to the glory of Rome? You now
prove that this was mere empty vapouring, by your terror of these
Chaonians and Molossians, nations who have always been a prey and a
spoil to the Macedonians, and by your fear of this Pyrrhus, who used
formerly to dance attendance on one of Alexander's bodyguards,[42] and
who has now wandered hither not so much in order to assist the Greeks
in Italy as to escape from his enemies at home, and promises to be our
friend and protector forsooth, when the army he commands did not
suffice to keep for him the least portion of that Macedonia which he
once acquired. Do not imagine that you will get rid of this man by
making a treaty with him. Rather you will encourage other Greek
princes to invade you, for they will despise you and think you an easy
prey to all men, if you let Pyrrhus go home again without paying the
penalty of his outrages upon you, nay, with the power to boast that he
has made Rome a laughing-stock for Tarentines and Samnites."

By these words Appius roused a warlike spirit in the Romans, and they
dismissed Kineas with the answer that if Pyrrhus would leave Italy
they would, if he wished, discuss the question of an alliance with
him, but that while he remained in arms in their country the Romans
would fight him to the death, however many Laevinuses he might defeat.
It is related that Kineas, during his mission to Rome, took great
interest in observing the national life of the Romans, and fully
appreciated the excellence of their political constitution, which he
learned by conversing with many of the leading men of the state. On
his return he told Pyrrhus that the Senate seemed to him like an
assembly of kings, and that as to the populace, he feared that the
Greeks might find in them a new Lernaean hydra; for twice as many
troops had been enrolled in the consul's army as he had before, and
yet there remained many more Romans capable of bearing arms.

XX. After this Caius Fabricius came to arrange terms for the exchange
of prisoners; a man whom Kineas said the Romans especially valued for
his virtue and bravery, but who was excessively poor. Pyrrhus, in
consequence of this, entertained Fabricius privately, and made him an
offer of money, not as a bribe for any act of baseness, but speaking
of it as a pledge of friendship and sincerity. As Fabricius refused
this, Pyrrhus waited till the next day, when, desirous of making an
impression on him, as he had never seen an elephant, he had