oman
garrison was left in Thurii. The only mode now of maintaining
communication between Rome and Thurii was by sea; but this was virtually
forbidden by a treaty which the Romans had made with Tarentum nearly
twenty years before, in which treaty it was stipulated that no Roman
ships of war should pass the Lacinian promontory. But circumstances were
now changed, and the Senate determined that their vessels should no
longer be debarred from the Gulf of Tarentum. There was a small squadron
of ten ships in those seas under the command of L. Valerius; and one
day, when the Tarentines were assembled in the theatre, which looked
over the sea, they saw the Roman squadron sailing toward their harbor.
This open violation of the treaty seemed a premeditated insult, and a
demagogue urged the people to take summary vengeance. They rushed down
to the harbor, quickly manned some ships, and gained an easy victory
over the small Roman squadron. Only half made their escape, four were
sunk, one taken, and Valerius himself killed. After this the Tarentines
marched against Thurii, compelled the inhabitants to dismiss the Roman
garrison, and then plundered the town.

The Senate sent an embassy to Tarentum to complain of these outrages and
to demand satisfaction. L. Postumius, who was at the head of the
embassy, was introduced with his colleagues into the theatre, to state
to the assembled people the demands of the Roman Senate. He began to
address them in Greek, but his mistakes in the language were received
with peals of laughter from the thoughtless mob. Unable to obtain a
hearing, much less an answer, Postumius was leaving the theatre, when a
drunken buffoon rushed up to him and sullied his white robe in the most
disgusting manner. The whole theatre rang with shouts of laughter and
clapping of hands, which became louder and louder when Postumius held up
his sullied robe and showed it to the people. "Laugh on now," he cried,
"but this robe shall be washed in torrents of your blood."

War was now inevitable. The luxurious Tarentines sent an embassy to
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, begging him, in the name of all the Italian
Greeks, to cross over into Italy in order to conduct the war against the
Romans. They told him that they only wanted a general, and that all the
nations of Southern Italy would flock to his standard. Pyrrhus needed no
persuasion to engage in an enterprise which realized the earliest dreams
of his ambition. The conquest of It