Plutarch's Lives, Volume 2 (of 4)

by Plutarch

After the battle he at once recovered the cities on the seaboard. He took Ægæ, treated the inhabitants very harshly, and left a garrison of Celtic mercenary troops in the town. These Gauls, with the insatiate greed for money for which that nation is noted, proceeded to break open the sepulchres of the Macedonian kings who were buried there, in search of plunder, and wantonly scattered their bones. Pyrrhus seemed but little disturbed at this outrage, either because his affairs gave him no leisure to think about it, or because he thought it dangerous to punish his barbarian allies: but the Macedonians were deeply grieved by it. And yet, although he was far from being firmly established in his new kingdom, he was already forming new schemes of conquest. In raillery he called Antigonus a shameless man because he had not yet laid aside the royal purple for the dress of a private man, and he eagerly accepted the invitation of Kleonymus the Spartan to go and attack Lacedæmon. This Kleonymus was by birth the rightful heir to the throne, but being thought to be a violent and tyrannical person he was hated and distrusted by the Spartans, who had chosen his nephew Areus to be their king. This was the reason of his having long borne a grudge against his countrymen, but besides this his feelings had been recently wounded by a family quarrel.

Kleonymus, now an elderly man, had married a beautiful wife of the royal blood, Chilonis, the daughter of Leotychides. She fell madly in love with Akrotatus, the son of Areus, a youth in the flower of his age, and the dishonour of Kleonymus became notorious all over Sparta. This private wrong, added to his previous exclusion from the throne, so enraged him, that he invited Pyrrhus to attack Sparta, which he did with an army of twenty-five thousand foot, two thousand horse, and twenty-four elephants, so that it was obvious that he did not mean to gain Sparta for Kleonymus, but to conquer the whole of Peloponnesus for himself, although he answered some Spartan envoys who waited on him at Megalopolis in specious language, stating that he had come with the intention of restoring to freedom the cities which were held in subjection by Antigonus, and actually going so far as to tell them that, if possible, he intended to send his younger sons to Sparta to be trained in the Laconian discipline, by which they would be able to surpass all the other kings of their age. He put off the envoys with these stories, and made them accompany his army, but on reaching the Lacedæmonian territory he at once began to plunder and lay it waste. When the envoys remonstrated with him for having invaded their country without a declaration of war, he answered—"We know well that neither do you Spartans tell any one beforehand what you mean to do." One of the envoys, by name Mandrokleides, said in his broad Laconian speech, "If you are a god, we shall not be harmed by you, for we have done no wrong; but if you are a man, you may meet with a stronger man than yourself."

XXVII. After this he marched upon Lacedæmon itself. Kleonymus urged him to make an assault immediately on the evening of his arrival, but Pyrrhus is said to have refused to do so, for fear that his soldiers might sack and destroy the city if they took it at night, while they might easily take it in the daytime. Indeed the Spartans were taken by surprise, and very few were in the city, the king Areus himself being absent in Crete on an expedition to assist the people of Gortyna. And it was this weakness and absence of defenders that really proved the salvation of the city, for Pyrrhus, not expecting any resistance, pitched his camp outside the walls, while the friends and helots of Kleonymus made ready his house and decorated it, expecting that Pyrrhus would sup there with him. At nightfall the Lacedæmonians at first proposed to send away the women to Crete, but they refused to leave the city. Archidamia[47] even went to the senate-house with a drawn sword in her hands, and on behalf of the women of Sparta reproached the men for insulting them by supposing that they would survive the capture of their city. After this, they determined to dig a ditch along the side of the city nearest to Pyrrhus's camp, and to barricade the ends of it with waggons buried up to the axles in the ground, to resist the charge of the elephants. When this work was begun the women and girls appeared with their tunics girt up for work,[48] and laboured at digging the ditch together with the older men. They bade those who were to fight on the morrow take rest, and they themselves alone dug one-third of the entire ditch. The width of the ditch was six cubits, its depth four cubits, and its length eight hundred feet, as we are told by Phylarchus, though Hieronymus makes its dimensions more moderate. At daybreak, when the enemy began to bestir themselves, the women armed the younger men, and handed over the ditch to them, bidding them defend it, as it would be pleasant for them to conquer in sight of their country, and glorious to die in the arms of their mothers and wives after having fought worthily of Sparta. Chilonis herself had retired to her own house, and had a halter ready about her neck, in order that if the city were taken she might not fall into the hands of Kleonymus.

