e character and resources of
Pyrrhus's mind were found woefully wanting. The first summons from any
other quarter, inviting him to a field of more immediate excitement
and action, was always sufficient to call him away. Thus he changed
his field of action successively from Macedon to Italy, from Italy to
Sicily, from Sicily back to Italy, and from Italy to Macedon again,
perpetually making new beginnings, but nowhere attaining any ends.

His determination to invade Macedon once more, on his return to Epirus
from Italy, was prompted, apparently, by the mere accident that the
government was unsettled, and that Antigonus was insecure in his
possession of the throne. He had no intention, when he first embarked
in this scheme, of attempting the conquest of Macedon, but only
designed to make a predatory incursion into the country for the
purpose of plunder, its defenseless condition affording him, as he
thought, a favorable opportunity of doing this. The plea on which he
justified this invasion was, that Antigonus was his enemy. Ptolemy
Ceraunus had made a treaty of alliance with him, and had furnished him
with troops for recruiting and re-enforcing his armies in Italy, as
has already been stated; but Antigonus, when called upon, had refused
to do this. This, of course, gave Pyrrhus ample justification, as he
imagined, for his intended incursion into the Macedonian realms.

Besides this, however, there was another justification, namely, that
of necessity. Although Pyrrhus had been compelled to withdraw from
Italy, he had not returned by any means alone, but had brought quite a
large army with him, consisting of many thousands of men, all of whom
must now be fed and paid. All the resources of his own kingdom had
been wellnigh exhausted by the drafts which he had made upon them to
sustain himself in Italy, and it was now necessary, he thought, to
embark in some war, as a means of finding employment and subsistence
for these troops. He determined, therefore, on every account, to make
a foray into Macedon.

Before setting off on his expedition, he contrived to obtain a
considerable force from among the Gauls as auxiliaries. Antigonus,
also, had Gauls in his service, for they themselves were divided, as
it would seem, in respect both to their policy and their leaders, as
well as the Macedonians; and Antigonus, taking advantage of their
dissensions, had contrived to enlist some portion of them in his
cause, while the rest were t