Читать книгу Abridgement of Roman History - Eutropius - Страница 35

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War was at the same time proclaimed against the Tarentines (who are still a people at the extremity of Italy), because they had offered violence to some Roman ambassadors. These people asked aid against the Romans of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who derived his origin from the family of Achilles. He soon after passed over into Italy, and it was then that the Romans fought for the first time with an enemy from beyond sea. The consul Publius Valerius Laevinus was sent against him; who, having seized some spies of Pyrrhus, ordered them to be led through the camp, and the whole army to be exhibited to them, and then to be dismissed, that they might tell Pyrrhus whatever was going on among the Romans. An engagement taking place soon after, Pyrrhus, when on the point of fleeing, got the victory by means of his elephants, at the sight of which the Romans, to whom they were strange, were greatly terrified; but night put an end to the battle. Laevinus however fled during the night. Pyrrhus took a thousand eight hundred Romans prisoners, and treated them with the greatest honour; the slain he buried. On observing those lying dead, with their wounds in front, and with stern countenances, he is said to have lifted up his hands to heaven, exclaiming that "he might himself have been master of the whole world, if such soldiers had fallen to his lot."