respectively, of the northeastern and northwestern
portions. In the northeastern corner of the island was the city of
Messana--the Messina of modern days. In the time of Pyrrhus's
expedition, Messana was the seat and stronghold of a warlike nation,
called the Mamertines, who had come over from Italy across the Straits
of Messana some years before, and, having made themselves masters of
that portion of the island, had since held their ground there,
notwithstanding all the efforts of the Sicilians to expel them. The
Mamertines had originally come into Sicily, it was said, as Pyrrhus
had gone into Italy--by invitation. Agathocles sent for them to come
and aid him in some of his wars. After the object for which they had
been sent for had been accomplished, Agathocles dismissed his
auxiliaries, and they set out on their return. They proceeded through
the northeastern part of the island to Messana, where they were to
embark for Italy. Though they had rendered Agathocles very efficient
aid in his campaigns, they had also occasioned him an infinite deal of
trouble by their turbulent and ungovernable spirit; and now, as they
were withdrawing from the island, the inhabitants of the country
through which they passed on the way regarded them every where with
terror and dread. The people of Messana, anxious to avoid a quarrel
with them, and disposed to facilitate their peaceable departure from
the land by every means in their power, received them into the city,
and hospitably entertained them there. Instead, however, of quietly
withdrawing from the city in proper time, as the Messanians had
expected them to do, they rose suddenly and unexpectedly upon the
people, at a concerted signal, took possession of the city, massacred
without mercy all the men, seized the women and children, and then,
each one establishing himself in the household that choice or chance
assigned him, married the wife and adopted the children whose husband
and father he had murdered. The result was the most complete and
extraordinary overturning that the history of the world can afford. It
was a political, a social, and a domestic revolution all in one.
This event took place many years before the time of Pyrrhus's
expedition; and though during the interval the Sicilians had made many
efforts to dispossess the intruders and to recover possession of
Messana, they had not been able to accomplish the work. The Mamertines
maintained their ground in Messana, and from that city, as their
fortress and stronghold, they extended their power over a considerable
portion of the surrounding country.
This territory of the Mamertines was in the northeastern part of the
island. In the northwestern part, on the other hand, there was a large
province in the hands of the Carthaginians. Their chief city was Eryx;
though there was another important city and port, called Lilybaeum,
which was situated to the southward of Eryx, on the sea-shore. Here
the Carthaginians were accustomed to land their re-enforcements and
stores; and by means of the ready and direct communication which they
could thus keep up with Carthage itself, they were enabled to resist
all the efforts which the Sicilians had made to dispossess them.
There were thus three objects to be accomplished by Pyrrhus in Sicily
before his dominion over the island could be complete--namely, the
Sicilians themselves, in the southern and central parts of the island,
were to be conciliated and combined, and induced to give up their
intestine quarrels, and to acknowledge the young Alexander as the king
of the island; and then the Mamertines on the northeast part, and the
Carthaginians in the northwest, were to be conquered and expelled.
The work was done, so far as related to the Sicilians themselves,
mainly by Cineas. His dexterous negotiations healed, in a great
measure, the quarrels which prevailed among the people, and prepared
the way for welcoming Pyrrhus and the young prince, as soon as they
should appear. In respect to the Carthaginians and the Mamertines,
nothing, of course, could be attempted until the fleets and armies
should arrive.
At length the preparations for the sailing of the expedition from
Tarentum were completed. The fleet consisted of two hundred sail. The
immense squadron, every vessel of which was crowded with armed men,
left the harbor of Tarentum, watched by a hundred thousand spectators
who had assembled to witness its departure, and slowly made its way
along the Italian shores, while its arrival at Syracuse was the object
of universal expectation and interest in that city. When at length the
fleet appeared in view, entering its port of destination, the whole
population of the city and of the surrounding country flocked to the
shores to witness the spectacle. Through the efforts which had been
made by Cineas, and in consequence of the measures which he had
adopted, all ranks and classes of men were ready to welcome Pyrrhus as
an expected deliverer. In the name of the young prince, his son, he
was to re-establish the ancient monarchy, restore peace and harmony to
the land, and expel the hated foreign enemies that infested the
confines of it. Accordingly, when the fleet arrived, and Pyrrhus and
his troops landed from it, they were received by the whole population
with loud and tumultuous acclamations.
