The appearance of Pyrrhus was more calculated to strike terror into the beholder than to impress him with an idea of the dignity which becomes a king.  He had not a number of separate teeth, but one continuous bone in his upper jaw, with only slight lines showing the divisions between the teeth.  He was thought to be able to cure diseases of the spleen by sacrificing a white cock, and then gently pressing with his right foot in the region of the spleen of the sufferer, who lay upon his back meanwhile.  No man was so poor or despised that Pyrrhus would not touch him for this disorder if requested to do so.  He also received, as a reward, the cock which was sacrificed, and was much pleased with this present.  It is said that the great toe of that foot had some divine virtue, so that when the rest of his body was burned after his death, it was found unhurt and untouched by the fire.  But of this hereafter.

IV.  When he was about seventeen years of age, and appeared to be firmly established upon his throne, he chanced to leave the country to attend the wedding of one of the sons of Glaukias, with whom he had been brought up.  The Molossians now again rose in revolt, drove out his friends, sacked the treasury, and made Neoptolemus their king.  Pyrrhus having thus lost his kingdom, and being entirely destitute, fled for refuge to Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who had married his sister Deidameia.  When a young girl Deidameia had been nominally the wife of Alexander, the son of Roxana, but after the misfortunes of that family Demetrius had married her when she came of age.  In the great battle of Ipsus, in which all the successors of Alexander the Great took part, Pyrrhus, while yet a youth, served with the forces of Demetrius, routed those who opposed him, and gained great distinction.  He did not desert Demetrius after his defeat, but was entrusted with the care of those cities which Demetrius possessed in Greece, and kept them faithful to his cause.  When he made a treaty with Ptolemy, Pyrrhus was sent to Egypt as a hostage, where he hunted and practised gymnastics with Ptolemy, showing great bodily strength and endurance.  Observing that Berenike was the most powerful and intelligent of Ptolemy’s wives, he paid especial court to her, and, as he knew well how to gain the favour of the powerful, though he was inclined to domineer over his inferiors, and was temperate and well-behaved, he was chosen out of many other noble youths to be the husband of Antigone, one of the daughters of Berenike, whom she bore to Philip before she married Ptolemy.

V. His influence was greatly increased by this match, and, as Antigone proved a good wife to him and furthered his designs, he prevailed upon his friends to supply him with money and troops, and send him upon an expedition to recover his throne in Epirus.  When he landed, many of the people of the country were willing to accept him as their king, because of their dislike to the ferocious and arbitrary rule of Neoptolemus;