Pausanias Analysis

Then Pyrrhus, having been defeated, sailed back to Tarentum with the ships that remained to him. Thereupon he encountered great difficulty, and because he knew that the Romans would not allow him to withdraw unopposed, he contrived the following stratagem for his retreat. After returning from Sicily and suffering defeat, he first sent letters to Asia and to Antigonus, requesting from some of the kings troops, from others money, and from Antigonus both of these. When the messengers returned and delivered to him the replies, summoning the leading men of the Epirotes and of the Tarentines, he read out none of the documents he had actually received, but instead announced that support would soon arrive. The rumour quickly reached the Romans as well, that Macedonians and other peoples from Asia were crossing to aid Pyrrhus. On hearing this, the Romans temporarily remained quiet, and Pyrrhus took advantage of the following night to cross over secretly to the mountains called Ceraunia.

After the defeat in Italy, Pyrrhus rested his forces and then declared war upon Antigonus, bringing forward several accusations, and above all citing his failure to provide assistance in Italy. Having overcome both Antigonus's own troops and the Gallic mercenaries serving under him, Pyrrhus drove him to the coastal cities, and himself gained possession of Upper Macedonia and Thessaly. The magnitude of this battle and Pyrrhus's decisive victory, indicating how severe the conflict had been, is best demonstrated by the Celtic armor dedicated in the temple of Athena Itonia, situated between Pherae and Larissa, and by the inscription upon these weapons: "The Molossian dedicated these shields to Athena Itonia."

Pyrrhus hung these shields taken from the daring Gauls after defeating Antigonus’ entire army. Nor is this greatly surprising—for the Aiakidai have always been skilled warriors, both now and in former times. These shields, then, he dedicated here, while those of the Macedonians he consecrated to Zeus at Dodona. An inscription is likewise placed upon them: "These shields once devastated the gold-rich land of Asia; these shields bestowed servitude upon the Greeks. Now they lie ownerless beside the columns of Zeus’ temple, the spoils from boastful Macedonia." Cleonymus became responsible, however, that Pyrrhus fell short by only a little of completely subduing Macedonia, although he had advanced very near to doing so.

He was in any case the more ready to take what lay easily within his grasp. This Cleonymus, who persuaded Pyrrhus to leave Macedonian affairs behind and come to the Peloponnese, being himself a Lacedaemonian, brought an enemy army against the Lacedaemonians into their own land, for a reason which I shall explain when I later speak of Cleonymus's family. Pleistoanax was the son of that Pausanias who had led the Greeks at Plataea; Pausanias was the son of Cleombrotus, who fell fighting against Epaminondas and the Thebans at Leuctra. Cleombrotus had two sons, Agesipolis and Cleomenes. Agesipolis died childless, so Cleomenes inherited the kingship.

Cleomenes had two sons, the elder named Acrotatus, the younger Cleonymus. Acrotatus died first, and after Cleomenes himself passed away, a dispute arose over the kingship between Areus, the son of Acrotatus, and Cleonymus, who attempted by various means and eventually brought Pyrrhus into the country. Before the battle at Leuctra, the Lacedaemonians had never faced defeat and did not even concede that their infantry had ever been bested in battle. They asserted that the companions of Leonidas, though victorious, were insufficient to bring about the complete destruction of the Medes, while the exploit of the Athenians and Demosthenes at the island of Sphacteria was merely a stratagem in war, not a genuine victory.

After their first disaster in Boeotia, they subsequently suffered greatly at the hands of Antipater and the Macedonians, and thirdly came the war with Demetrius, which brought unexpected misfortune to their land. When Pyrrhus invaded, bringing the fourth hostile army down upon them, they set themselves in battle array along with the allies who arrived from Argos and Messene. Pyrrhus, when he had gained the upper hand, almost took the city by a direct assault; however, having ravaged the territory and driven off booty, he paused briefly. The Spartans then prepared themselves for a siege. Still earlier, during their war against Demetrius, Sparta had been fortified with trenches, deep moats, and strong palisades, and at its most vulnerable points even buildings had been constructed as fortifications.

Around this same time, when the protraction of the Spartan war continued, Antigonus, having restored the cities of the Macedonians, hastened toward the Peloponnese, knowing well that if Pyrrhus succeeded in capturing Sparta and most parts of the Peloponnese, he would move not back toward Epirus but instead against Macedonia, thus renewing war in that region. As Antigonus was preparing to lead his army from Argos towards Laconia, Pyrrhus himself arrived at Argos. Although victorious on that occasion as well, Pyrrhus pursued the fleeing soldiers right into the city, and consequently, as might be expected, his formation was thrown into disorder.

While the fighting was already taking place around temples, houses, narrow streets, and scattered places throughout the city, Pyrrhus became isolated and was wounded in the head. They say Pyrrhus died when struck by a roof-tile thrown by a woman; the Argives, however, claim it was not a woman who killed him, but Demeter herself, disguised in the form of a woman. The Argives themselves recount these details about Pyrrhus' death, and the local guide Lyceas has recorded them in verse. At the spot where Pyrrhus died there is a sanctuary of Demeter, as the oracle of the god had previously instructed them.

Pyrrhus is buried there as well. Indeed, I greatly marvel that three of those called Aeacidae encountered their deaths in the same way by divine intervention. Homer says that Achilles perished at the hands of Alexander, Priam's son, and Apollo. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, was commanded by the Pythian oracle to be slain at Delphi, while the circumstances surrounding the death of the third Aeacid occurred as the Argives relate and as Lyceas has depicted. Yet these accounts differ from the version recorded by Hieronymus of Cardia; for a man closely connected to a king must necessarily write in a flattering way. And if Philistus can justly be censured for concealing Dionysius' most impious acts through hopes of returning to Syracuse, then surely much pardon must be granted to Hieronymus for writing what pleased Antigonus.