Pyrrhus

In respect to the heroes of ancient history, who lived in times antecedent to the period when the regular records of authentic history commence, no reliance can be placed upon the actual verity of the accounts which have come down to us of their lives and actions. In those ancient days there was, in fact, no line of demarkation between romance and history, and the stories which were told of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Romulus, Pyrrhus, and other personages as ancient as they, are all more or less fabulous and mythical. We learn this as well from the internal evidence furnished by the narratives themselves as from the researches of modern scholars, who have succeeded, in many cases, in disentangling the web, and separating the false from the true. It is none the less important, however, on this account, that these ancient tales, as they were originally told, and as they have come down to us through so many centuries, should be made known to readers of the present age. They have been circulated among mankind in their original form for twenty or thirty centuries, and they have mingled themselves inextricably with the literature, the eloquence, and the poetry of every civilized nation on the globe. Of course, to know what the story is, whether true or false, which the ancient narrators recorded, and which has been read and commented on by every succeeding generation to the present day, is an essential attainment for every well-informed man; a far more essential attainment, in fact, for the general reader, than to discover now, at this late period, what the actual facts were which gave origin to the fable.

In writing this series of histories, therefore, it has been the aim of the author not to correct the ancient story, but to repeat it as it stands, cautioning the reader, however, whenever occasion requires, not to suppose that the marvelous narratives are historically true.

CONTENTS.

Chapter Page

I. OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER 13

II. CASSANDER 40

III. EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS 64

IV. WARS IN MACEDON 86

V. WAR IN ITALY 111

VI. NEGOTIATIONS 134

VII. THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN 159

VIII. THE RETREAT FROM ITALY 188

IX. THE FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS 210

X. THE RECONQUEST OF MACEDON 235

XI. SPARTA 249

XII. THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF PYRRHUS 268

ENGRAVINGS.

Page

THE ROMAN ENCAMPMENT Frontispiece.

MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS 12

EURYDICE IN PRISON 57

MAP--GRECIAN EMPIRE 110

THE TROPHIES 132

THE ELEPHANT CONCEALED 145

THE ASSAULT 177

THE ROUT 206

THE FALLEN ELEPHANT 223

THE CHARGE 283

THE DEATH OF PYRRHUS 300

[Illustration: MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS.]

PYRRHUS.

CHAPTER I.

OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER.

B.C. 336-321

Situation of the country of Epirus.--Epirus and Macedon.--Their political connections.--Olympias.--Her visits to Epirus.--Philip.--Olympias as a wife.--She makes many difficulties.--Alexander takes part with his mother in her quarrel.--Olympias is suspected of having murdered her husband.--Alexander's treatment of his mother.--His kind and considerate behavior.--Antipater.--Character of Antipater.--Alexander's opinion of him.--Olympias makes a great deal of trouble.--Alexander sends Craterus home.--Alexander's wife Roxana.--Her babe.--Aridæus.--The two competing claimants to the crown.--Some account of the Ptolemaic dynasty.--The distribution of Alexander's empire.--Compromise between the rival claims.--Question of marriage.--Cleopatra.--Nicæa.--Nicæa is sent to Babylon.--Antipater's plan.--Another matrimonial question.--Cynane.--Excitement in the army.--Ada's new name.--Various intrigues.--Schemes of Antipater and Ptolemy.--Nicæa.--Perdiccas' plans.--A battle.--Craterus is killed.--Discontent.--Unpopularity of Perdiccas.--Transit of the Nile.--Extraordinary incident.--Great numbers swept into the river and destroyed.--The kings are to be sent back to Babylon.--Antipater returns to Macedon full of honors.