was proved by
Pyrrhus, who in order to prevent Demetrius from recovering from the
great disaster which he had sustained, espoused the cause of Greece,
and marched to Athens. Here he went up to the Acropolis and sacrificed
to the goddess Athena. On descending he thanked the Athenians for
their confidence in him, but advised them if they consulted their own
interest never to admit any king within their walls.[40] After this he
made peace with Demetrius, but shortly after he was gone to Asia,
Pyrrhus, at the instigation of Lysimachus, induced the Thessalians to
revolt and join him, and began to besiege the fortresses on the Greek
border, both because he found the Macedonians easier to manage when
they were at war than when they were idle, and also because he himself
was of a nature which could not endure inaction. Finally however
Demetrius was irretrievably ruined in Syria, and now Lysimachus,
having nothing further to fear from him, at once attacked Pyrrhus. He
fell upon him suddenly near Edessa, defeated him, and reduced the
troops under him to great distress for provisions. Next he began to
corrupt the leading Macedonians, reproaching them with having rejected
a Macedonian who had been the friend and companion of Alexander, and
chosen in his stead as their master a foreigner, and one, too, of a
race that had always been subject to the Macedonians. As many listened
to these treacherous insinuations, Pyrrhus became alarmed, and
withdrew with his Epirotes and the allied troops, thus losing
Macedonia in the same way that he had gained it. So that kings have
but little reason for reproaching the common people for changing sides
in an emergency, for in doing so they do but imitate the kings
themselves, their teachers in the art of treachery and faithlessness,
who think that those men gain the greatest advantages who take least
account of justice and honour.

XIII. Pyrrhus, now that he had lost Macedonia, might have spent his
days peacefully ruling his own subjects in Epirus; but he could not
endure repose, thinking that not to trouble others and be troubled by
them was a life of unbearable ennui, and, like Achilles in the Iliad,

"he could not rest in indolence at home,
He longed for battle, and the joys of war."

As he desired some new adventures he embraced the following
opportunity. The Romans were at war with the Tarentines; and as that
people were not sufficiently powerful to carry on the war, and yet
were