CHAPTER XI.
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.