After the festivities and rejoicings which were instituted to
celebrate Pyrrhus's arrival were concluded, the young Alexander was
proclaimed king, and a government was instituted in his name--Pyrrhus
himself, of course, being invested with all actual power. Pyrrhus then
took the field; and, on mustering his forces, he found himself at the
head of thirty or forty thousand men. He first proceeded to attack the
Carthaginians. He marched to the part of the island which they held,
and gave them battle in the most vigorous and determined manner. They
retreated to their cities, and shut themselves up closely within the
walls. Pyrrhus advanced to attack them. He determined to carry Eryx,
which was the strongest of the Carthaginian cities, by storm, instead
of waiting for the slow operations of an ordinary siege. The troops
were accordingly ordered to advance at once to the walls, and there
mounting, by means of innumerable ladders, to the parapets above, they
were to force their way in, over the defenses of the city, in spite of
all opposition. Of course, such a service as this is, of all the
duties ever required of the soldier, the most dangerous possible. The
towers and parapets above, which the assailants undertake to scale,
are covered with armed men, who throng to the part of the wall against
which the attack is to be directed, and stand there ready with spears,
javelins, rocks, and every other conceivable missile, to hurl upon
the heads of the besiegers coming up the ladders.
Pyrrhus, however, whatever may have been his faults in other respects,
seems to have been very little inclined at any time to order his
soldiers to encounter any danger which he was not willing himself to
share. He took the head of the column in the storming of Eryx, and was
the first to mount the ladders. Previous, however, to advancing for
the attack, he performed a grand religious ceremony, in which he
implored the assistance of the god Hercules in the encounter which was
about to take place; and made a solemn vow that if Hercules would
assist him in the conflict, so as to enable him to display before the
Sicilians such strength and valor, and to perform such feats as should
be worthy of his name, his ancestry, and his past history, he would,
immediately after the battle, institute on the spot a course of
festivals and sacrifices of the most imposing and magnificent
character in honor of the god. This vow being made, the trumpet
sounded and the storming party went forward--Pyrrhus at the head of
it. In mounting the ladder, he defended himself with his shield from
the missiles thrown down upon him from above until he reached the top
of the wall, and there, by means of his prodigious strength, and
desperate and reckless bravery, he soon gained ground for those that
followed him, and established a position there both for himself and
for them, having cut down one after another those who attempted to
oppose him, until he had surrounded himself with a sort of parapet,
formed of the bodies of the dead.
[Illustration: THE ASSAULT.]
In the mean time, the whole line of ladders extending along the wall
were crowded with men, all forcing their way upward against the
resistance which the besieged opposed to them from above; while
thousands of troops, drawn up below as near as possible to the scene
of conflict, were throwing a shower of darts, arrows, javelins,
spears, and other missiles, to aid the storming party by driving away
the besieged from the top of the wall. By these means those who were
mounting the ladders were so much aided in their efforts that they
soon succeeded in gaining possession of the wall, and thus made
themselves masters of the city.
Pyrrhus then, in fulfillment of his vow, instituted a great
celebration, and devoted several days to games, spectacles, shows, and
public rejoicings of all kinds, intended to express his devout
gratitude to Hercules for the divine assistance which the god had
vouchsafed to him in the assault by which the city had been carried.
By the result of this battle, and of some other military operations
which we can not here particularly describe, the Carthaginians were
driven from the open field and compelled to shut themselves up in
their strongholds, or retire to the fastnesses of the mountains, where
they found places of refuge and defense from which Pyrrhus could not
at once dislodge them. Accordingly, leaving things at present as they
were in the Carthaginian or western part of the island, he proceeded
to attack the Mamertines in the eastern part. He was equally
successful here. By means of the tact and skill which he exercised in
his military arrangements and maneuvers, and by the desperate bravery
and impetuosity which he displayed in battle, he conquered wherever he
came. He captured and destroyed many of the strongholds of the
Mamertines, drove them entirely out of the open country, and shut them
up in Messana. Thus the island was almost wholly restored to the
possession of the Sicilians, while yet the foreign intruders, though
checked and restrained, were not, after all, really expelled.
