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Rome Wars With Pyrrhus, 280-272 B.C.

As early as 285 B.C., the Greek city of Thurii on the Ionian into Campania to rouse, so he thought, the Greek cities of that Sea appealed to the Senate for help against the very same region to join him. He was nonplussed when both Capua and Lucanian hill tribes who had made alliance with Rome to de- Neapolis closed their gates and few inhabitants of the region spoil the Samnites. The men of these tribes and others in willingly provided forage and supplies. Behind came the le- Bruttium raided every year the fields and homes of the pros- gions of Valerius Laevinus and Aemilius Barbula, careful to perous Greeks, but now their attacks grew more severe as their keep to the high ground to negate his advantage in elephants population swelled and needs that could not be satisfied by and cavalry. Learning from scouts that another consular army herding sheep and goats on upland pastures expanded. After was fast approaching from Rome and fearing to be caught in a debate in the Senate, the conscript fathers dispatched Consul hammer and anvil attack by forces each as numerous as his Gaius Fabricius Luscinus in 282 B.C. to overawe the Lucanians own, he returned to the vicinity of Tarentum. Once again un- and garrison Thurii. A small fleet of ten ships under Lucius certainty clouded his mind so that, unlike Alexander the Great Valerius Flaccus sailed on to Tarentum across the Ionian Sea who never settled for half a conquest, he received Luscinus as to investigate a report that leaders of that large and important envoy and agreed to release Roman captives without ransom. Greek city were making war preparations to resist Roman en- Pyrrhus’ hope that magnanimity so soon after victory croachment. When the Tarentines attacked the fleet and sank would convince the conscript fathers that friendship with a or captured the ships, then insulted and abused envoys dis- powerful king was preferable to war was soon dispelled. His patched to seek restitution, the conscript fathers reasoned envoy the wise Cineas received a cold reception in Rome for that they had no other option but to field a consular army offer of alli- under Lucius Aemilius Barbula to teach the insolent Greeks ance in ex- manners. This he did in 281 B.C. by devastating the nearby change for countryside and forcing the Tarentines to close their gates. Greek au- At once, the Greeks sent urgent messages to King Pyrrhus tonomy, re- of across the Adriatic Sea for help. He was the son of turn of all Alexander of Epirus, brother-in-law of Alexander the Great. land and Intending to accomplish in the western Mediterranean what property to the Macedonian conqueror had done in the East, Pyrrhus the Samnite landed on Italian soil in spring 280 B.C. with 20,000 infantry, as well as 5,000 cavalry, and 50 elephants, the first of those great beasts Lucanian to appear west of the Adriatic Sea. Great joy swept the streets tribes, and of Tarentum at this sight. But the city fathers soon realized Pyrrhus’ that they had exchanged one master for another. The king continued assumed command of all city defenses, manned the citadel occupation that guarded the harbor with his own soldiers, and recruited of south young Tarentines as auxiliaries to his army. . The unspoken intention of the king, not conveyed by In 280 B.C., Pyrrhus marched out to confront the legions Cineas but understood by the conscript fathers, was that all of Consul Publius Valerius Laevinus at Heraclea. Although Italy south of Latium would be linked to Pyrrhus’ holding in the Greeks still relied upon the antiquated phalanx formation, in a great Hellenic empire. The Senate decided that, as the tactic of striking the Romans suddenly on the flank with at the height of the Great Samnite War, every able-bodied man cavalry as Alexander the Great had done to massive Persian should be put under arms. armies won the battle. Never having seen elephants, Roman Stung by the rejection of his offer, Pyrrhus marched again soldiers gave way prematurely before those raging beasts and in spring 279 B.C. up the Appian Way into Apulia to threaten left 7,000 dead on the field. Pyrrhus could not annihilate the and besiege Roman strongholds at Luceria and Venusia. At survivors because Valerius Laevinus fell back on Venusia on Ausculum, he met the legions of consuls Publius Sulpicius the Appian Way in Apulia to join the proconsul Aemilius Saverrio and Publius Decius Mus, grandson of the first hero Barbula in a strong hilltop encampment. who had devoted himself to the gods, and in a ferocious battle The stubborn resistance of the legions and death of 4,000 that lasted two days, again vanquished the Romans. Count- of his own men in the battle alarmed Pyrrhus. Still, he shook ing Decius Mus and 6,000 men dead on the field, Sulpicius off nagging doubts and marched along the Appian Way and Saverrio saved the rest by retreating to high ground and tak-

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ing refuge in a prepared camp. Without the reserves of man- Locri. Because of this sacrilege, it was alleged, a storm arose power the Romans could call upon, Pyrrhus gazed out over to sink many transport ships carrying men and supplies back 3,500 lifeless Greeks and remarked to Cineas, “Another such to Tarentum. The superstitious peoples of south Italy decided victory over the Romans and we are undone.” that Fortune lay on the side of the Romans. Suddenly, Pyrrhus made an error as fatal as Pontius’ deci- When Pyrrhus moved the next spring to confront Consul sion not to destroy the Roman army trapped between the Manius Curius Dentatus at Malventum in south Samnium be- Caudine Forks. He should have pressed the enemy hard now fore Consul Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus, who had that he had the tactical advantage and consolidated his hold smashed a Samnite army in the Caudine Forks and gone on to on south Italy by firming up alliances with Samnites and campaign in Lucania, could return with his legions, although Lucanians. His inability to storm fortified Roman camps and he attacked the camp of Dentatus at night in an attempt to walled cities discouraged him from penetrating onto the Latium strike terror with stampeding elephants, the stratagem back- plain, so that he listened to an appeal by Greeks in the Sicilian fired. Roman soldiers trapped the trumpeting monsters in the city of Syracuse to repel an attempt by Carthaginian forces to confined space of the camp and hamstrung them with sword seize the entire island. If only he could oust the north African cuts. traders from their foothold there, he reasoned, he might further Hotly pursued, Pyrrhus fled to Tarentum. Realizing all isolate the Romans and compel them to come to terms. was lost, he suddenly departed for Epirus, leaving only a small With Pyrrhus and his army gone to Sicily and forces left garrison to help the Tarentines keep their liberty. Vengefully, by the king to protect Tarentum confined to the south, the the Senate sent envoys to treat with the king’s enemies in Romans marched in summer 278 B.C. against the Samnites, Greece and stir opposition to his aggrandizements. Two years Lucanians, and and reinforced garrisons in southern later, he was killed in the city of Argos by a roof tile thrown ports, especially Rhegium facing Sicily. The Carthaginians down by a woman. As for the Tarentines and the Epirote financed Roman construction of a coastal fleet to blockade garrison in the citadel, they held out until 272 B.C., then sur- Tarentum and harass Greek ships. By diplomacy, Luscinus rendered. All south Italy belonged to Rome.

won back the Greeks of Heraclea and other cities who were considering join- ing Pyrrhus. Tarentine terri- tory was tightly invested. Having wasted time and resources in Sicily and failed to oust the Carthaginians, the king crossed back over in autumn 276 B.C. into Bruttium and promptly made a second great mistake. He lost the favor of the gods by pillaging the temple of the goddess Persephone at

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