So Pyrrhus was the first to cross the Ionian Sea from Greece to attack the Romans.280 B.C. And even he crossed on the invitation of the Tarentines. For they were already involved in a war with the Romans, but were no match for them unaided. Pyrrhus was already in their debt, because they had sent a fleet to help him in his war with Corcyra, but the most cogent arguments of the Tarentine envoys were their accounts of Italy, how its prosperity was equal to that of the whole of Greece, and their plea that it was wicked to dismiss them when they had come as friends and suppliants in their hour of need. When the envoys urged these considerations, Pyrrhus remembered the capture of Troy, which he took to be an omen of his success in the war, as he was a descendant of Achilles making war upon a colony of Trojans.
Pleased with this proposal, and being a man who never lost time when once he had made up his mind, he immediately proceeded to man war ships and to prepare transports to carry hors
cedonia, having with him an army both of Greeks and of foreigners. But Ptolemy, brother of Lysandra, had taken refuge with him from Lysimachus; this man, an adventurous character named for this reason the Thunderbolt, when the army of Seleucus had advanced as far as Lysimachea, assassinated Seleucus, allowed the kings to seize his wealth281 B.C., and ruled over Macedonia until, being the first of the kings to my knowledge to dare to meet the Gauls in battle, he was killed by the foreigners.280 B.C. The empire was recovered by Antigonus, son of Demetrius.
I am persuaded that Seleucus was the most righteous, and in particular the most religious of the kings. Firstly, it was Seleucus who sent back to Branchidae for the Milesians the bronze Apollo that had been carried by Xerxes to Ecbatana in Persia. Secondly, when he founded Seleucea on the river Tigris and brought to it Babylonian colonists he spared the wall of Babylon as well as the sanctuary of Bel, near which he permitted the Cha
er migrated to the sea coast of Attica; that on the death of Epopeus he came to Peloponnesus, divided his kingdom among his sons, and returned to Attica; and that Asopia was renamed after Sicyon, and Ephyraea after Corinthus.
Corinth is no longer inhabited by any of the old Corinthians, but by colonists sent out by the Romans. This change is due to the Achaean League.A league of states in the northern Peloponnesus. It was most influential in the second half of the third century B.C. Founded 280 B.C. The Corinthians, being members of it, joined in the war against the Romans, which Critolaus, when appointed general of the Achaeans, brought about by persuading to revolt both the Achaeans and the majority of the Greeks outside the Peloponnesus. When the Romans won the war, they carried out a general disarmament of the Greeks146 B.C. and dismantled the walls of such cities as were fortified. Corinth was laid waste by Mummius, who at that time commanded the Romans in the field, and it is sai
mple, the people rose up against the "Three Hundred" during one of their meetings and burnt up the building and many of the assembled members. actually borrowed most of their usages from the Achaeans.So Polybius, 2.39 And after the battle at Leuctra the Thebans turned over to them the arbitration of the disputes which the cities had with one another; and later, when their league was dissolved by the Macedonians, they gradually recovered themselves. When Pyrrhus made his expedition to Italy,280 B.C. four cities came together and began a new league, among which were Patrae and Dyme;The other two were Tritaea and Pharae (Polybius 2.41） and then they began to add some of the twelve cities, except Olenus and Helice, the former having refused to join and the latter having been wiped out by a wave from the sea.So 1. 3. 18.
For the sea was raised by an earthquake and it submerged Helice, and also the temple of the Heliconian Poseidon, whom the IoniansIn Asia Minor. worship even to this da
about equally divided in opinion until one of their number said to them as they doubted and disputed: "To surrender citizens is the act of a people already enslaved, yet to fight without allies is hazardous. If we wish to defend our liberty stoutly and to fight on equal terms, let us call on Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and designate him the leader of this war." This was done.
FROM PEIRESC
Y.R. 474
After a shipwreck, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, arrived at the B.C. 280 harbor of Tarentum. The Tarentines were very much put out with the king's officers, who quartered themselves upon the citizens by force, and openly abused their wives and children. Afterwards Pyrrhus put an end to their revels and other social gatherings and amusements as incompatible with a state of war, and ordered the citizens to severe military exercise, under penalty of death if they disobeyed. Then the Tarentines, tired out by these most unusual exercises and orders, fled the city as th
himself of Lysimacheia, but he was killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus who accompanied him. This Ceraunus was the son of Ptolemy Soter and Euridice, the daughter of Antipater. He had left Egypt from fear, because his father had decided to leave the kingdom to his youngest son. Seleucus had received him as the unfortunate son of his friend, and thus he supported, and took around with himself everywhere, his own murderer.