The Carthaginians sent messengers to him proposing terms of peace.
Their intention was, in these proposals, to retain their province in
Sicily, as heretofore, and to agree with Pyrrhus in respect to a
boundary, each party being required by the proposed treaty to confine
themselves within their respective limits, as thus ascertained.
Pyrrhus, however, replied that he could entertain no such proposals.
He answered them precisely as the Romans had answered him on a similar
occasion, saying that he should insist upon their first retiring from
Sicily altogether, as a preliminary step to any negotiations whatever.
The Carthaginians would not accede to this demand, and so the
negotiations were suspended.
Still the Carthaginians were so securely posted in their strongholds,
that Pyrrhus supposed the work of dislodging them by force would be a
slow, and tedious, and perhaps doubtful undertaking. His bold and
restless spirit accordingly conceived the design of leaving them as
they were, and going on in the prosecution of his original design, by
organizing a grand expedition for the invasion of Africa. In fact, he
thought this would be the most effectual means of getting the
Carthaginians out of Sicily; since he anticipated that, if he were to
land in Africa, and threaten Carthage itself, the authorities there
would be compelled to recall all their forces from foreign lands to
defend their own homes and firesides at the capital. He determined,
therefore, to equip his fleet for a voyage across the Mediterranean
without any delay.
He had ships enough, but he was in want of mariners. In order to
supply this want, he began to impress the Sicilians into his service.
They were very reluctant to engage in it, partly from natural
aversion to so distant and dangerous an enterprise, and partly because
they were unwilling that Pyrrhus should leave the island himself until
their foreign foes were entirely expelled. "As soon as you have gone,"
they said, "the Carthaginians and the Mamertines will come out from
their hiding-places and retreats, and the country will be immediately
involved in all the difficulties from which you have been endeavoring
to deliver us. All your labor will have been lost, and we shall sink,
perhaps, into a more deplorable condition than ever."
It was evident that these representations were true, but Pyrrhus could
not be induced to pay any heed to them. He was determined on carrying
into effect his design of a descent upon the coast of Africa. He
accordingly pressed forward his preparations in a more arbitrary and
reckless spirit than ever. He became austere, imperious, and
tyrannical in his measures. He arrested some of the leading generals
and ministers of state--men who had been his firmest friends, and
through whose agency it was that he had been invited into Sicily, but
whom he now suspected of being unfriendly to his designs. One of these
men he put to death. In the mean time, he pressed forward his
preparations, compelling men to join his army and to embark on board
his fleet, and resorting to other harsh and extreme measures, which
the people might perhaps have submitted to from one of their own
hereditary sovereigns, but which were altogether intolerable when
imposed upon them by a foreign adventurer, who had come to their
island by their invitation, to accomplish a prescribed and definite
duty. In a word, before Pyrrhus was ready to embark on his African
campaign, a general rebellion broke out all over Sicily against his
authority. Some of the people joined the Mamertines, some the
Carthaginians. In a word, the whole country was in an uproar, and
Pyrrhus had the mortification of seeing the great fabric of power
which, as he imagined, he had been so successfully rearing, come
tumbling suddenly on all sides to the ground.
As the reader will have learned long before this time, it was not the
nature of Pyrrhus to remain on the spot and grapple with difficulties
like these. If there were any new enterprise to be undertaken, or any
desperate battle to be fought on a sudden emergency, Pyrrhus was
always ready and eager for action, and almost sure of success. But he
had no qualities whatever to fit him for the exigencies of such a
crisis as this. He had ardor and impetuosity, but no perseverance or
decision. He could fight, but he could not plan. He was recklessly and
desperately brave in encountering physical danger, but, when involved
in difficulties and embarrassments, his only resource was to fly.
Accordingly, it was soon announced in Sicily that Pyrrhus had
determined to postpone his plan of proceeding to Africa, and was going
back to Tarentum, whence he came. He had received intelligence from
Tarentum, he said, that required his immediate return to that city.
