ent, prevailed on them to stop for a moment. She
then told them with tears in her eyes that she had a husband and
children, prisoners among the enemy; and that she hoped to be able with
the king's body, however disfigured, to ransom her friends: this put an
end to their outrages. The remnants of his limbs were buried at
Consentia, entirely through the care of the woman; and his bones were
sent to Metapontum to the enemy, from whence they were conveyed to
Epirus to his wife Cleopatra and his sister Olympias; the latter of whom
was the mother, the former the sister, of Alexander the Great. Such was
the melancholy end of Alexander of Epirus; of which, although fortune
did not allow him to engage in hostilities with the Romans, yet, as he
waged war in Italy, I have thought it proper to give this brief account.
This year, the fifth time since the building of the city, the
lectisternium was performed at Rome for procuring the favour of the same
deities to whom it was addressed before.

25. When the new consuls had, by order of the people, sent persons to
declare war against the Samnites, and they themselves were making all
preparations with greater energy than against the Greeks, a new
accession of strength also came to them when expecting no such thing.
The Lucanians and Apulians, nations who, until that time, had no kind of
intercourse with the Roman people, proposed an alliance with them,
promising a supply of men and arms for the war: a treaty of friendship
was accordingly concluded. At the same time, their affairs went on
successfully in Samnium. Three towns fell into their hands, Allifae,
Callifae, and Ruffrium; and the adjoining country to a great extent was,
on the first arrival of the consuls, laid entirely waste. Whilst the war
on this side was commenced with so much success, so the war in the other
quarter where the Greeks were held besieged, now drew towards a
conclusion. For, besides the communication between the two posts of the
enemy being cut off, by the besiegers having possession of part of the
works through which it had been carried on, they now suffered within the
walls hardships far more grievous than those with which the enemy
threatened them, and as if made prisoners by their own garrison, they
were now subjected to the greatest indignities in the persons of their
wives and children, and to such extremities as are generally felt on the
sacking of cities. When, therefore, intelligence arrived that
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