him a kindness until it was too late.  Debts of money, he said, can be paid to the heirs of a creditor, but men of honour are grieved at not being able to return a kindness during the lifetime of their benefactor.  In Ambrakia once Pyrrhus was advised to banish a man who abused him in scurrilous terms.  He answered, “I had rather he remained where he is and abused me there, than that he should wander through all the world doing so.”  Once some youths spoke ill of him over their wine, and being detected were asked by him whether they had used such words of him.  “We did, O king,” answered one of the young men, “and we should have said more evil of you if we had had more wine.”  At this answer Pyrrhus laughed, and acquitted them.

IX.  After the death of Antigone he married several wives, for the sake of advantageous political alliances.  One was the daughter of Autoleon, king of the Paeonians; another was Birkenna, daughter of Bardyllis, king of the Illyrians, while the third, Lanassa, daughter of Agathokles, despot of Syracuse, brought him as a dowry the city and island of Korkyra, which had been captured by Agathokles.  By Antigone he had already one son, Ptolemy; by Lanassa he had another son, Alexander, and Helenus, the youngest of his sons, by Birkenna.  They were all brought up to be good soldiers, being trained in arms by Pyrrhus himself.  It is said that when one of his sons, while yet a child, asked him to which of them he would leave his kingdom, he answered “To him whose sword is the sharpest.”  This saying differs but little from that celebrated tragic curse upon the brothers who were to “divide their heritage with whetted steel.”  So savage and unsocial a quality is ambition.

X. After this battle Pyrrhus returned home, delighted at the glory which he had acquired.  When the Epirotes gave him the title of the Eagle, he answered “I owe it to you that I am an eagle, for it is your arms that enable me to take so high a flight.”  Shortly afterwards, learning that Demetrius was dangerously ill, he suddenly invaded Macedonia, meaning merely to make a short incursion, but he very nearly obtained possession of the entire kingdom, as he overran the country without opposition and marched as far as Edessa, while many of the natives assisted him and joined his army.  The danger roused Demetrius from his sick bed, and his partisans hastily collected a considerable force and marched to attack Pyrrhus.  As he had only come with the intention of plundering he avoided giving battle and retreated, but on his way lost a part of his army by an attack of the Macedonians.