with alarm and astonishment. While crossing the
Ionian Sea he encountered a storm and lost many soldiers of his army:
the remainder were scattered by the violent waters. Only with
difficulty, then, and by land travel did he reach Tarentum. He at once
impressed those in their prime into service alongside of his own
soldiers so as to make sure that they should not be led, by having a
separate company, to think of rebellion; he closed the theatre,
presumably on account of the war and to prevent the people from
gathering there and setting on foot any uprising; also he forbade them
to assemble for banquets and revels, and ordered the youth to practice
in arms instead of spending all day in the market-place. When some,
indignant at this, left the ranks, he stationed guards from his own
contingent so that no one could leave the city. The inhabitants,
oppressed by these measures, and by supplying food, compelled as they
were, too, to receive the guardsmen into their houses, repented, since
they found in Pyrrhus only a master, not an ally. He, fearing for
these reasons that they might lean to the Roman cause, took note of
all the men who had any ability as politicians or could dominate the
populace and sent them one after another to Epirus to his son on
various excuses; occasionally, however, he would quietly assassinate
them instead. A certain Aristarchus, who was accounted one of the
noblest of the Tarentini and was a most persuasive speaker, he made
his boon companion to the end that this man should be suspected by the
people of having the interests of Pyrrhus at heart. When, however, he
saw that he still had the confidence of the throng, he gave him an
errand to Epirus. Aristarchus, not daring to dispute his behest, set
sail, but went to Rome.

VIII, 3.--Such was the behavior of Pyrrhus toward the Tarentini.
[Sidenote: FRAG. 40^8] THOSE IN ROME LEARNING THAT PYRRHUS HAD COME TO
TARENTUM WERE SMITTEN WITH TERROR BECAUSE THE ITALIAN STATES HAD BEEN
SET AT ENMITY WITH THEM AND BECAUSE HE WAS REPORTED TO BE WITHOUT
DOUBT A GOOD WARRIOR AND TO HAVE A FORCE THAT WAS BY NO MEANS
DESPICABLE AS AN ADVERSARY. So they proceeded to enlist soldiers and
to gather money and to distribute garrisons among the allied cities to
prevent them from likewise revolting; and learning that some were
already stirred with sedition they punished the principal men in them.
A handful of those from Praeneste were brought to Rome late in the
afternoon and