This was probably true; for he had left things in such a condition at
Tarentum, that he was, doubtless, continually receiving such
intelligence from that quarter. Whether he received any special or
extraordinary summons from Tarentum just at this time is extremely
uncertain. He, however, pretended that such a message had come; and
under this pretense he sheltered himself in his intended departure, so
as just to escape the imputation of being actually driven away.
His enemies, however, did not intend to allow him to depart in peace.
The Carthaginians, being apprised of his design, sent a fleet to watch
the coast and intercept him; while the Mamertines, crossing the
Strait, marched to the place on the coast of Italy where they expected
he would land, intending to attack him as soon as he should set foot
upon the shore. Both these plans were successful. The Carthaginians
attacked his fleet, and destroyed many of his ships. Pyrrhus himself
barely succeeded in making his escape with a small number of vessels,
and reaching the shore. Here, as soon as he gained the land, he was
confronted by the Mamertines, who had reached the place before him
with ten thousand men. Pyrrhus soon collected from the ships that
reached the land a force so formidable that the Mamertines did not
dare to attack him in a body, but they blocked up the passes through
which the way to Tarentum lay, and endeavored in every way to
intercept and harass him in his march. They killed two of his
elephants, and cut off many separate detachments of men, and finally
deranged all his plans, and threw his whole army into confusion.
Pyrrhus at length determined to force his enemies to battle.
Accordingly, as soon as a favorable opportunity occurred, he pushed
forward at the head of a strong force, and attacked the Mamertines in
a sudden and most impetuous manner.
A terrible conflict ensued, in which Pyrrhus, as usual, exposed
himself personally in the most desperate manner. In fact, the various
disappointments and vexations which he had endured had aroused him to
a state of great exasperation against his tormenting enemies. He
pushed forward into the hottest part of the battle, his prodigious
muscular strength enabling him to beat down and destroy, for a time,
all who attempted to oppose him.
At last, however, he received a terrible wound in the head, which, for
the moment, entirely disabled him. He was rescued from his peril by
his friends, though stunned and fainting under the blow, and was borne
off from the scene of conflict with the blood flowing down his face
and neck--a frightful spectacle. On being carried to a place of safety
within his own ranks, he soon revived, and it was found that he was
not dangerously hurt. The enemy, however, full of rage and hatred,
came up as near as they dared to the spot where Pyrrhus had been
carried, and stood there, calling out to him to come back if he was
still alive, and filling the air with taunting and insulting cries,
and vociferations of challenge and defiance. Pyrrhus endured this
mockery for a few moments as well as he could, but was finally goaded
by it into a perfect phrensy of rage. He seized his weapons, pushed
his friends and attendants aside, and, in spite of all their
remonstrances and all their efforts to restrain him, he rushed forth
and assailed his enemies with greater fury than ever. Breathless as he
was from his former efforts, and covered with blood and gore, he
exhibited a shocking spectacle to all who beheld him. The champion of
the Mamertines--the one who had been foremost in challenging Pyrrhus
to return--came up to meet him with his weapon upraised. Pyrrhus
parried the blow, and then, suddenly bringing down his own sword upon
the top of his antagonist's head, he cut the man down, as the story is
told, from head to foot, making so complete a division, that one half
of the body fell over to one side, and the other half to the other.
It is difficult, perhaps, to assign limits to the degree of physical
strength which the human arm is capable of exerting. This fact,
however, of cleaving the body of a man by a blow from a sword, was
regarded in ancient times as just on the line of absolute
impossibility, and was considered, consequently, as the highest
personal exploit which a soldier could perform. It was attributed, at
different times, to several different warriors, though it is not
believed in modern days that the feat was ever really performed.
But, whatever may have been the fate of the Mamertine champion under
Pyrrhus's sword, the army itself met with such a discomfiture in the
battle that they gave Pyrrhus no further trouble, but, retiring from
the field, left him to pursue his march to Tarentum for the remainder
of the way in peace. He arrived there at last, with a force in numbers
about equal to that with which he had left Tarentum for Sicily. The
whole object, however, of his expedition had totally failed. The
enterprise, in fact, like almost all the undertakings which Pyrrhus
engaged in, though brilliantly and triumphantly successful in the
beginning, came only to disappointment and disaster in the end.