XXVIII. Pyrrhus himself led a direct attack of his infantry against the Spartans, who were drawn up in deep order, and endeavoured to force his way through them, and to pass the ditch, which was difficult, because the newly dug earth afforded no secure footing to his soldiers. Meanwhile his son Ptolemy led a chosen body of two thousand Gauls and Chaonians round the end of the ditch, and endeavoured to break through the barricade of waggons. These stood so thick and so close together that they made it hard, not only for the assailants to cross them, but even for the Lacedæmonians to reach the point where they were menaced. However, as the Gauls began to pull the wheels out of the earth and to drag the waggons down towards the river, the young Akrotatus perceiving the danger, sallied out from the city at another point with three hundred men, and got round behind Ptolemy's force, from whom he was concealed by some hilly ground. Then he vigorously assailed the Gauls in the rear, and forced them to face about and defend themselves, which caused great confusion, as they were driven among the waggons and into the ditch by the Spartans until at last they were forced to retreat. This glorious exploit of Akrotatus was witnessed from the city walls by the old men and all the women. As he returned through the city to his appointed post, covered with blood and rejoicing in his victory, the Spartan women thought that he had grown taller and more handsome than before, and they envied Chilonis her lover. Some of the old men even followed him, shouting, "Go home, Akrotatus, and enjoy yourself with Chilonis: only beget brave sons for Sparta." Where Pyrrhus fought a terrible battle took place, and many valiant deeds were wrought. A Spartan named Phyllius, after greatly distinguishing himself and slaying many of the assailants, when he felt himself mortally wounded, made way for his rear rank-man to take his place, and died inside the line of shields, in order that his corpse might not fall into the hands of the enemy.

XXIX. The battle ceased at night, and during his sleep Pyrrhus dreamed a dream, that he cast thunderbolts upon Lacedæmon, set it all on fire, and rejoiced at the sight. Being awakened by his delight at this vision, he ordered his officers to hold the troops in readiness and related the dream to his friends, auguring from it that he should take the city by assault. They were all of them delighted at the vision, and certain that it portended success, except one Lysimachus, who said that he feared that, as places struck by thunderbolts may not be walked over, Heaven might mean to signify to Pyrrhus by this that he never should set foot in the city. Pyrrhus however answered that this was mere empty gossip, and that they had better take their arms in their hands and remember that

"The best of omens is King Pyrrhus's cause."[49]

He rose, and at daybreak led his troops again to the assault. The Lacedæmonians defended themselves with a spirit and courage beyond what could be expected from their small numbers. The women mingled in the thick of the fight, supplying food, drink, and missile weapons wherever they were needed, and carrying away the wounded. The Macedonians endeavoured to fill up the ditch by flinging large quantities of wood into it, covering the arms and dead bodies which lay at the bottom. As the Lacedæmonians were resisting this attempt, they saw Pyrrhus on horseback trying to cross the line of waggons and the ditch, and force his way into the city. A shout was raised by the garrison at the spot, and the women began to scream and run wildly about. Pyrrhus had made his way through all obstacles and was about to attack the nearest of those who disputed his passage, when his horse, struck in the body by a Cretan javelin, reared in the death-agony, and threw Pyrrhus to the ground. He fell on a steep bank, and his fall caused such consternation among his followers that a timely charge of the Spartans drove them back. Upon this he gave orders to put a stop to the assault, for he imagined that the Lacedæmonians would soon offer terms of surrender, as they were nearly all wounded, and had lost many men. However, the good fortune of the city, which may have wished to test the Spartan courage to the utmost, or to prove its own power to save the city when all hope seemed lost, brought Ameinias the Phokian, one of the generals of Antigonus, with a body of mercenary troops to help the Spartans in this their darkest hour. Shortly after they had received this reinforcement, their king, Areus, arrived from Crete with two thousand men. The women now returned to their homes, not thinking it to be necessary any longer for them to take an active part in the war, while those old men too who had been forced by necessity to take up arms, were relieved by the new comers, who took their places in the line of battle against the enemy.

