Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Pyrrhus
[King of Epirus; born about 318 B.C.; succeeded to the throne, 295; invaded Italy, 280; Sicily, 278; Macedonia, 274; killed in a war against Sparta, 272 B.C.]
Another such victory, and we are undone!
After the battle near Heraclea, on the river Siris, in Italy, when the long and hotly contested encounter with the Romans was decided by the advance of the Macedonian elephants. A large number of his officers and best troops had fallen; and as he viewed the field of battle he exclaimed, “Another such victory, and I must return to Epirus alone.”—PLUTARCH: Apothegms. He therefore proposed terms of peace, which were rejected by the Roman senate. When he asked his ambassador Cineas how the senate looked, he replied, “Like an assembly of kings.” Daniel Webster said of Calhoun, “He looked a Roman senator in the days when Rome survived.”Pyrrhus valued so highly his friend’s persuasive powers, that he was wont to say, “The words of Cineas have won more cities than my own arms.”His soldiers called Pyrrhus “the Eagle.” “May I deserve the title,” said he, “while I am borne upon the wings of your arms.”
