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Updated: June 3, 2025
On the appointed day Cineas went to the senate-chamber, and there made a long and very able and eloquent address, in the presence of the senate and of the principal inhabitants of the city. He was very much impressed on this occasion with the spectacle which the august assembly presented to his view.
The resolution of the Lacedaemonians was, however, at least equally due to the friendship which had been formed between the house of Pisistratus and Argos. Accordingly they first sent Anchimolus by sea at the head of an army; but he was defeated and killed, through the arrival of Cineas of Thessaly to support the sons of Pisistratus with a force of a thousand horsemen.
The ambassador of Pyrrhus, the orator Cineas, returned to tell the conqueror that to fight the Romans was to fight a hydra—that their city was a temple, and their senators were kings. But when he arrived within eighteen miles, he found an enemy in his front, while Lævinius harassed his rear. He was obliged to retreat, and retired to Tarentum with an immense booty.
"A few more such victories," said Pyrrhus, "and I am ruined." He desired peace, and sent Cineas as a messenger to the Senate. But Appius Claudius, who had been consul and censor, and was now old and blind, begged them not to make peace as long as there was an enemy in Italy. Cineas reported that he found the Senate "an assembly of kings."
When this was done, he began to make preparations for transporting the rest of his force to Sicily by sea. He determined to send Cineas forward first, according to his usual custom, to make the preliminary arrangements in Sicily. Cineas consequently left Tarentum with a small squadron of ships and galleys, and, after a short voyage, arrived safely at Syracuse.
So long, however, as he remained on Italian ground, they would make no terms with him whatever, though he should gain a thousand victories, but would wage war upon him to the last extremity. Cineas returned to the camp of Pyrrhus, bearing this reply.
The chief command was already entrusted to Agis, a man favourable to Rome, when the return of the envoys with the concluded treaty, accompanied by Cineas the confidential minister of Pyrrhus, again brought the war party to the helm. Landing of Pyrrhus A firmer hand now grasped the reins, and put an end to the pitiful vacillation.
His wise counsellor, Cineas, asked him what he would do next, if he should overcome the Romans, who were said to be great warriors and conquerors of many peoples. "The Romans once overcome," he said, proudly, "no city, Greek or barbarian, would dare to oppose me, and I should be master of all Italy." "Well," said Cineas, "if you conquer Italy, what next?" "Greater victories would follow.
Pyrrhus then advanced across the river and took possession of the Roman camp. Effects of the victory. Public opinion at Rome. Expectations of Pyrrhus. His mistake. Cineas sent an embassador to Rome. Cineas's plans for bribing the Roman senators. Speech of Cineas in the Roman senate. Debate in the senate. An incident of the discussion. Appius Claudius is brought on a bed to the senate.
The extent to which an acquaintance with Greek was already diffused in the fifth century among Romans of quality is shown by the embassies of the Romans to Tarentum when their mouthpiece spoke, if not in the purest Greek, at any rate without an interpreter and of Cineas to Rome.
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