nemies at home, and promises to be our
friend and protector, forsooth, when the army he commands did not
suffice to keep for him the least portion of that Macedonia which he
once acquired. Do not imagine that you will get rid of this man by
making a treaty with him. Rather you will encourage other Greek princes
to invade you, for they will despise you and think you an easy prey to
all men if you let Pyrrhus go home again without paying the penalty of
his outrages upon you, nay, with the power to boast that he has made
Rome a laughing-stock for Tarentines and Samnites."

[Footnote 54: Demetrius.]

By these words Appius roused a warlike spirit in the Romans, and they
dismissed Cineas with the answer that if Pyrrhus would leave Italy they
would, if he wished, discuss the question of an alliance with him, but
that while he remained in arms in their country the Romans would fight
him to the death, however many Laevinuses he might defeat. It is related
that Cineas, during his mission to Rome, took great interest in
observing the national life of the Romans, and fully appreciated the
excellence of their political constitution, which he learned by
conversing with many of the leading men of the State. On his return he
told Pyrrhus that the senate seemed to him like an assembly of kings,
and that as to the populace he feared that the Greeks might find in them
a new Lernaean hydra; for twice as many troops had been enrolled in the
consul's army as he had before, and yet there remained many more Romans
capable of bearing arms.

After this Caius Fabricius came to arrange terms for the exchange of
prisoners; a man whom Cineas said the Romans especially valued for his
virtue and bravery, but who was excessively poor. Pyrrhus, in
consequence of this, entertained Fabricius privately, and made him an
offer of money, not as a bribe for any act of baseness, but speaking of
it as a pledge of friendship and sincerity. As Fabricius refused this,
Pyrrhus waited till the next day, when, desirous of making an impression
on him, as he had never seen an elephant, he had his largest elephant
placed behind Fabricius during their conference, concealed by a curtain.
At a given signal, the curtain was withdrawn, and the creature reached
out his trunk over the head of Fabricius with a harsh and terrible cry.
Fabricius, however, quietly turned round, and then said to Pyrrhus with
a smile, "You could not move me by your gold yesterday, nor can you with