XXX. These reinforcements piqued Pyrrhus into making several more attempts to take the city, in which however he was repulsed and wounded. He now retired, and began to plunder the country, professing his intention to winter there. But no man can resist his destiny. There were in Argos two parties, one headed by Aristeas, and the other by Aristippus. The latter was favoured by Antigonus, which induced Aristeas to invite Pyrrhus to Argos. He was ever willing to embark on a new enterprise, because he regarded his successes merely as stepping-stones to greater things, and hoped to retrieve his failures by new and more daring exploits; so that he was rendered equally restless by victory or defeat. Accordingly he set off at once for Argos. Areus occupied the most difficult of the passes on the road with an ambuscade, and attacked the Gauls and Molossians who formed the rear-guard. Pyrrhus had been warned by his soothsayers that the livers of the victims wanted one lobe, which portended the loss of one of his relatives, but at this crisis the disorder and confusion into which his army was thrown by the ambush made him forget the omen, and order his son Ptolemy to take his guards and go to the help of the rear-guard, while he himself hurried his main body on through the defile. When Ptolemy came up a fierce battle took place. The flower of the Lacedæmonian army, led by Eualkus, engaged with the troops immediately around Ptolemy, and while they fought, a Cretan named Oryssus, a native of Aptera, running forward on the flank, struck the young man, who was fighting bravely, with a javelin, and killed him. His fall caused his troops to retreat, and they were hard pressed by the Lacedæmonians, who were so excited by their victory that they were carried by their ardour far into the plain, where their retreat was cut off by Pyrrhus's infantry. Pyrrhus himself, who had just heard of the death of his son, in an agony of grief now ordered the Molossian cavalry to charge them. He was the first to ride among the Lacedæmonians, and terribly avenged his son by cutting them down. Pyrrhus in battle was always a terrific figure, whom none dared to resist, but on this occasion he surpassed himself in courage and fury. At length he rode up to Eualkus, who avoided his charge, and aimed a blow at him with his sword which just missed Pyrrhus's bridle hand, but cut through his reins. Pyrrhus ran him through with his spear at the same moment, but fell from his horse, and, fighting henceforth on foot, slew all the chosen band commanded by Eualkus. This was a severe loss to Sparta, incurred as it was unnecessarily, after the war was really over, from the desire of their generals to distinguish themselves.

XXXI. Pyrrhus celebrated his son's obsequies with splendid games.[50] His grief was partly satiated by the revenge which he had taken upon the enemy, and he now marched towards Argos. Hearing that Antigonus was encamped upon one of the heights near the city, he himself pitched his camp at Nauplia. On the next day he sent a herald to Antigonus with an insulting message, challenging him to come down upon the level ground and fight. Antigonus answered that he should fight only when he chose, but that if Pyrrhus was weary of his life, he could find many other ways to die. Ambassadors from Argos also came to each of them, begging them to withdraw their forces, and allow the city to remain independent and friendly to both, Antigonus accepted this offer, and handed over his son to the Argives as a hostage, while Pyrrhus agreed to retire, but, as he gave no pledge, was viewed with greater suspicion than before. A strange portent also happened to Pyrrhus, for the heads of the oxen which had been sacrificed, when lying apart from their bodies, were observed to put out their tongues and lap their own gore; and in the city the priestess of Apollo Lykius rushed about in frenzy, crying out that she saw the whole city full of slaughtered corpses, and an eagle coming to the fight and then disappearing.

XXXII. During the following night, which was very dark, Pyrrhus marched his troops up to the walls, found the gate called Diamperes opened to him by Aristeas, and was able to march his Gaulish troops into the city and seize the market-place unobserved: but the elephants could not pass through the gate until their towers were taken off their backs. The removal of these towers, in the darkness, and the replacing them when the elephants had passed through the gate, caused an amount of delay and confusion which at length roused the slumbering inhabitants; they ran together to the place called "the Shield," and the other places of strength in the city, and sent messengers to call Antigonus to their aid. He at once marched up close to the city, and remained there with a reserve, but sent his son and several of his officers with a large part of his forces to assist the Argives within their city walls. Areus the king of Sparta also arrived, with a thousand Cretans and the swiftest footed of the Spartans. All these troops now at once attacked the Gauls and threw them into great disorder. As Pyrrhus, however, marched in by the street called Kylarabis, his soldiers raised a warlike shout: and he, noticing that the shout was echoed by the Gauls in the market-place in an undecided, faint-hearted fashion, at once guessed that they were being hard pressed. He instantly pressed the horsemen with him to charge, which they did with great difficulty, as the horses kept falling into the water-courses with which the whole city is intersected. The night was spent in wild tumult and skirmishing in the narrow lanes, both parties being unable to recognize or obey their leaders, and eagerly awaiting the dawn. The first rays of light showed Pyrrhus the whole open square called "the Shield" full of enemies, while he was even more disturbed by the sight of a brazen statue in the market-place, representing a wolf and a bull about to attack one another; for he remembered an oracle which had long before foretold that he must die when he should see a wolf fighting with a bull. The Argives say that this statue commemorates the legend that Danaus when he first landed in the country at Pyramia, near Thyrea, was marching towards Argos when he saw a wolf fighting with a bull. Danaus decided that the wolf must represent himself, because he was a stranger, and was come to attack the people of the country, like it; and he stopped and watched the fight. When the wolf gained the day, he offered prayer to Apollo Lykius, made his attempt upon the throne of Argos, and was successful, as Gelanor, who was then king, was forced into exile by a revolution. This is the account which the Argives give of these statues.