Y.R. 474
Thus Seleucus died at the age of seventy-three,
B.C. 280 having reigned forty-two years. It seems to me that the oracle hit the mark in his case when it said to him, "Do not hurry back to Europe; Asia will be much better for you," for Lysimacheia is in Europe, and he then crossed over to Europe for the first time after leaving it with the army of Alexander. It is said also that once when he consulted an oracle in reference to his own death he received this answer:--
"If you keep away from Argos you will reach your allotted year, but if you ap
Polybius, Histories, book 1, Roman Dominion in Italy (search)
ith their neighbours. The Latini. First, by dint of valour, and the good
fortune which attended them in the field, they
mastered all the Latini; then they went to war with the
Etruscans; then with the Celts; and next with
the Samnites, who lived on the eastern and
northern frontiers of Latium. The Etruscans, Gauls, and Samnites. Some time after
this the Tarentines insulted the ambassadors of Rome, and,
in fear of the consequences, invited and obtained the assistance of Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus, B. C. 280. This happened in the year
before the Gauls invaded Greece, some of whom
perished near Delphi, while others crossed into
Asia. Then it was that the Romans—having reduced the
Etruscans and Samnites to obedience, and conquered the
Italian Celts in many battles—attempted for the first time the
reduction of the rest of Italy. Southern Italy. The nations
for whose possessions they were about to fight
they affected to regard, not in the light of foreigners, but as
already for the most part belongin
Polybius, Histories, book 9, Services of Macedonians To Greece (search)
ome gratitude is owing to the Aetolians; what high honour do the
Macedonians deserve, who throughout nearly their whole
lives are ceaselessly engaged in a struggle with the barbarians
for the safety of the Greeks? For that Greece would have
been continually involved in great dangers, if we had not had
the Macedonians and the ambition of their kings as a barrier,
who is ignorant? And there is a very striking
proof of this. Defeat and death of Ptolemy Ceraunus in the battle
with the Gauls, B.C. 280. See Pausan. 10.19.7. For no sooner had the Gauls
conceived a contempt for the Macedonians, by
their victory over Ptolemy Ceraunus, than,
thinking the rest of no account, Brennus
promptly marched into the middle of Greece.
And this would often have happened if the
Macedonians had not been on our frontiers.
"However, though I have much that I could say on the past,
I think this is enough. Of all the actions of Philip, they have
selected his destruction of the temple, to fasten the charge of
im
progress is an approach towards this
point.
How then do we admit that virtue is such as I have
said, and yet seek progress in other things and make a display of it? What is the product of virtue? Tranquillity.
Who then makes improvement? Is it he who has read
many books of Chrysippus?Diogenes Laertius (Chrysippus, lib. vii.) states that Chrysippus
wrote seven hundred and five books, or treatises, or whatever the
word suggra/mmata means. He was born at Soli, in Cilicia, or at
Tarsus, in B. C. 280, as it is reckoned, and on going to Athens he
became a pupil of the Stoic Cleanthes. But does virtue consist in
having understood Chrysippus? If this is so, progress is
clearly nothing else than knowing a great deal of Chrysippus. But now we admit that virtue produces one
thing, and we declare that approaching near to it is
another thing, namely, progress or improvement. Such a
person, says one, is already able to read Chrysippus by
himself. Indeed, sir, you are making great progress.
What ki
Strabo, Geography (ed. H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A.), BOOK VI., CHAPTER I. (search)
ri, they succumbed, and Rhegium,
after a gallant defence which lasted nearly a year, was compelled to yield,
about the year 398 B. C. The insulting tyrant sentenced the heroic Phyton,
who had commanded the town, to a cruel death, and removed the few
inhabitants that remained to Sicily. but his son (Dionysius
the younger) partly restored it,B. C. 360. and called it Phœbia. During the war with Pyrrhus, a body of Campanians destroyed
most of the citizens against the faith of treaties,B. C. 280. and a little
before the Marsic or social war, earthquakes destroyed most
of the towns;B.C. 91. but after Augustus Cæsar had driven Sextus
Pompeius out of Sicily, when he saw that the city was deficient of inhabitants, he appointed certain of those who
accompanied the expedition to reside there, and it is now
tolerably well peopled.The defeat of Sextus Pompeins is referred to the year 36 B. C., but
there is no precise date mentioned for the establishment of the veteran
soldiers i
