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In a word, she divorced herself and resumed possession of her dowry, and considered herself at liberty to dispose of both her person and her property anew. Demetrius accepted the offer which was made him. He went to Corcyra, married Lanassa, and then, leaving a garrison to protect the island from any attempt which Pyrrhus might make to recover it, he went back to Macedon.
For Lanassa had taken offense at Pyrrhus for too great an inclination to those wives of his that were barbarians, and so withdrew to Corcyra, and desiring to marry some king, invited Demetrius, knowing of all the kings he was most ready to entertain offers of marriage; so he sailed thither, married Lanassa, and placed a garrison in the city.
By Antigone he had Ptolemy, Alexander by Lanassa, and Helenus, his youngest son, by Bircenna; he brought them up all in arms, hot and eager youths, and by him sharpened and whetted to war from their very infancy.
By Antigone he had already one son, Ptolemy; by Lanassa he had another son, Alexander, and Helenus, the youngest of his sons, by Birkenna. They were all brought up to be good soldiers, being trained in arms by Pyrrhus himself. It is said that when one of his sons, while yet a child, asked him to which of them he would leave his kingdom, he answered "To him whose sword is the sharpest."
For Lanassa had quarrelled with Pyrrhus because he paid too much attention to his barbarian wives, had retired to Korkyra, and, as she still wished to be a queen, invited Demetrius to take possession of her person and of the island. He at once proceeded thither, married Lanassa, and placed a garrison in the city.
Antigone, the first wife of Pyrrhus, died, and after her death Pyrrhus married two or three other wives, according to the custom which prevailed in those days among the Asiatic kings. Among these wives was Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, the king of Syracuse.
In later times Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, brought an army thither, obtained possession of the country, and founded a dynasty of kings, who were named after him the sons of Pyrrhus: for Pyrrhus was his own nickname as a child, and he also gave the name of Pyrrhus to one of his children by his wife Lanassa, the daughter of Kleodæus, who was the son of Hyllus.
One was the daughter of Autoleon, king of the Pæonians; another was Birkenna, daughter of Bardyllis, king of the Illyrians, while the third, Lanassa, daughter of Agathokles, despot of Syracuse, brought him as a dowry the city and island of Korkyra, which had been captured by Agathokles.
His inducement for marrying Lanassa was to obtain the island of Corcyra, which the King of Syracuse, who held that island at that time under his dominion, was willing to give to his daughter as her dowry. Now the island of Corcyra, as will be seen from the map, was off the coast of Epirus, and very near, so that the possession of it would add very considerably to the value of Pyrrhus's dominion.
At length, in the midst of the contests and commotions that prevailed, two of the leading generals of the Sicilian army conceived the idea of bringing forward Pyrrhus's son by Lanassa as the heir to the crown.
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