that the Romans were unwilling to drive the city into the arms of the Epirot king.  His designs on Italy were no longer a secret.  A Tarentine embassy had already gone to Pyrrhus and returned without having accomplished its object.  The king had demanded more than it had powers to grant.  It was necessary that they should come to a decision.  That the civic militia knew only how to run away from the Romans, had been made sufficiently clear.  There remained only the choice between a peace with Rome, which the Romans still were ready to agree to on equitable terms, and a treaty with Pyrrhus on any condition that the king might think proper; or, in other words, the choice between submission to the supremacy of Rome, and subjection to the —­tyrannis—­ of a Greek soldier.

Pyrrhus Summoned to Italy

The parties in the city were almost equally balanced.  At length the ascendency remained with the national party—­a result, that was due partly to the justifiable predilection which led them, if they must yield to a master at all, to prefer a Greek to a barbarian, but partly also to the dread of the demagogues that Rome, notwithstanding the moderation now forced upon it by circumstances, would not neglect on a fitting opportunity to exact vengeance for the outrages perpetrated by the Tarentine rabble.  The city, accordingly, came to terms with Pyrrhus.  He obtained the supreme command of the troops of the Tarentines and of the other Italians in arms against Rome, along with the right of keeping a garrison in Tarentum.  The expenses of the war were, of course, to be borne by the city.  Pyrrhus, on the other hand, promised to remain no longer in Italy than was necessary; probably with the tacit reservation that his own judgment should fix the time during which he would be needed there.  Nevertheless, the prey had almost slipped out of his hands.  While the Tarentine envoys—­the chiefs, no doubt, of the war party—­were absent in Epirus, the state of feeling in the city, now hard pressed by the Romans, underwent a change.  The chief command was already entrusted to Agis, a man favourable to Rome, when the return of the envoys with the concluded treaty, accompanied by Cineas the confidential minister of Pyrrhus, again brought the war party to the helm.

Landing of Pyrrhus

A firmer hand now grasped the reins, and put an end to the pitiful vacillation.  In the autumn of 473 Milo, the general of Pyrrhus, landed with 3000 Epirots and occupied the citadel of the town.  He was followed in the beginning of the year 474 by the king himself, who landed after a stormy passage in which many lives were lost.  He transported to Tarentum a respectable but miscellaneous army, consisting partly of the household troops, Molossians, Thesprotians, Chaonians, and Ambraciots; partly of the Macedonian infantry and the Thessalian cavalry, which Ptolemy king of Macedonia had conformably to stipulation handed over to him; partly of Aetolian, Acarnanian, and Athamanian mercenaries.  Altogether it numbered 20,000 phalangitae, 2000 archers, 500 slingers, 3000 cavalry, and 20 elephants, and thus was not much smaller than the army with which fifty years before Alexander had crossed the Hellespont