PYRRHUS AND THE ROMANS. 325

army, and again became king of Epirus. He after-
wards conquered all Macedonia, and, like Alexander
the Great, whose fame he envied, looked about him
for other worlds to conquer.

During the years over which our tales have passed
a series of foreign powers had threatened Greece.
First, in the days of legend, it had found a foreign
enemy in Troy. Next came the great empire of
Persia, with which it had for centuries to deal.
Then rose Macedonia, the first conqueror of Greece.
Meanwhile, in the west, a new enemy had been
slowly growing in power and thirst for conquest,
that of Rome, before whose mighty arm Greece was
destined to fall and vanish from view as one of the
powers of the earth. And the first of the Greeks to
come in warlike contact with the Romans was Pyr-
rhus. How this came about, and what arose from
it, we have now to tell.

Step by step the ambitious Romans had been ex-
tending their power over Italy. They were now at
war with Tarentum, a city of Greek origin on the
south Italian coast. The Tarentines, being hard
pressed by their vigorous foes, sent an embassy to
Greece, and asked Pyrrhus, then the most famous
warrior of the Grecian race, to come to their aid
against their enemy. This was in the year 281 B.o.

Pyrrhus had been for some years at peace, build-
ing himself a new capital city, which he profusely
adorned with pictures and statues. But peace was
not to his taste. Consumed by ambition, restless in
temperament, and anxious to make himself a rival
in fame of Alexander the Great, he was ready enough

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