CHAPTER IX.
FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE SAMNITE WAR TO THE SUBJUGATION OF ITALY. B.C. 290-265.
Ten years elapsed from the conclusion of the third Samnite war to the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy. During this time the Etruscans and Gauls renewed the war in the north, but were defeated with great slaughter near the Lake Vadimo. This decisive battle appears to have completely crushed the Etruscan power; and it inflicted so severe a blow upon the Gauls that we hear no more of their ravages for the next sixty years.
In the south the Lucanians also rose against Rome. The extension of the Roman dominion in the south of the peninsula had brought the state into connection with the Greek cities, which at one period were so numerous and powerful as to give to this part of Italy the name of Magna Græcia.[25] Many of these cities had now fallen into decay through internal dissensions and the conquests of the Lucanians and other Sabellian tribes; but Tarentum, originally a Lacedæmonian colony, still maintained her former power and splendor. The Tarentines naturally regarded with extreme jealousy the progress of the Roman arms in the south of Italy, and had secretly instigated the Etruscans and Lucanians to form a new coalition against Rome. But the immediate cause of the war between the Lucanians and Romans was the assistance which the latter had rendered to the Greek city of Thurii. Being attacked by the Lucanians, the Thurians applied to Rome for aid, and the Consul C. Fabricius not only relieved Thurii, but defeated the Lucanians and their allies in several engagements (B.C. 252). Upon the departure of Fabricius a Roman garrison was left in Thurii. The only mode now of maintaining communication between Rome and Thurii was by sea; but this was virtually forbidden by a treaty which the Romans had made with Tarentum nearly twenty years before, in which treaty it was stipulated that no Roman ships of war should pass the Lacinian promontory. But circumstances were now changed, and the Senate determined that their vessels should no longer be debarred from the Gulf of Tarentum. There was a small squadron of ten ships in those seas under the command of L. Valerius; and one day, when the Tarentines were assembled in the theatre, which looked over the sea, they saw the Roman squadron sailing toward their harbor. This open violation of the treaty seemed a premeditated insult, and a demagogue urged the people to take summary vengeance. They rushed down to the harbor, quickly manned some ships, and gained an easy victory over the small Roman squadron. Only half made their escape, four were sunk, one taken, and Valerius himself killed. After this the Tarentines marched against Thurii, compelled the inhabitants to dismiss the Roman garrison, and then plundered the town.
The Senate sent an embassy to Tarentum to complain of these outrages and to demand satisfaction. L. Postumius, who was at the head of the embassy, was introduced with his colleagues into the theatre, to state to the assembled people the demands of the Roman Senate. He began to address them in Greek, but his mistakes in the language were received with peals of laughter from the thoughtless mob. Unable to obtain a hearing, much less an answer, Postumius was leaving the theatre, when a drunken buffoon rushed up to him and sullied his white robe in the most disgusting manner. The whole theatre rang with shouts of laughter and clapping of hands, which became louder and louder when Postumius held up his sullied robe and showed it to the people. "Laugh on now," he cried, "but this robe shall be washed in torrents of your blood."
War was now inevitable. The luxurious Tarentines sent an embassy to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, begging him, in the name of all the Italian Greeks, to cross over into Italy in order to conduct the war against the Romans. They told him that they only wanted a general, and that all the nations of Southern Italy would flock to his standard. Pyrrhus needed no persuasion to engage in an enterprise which realized the earliest dreams of his ambition. The conquest of Italy would naturally lead to the sovereignty of Sicily and Africa, and he would then be able to return to Greece with the united forces of the West to overcome his rivals and reign as master of the world. But as he would not trust the success of his enterprise to the valor and fidelity of Italian troops, he began to make preparations to carry over a powerful army. Meantime he sent Milo, one of his generals, with a detachment of 3000 men, to garrison the citadel of Tarentum. Pyrrhus himself crossed over from Epirus toward the end of B.C. 281, taking with him 20,000 foot, 3000 horse, and 20 elephants.
Upon reaching Tarentum he began to make preparations to carry on the war with activity. The Tarentines soon found they had obtained a master rather than an ally. He shut up the theatre and all other public places, and compelled their young men to serve in his ranks. Notwithstanding all his activity, the Romans were first in the field. The Consul M. Valerius Lævinus marched into Lucania; but as the army of Pyrrhus was inferior to that of the Romans, he attempted to gain time by negotiation in order that he might be joined by his Italian allies. He accordingly wrote to the Consul, offering to arbitrate between Rome and the Italian states; but Lævinus bluntly told him to mind his own business and retire to Epirus. Fearing to remain inactive any longer, although he was not yet joined by his allies, Pyrrhus marched out against the Romans with his own troops and the Tarentines. He took up his position between the towns of Pandosia and Heraclea, on the River Siris. The Romans, who were encamped on the other side of the river, were the first to begin the battle. They crossed the river, and were immediately attacked by the cavalry of Pyrrhus, who led them to the charge in person, and distinguished himself as usual by the most daring acts of valor. The Romans, however, bravely sustained the attack; and Pyrrhus, finding that his cavalry could not decide the day, ordered his infantry to advance. The battle was still contested most furiously: seven times did both armies advance and retreat; and it was not till Pyrrhus brought forward his elephants, which bore down every thing before them, that the Romans took to flight, leaving their camp to the conqueror (B.C. 280).
This battle taught Pyrrhus the difficulty of the enterprise he had undertaken. Before the engagement, when he saw the Romans forming their line as they crossed the river, he said to his officers, "In war, at any rate, these barbarians are not barbarous;" and afterward, as he saw the Roman dead lying upon the field with all their wounds in front, he exclaimed, "If these were my soldiers, or if I were their general, we should conquer the world." And, though his loss had been inferior to that of the Romans, still so large a number of his officers and best troops had fallen, that he said, "Another such victory, and I must return to Epirus alone." He therefore resolved to avail himself of this victory to conclude, if possible, an advantageous peace. He sent his minister Cineas to Rome with the proposal that the Romans should recognize the independence of the Greeks in Italy, restore to the Samnites, Lucanians, Apulians, and Bruttians all the possessions which they had lost in war, and make peace with himself and the Tarentines. As soon as peace was concluded on these terms he promised to return all the Roman prisoners without ransom. Cineas, whose persuasive eloquence was said to have won more towns for Pyrrhus than his arms, neglected no means to induce the Romans to accept these terms. The prospects of the Republic seemed so dark and threatening that many members of the Senate thought it would be more prudent to comply with the demands of the king; and this party would probably have carried the day had it not been for the patriotic speech of the aged Ap. Claudius Caucus, who denounced the idea of a peace with a victorious foe with such effect that the Senate declined the proposals of the king, and commanded Cineas to quit Rome the same day.