e, but Pyrrhus met them with a more formidable reserve,--his
elephants.

On beholding these strange monsters, terrible alike to horse and rider,
the Roman cavalry fell back in confusion. The horses could not be
brought to face their huge opponents. Their disorder broke the ranks of
the infantry. Pyrrhus charged them with his Thessalian cavalry, and the
Roman army was soon in total rout, leaving its camp to the mercy of its
foes.

During the battle Pyrrhus, knowing that the safety of his army depended
on his own life, exchanged his arms, helmet, and scarlet cloak for the
armor of Megacles, one of his officers. The borrowed splendor proved
fatal to Megacles. The Romans made him their mark. Every one struck at
him. He was at last struck down and slain, and his helmet and cloak were
carried to Lavinus, the Roman commander, who had them borne in triumph
along his ranks. Pyrrhus, fearing that this mistake might prove fatal,
at once threw off his helmet and rode bareheaded along his own line, to
let his soldiers see that he was still alive, and that a scarlet cloak
was not a king.

The battle over, Pyrrhus surveyed the field, strewn thickly with the
dead of both armies, his valiant soul moved to a new respect for his
foes.

"If I had such soldiers," he cried, "I could conquer the world." Then,
noting the numbers of his own dead, he added, "Another such victory,
and I must return to Epirus alone."

He sent Cineas, his wise counsellor, to Rome to offer terms of peace.
Nearly four thousand of his army had fallen, and these largely Greeks;
the weather was unfavorable for an advance; alliance with these brave
foes might be wiser than war. Many of the Romans, too, thought the same;
but while they were debating in the Forum there was borne into this
building the famous censor Appius Claudius, once a leader in Rome, now
totally blind and in extreme old age. His advent was like that of blind
Timoleon to the Syracusan senate. The senators listened in deepest
silence when the old man rose to speak. What he said we do not know, but
his voice was for war, and the senate, moved by his impassioned appeal,
voted that there should be no peace with Pyrrhus while he remained in
Italy, and ordered Cineas to leave Rome, with this ultimatum, that very
day.

Peace refused, Pyrrhus advanced against Rome. He marched through a
territory which for years had been free from the ravages of war, and was
in a state of flourishing prosperity. It was p