22-23 magna pars militum. Pyrrhus is said to have lost 4000 men, ‘a serious matter to him in a foreign country, where he could not easily replace the loss of his tried old warriors.’—Ihne.
Cause of the War. By 282 B.C. Rome had taken possession of Magna Graecia, with the exception of Tarentum. In 282 B.C. (in defiance of the treaty of 301 B.C.) a Roman fleet appeared before the Harbour of Tarentum. A naval battle ensued in which the Tarentines were victorious, and the war began.
THE WAR WITH THE TARENTINES AND PYRRHUS. (2)
Fabricius the Just.
Honesty before Expediency.
Cum rex Pyrrhus populo Romano bellum ultro intulisset, cumque de imperio certamen esset cum rege generoso ac potenti, perfuga ab eo venit in castra Fabricii eique est pollicitus, si praemium sibi proposuisset, se, ut clam venisset, sic clam in Pyrrhi 5 castra rediturum et eum veneno necaturum. Hunc Fabricius reducendum curavit ad Pyrrhum idque eius factum laudatum a senatu est. Atqui, si speciem utilitatis opinionemque quaerimus, magnum illud bellum perfuga unus et gravem adversarium imperi 10 sustulisset, sed magnum dedecus et flagitium, quicum laudis certamen fuisset, eum non virtute sed scelere superatum. Utrum igitur utilius vel Fabricio, qui talis in hac urbe qualis Aristides Athenis fuit, vel senatui nostro, qui numquam utilitatem a dignitate 15 seiunxit, armis cum hoste certare an venenis? Si gloriae causa imperium expetendum est, scelus absit, in quo non potest esse gloria: sin ipsae opes expetuntur quoquo modo, non poterunt utiles esse cum infamia. 20
Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 86, 87.
1-2 bellum ultro intulisset = had begun an aggressive (ultro) war.
ultro = lit. to a place beyond, hence = beyond expectation, unprovoked.
2 de imperio = uter imperaret.—Holden.