Pyrrhus

So Pyrrhus, after accomplishing as it were an expiation for his son and celebrating his obsequies with a brilliant contest, having also vented much of his grief in his fury against the enemy, led his army on towards Argos. And when he learned that Antigonus was already posted on the heights commanding the plain, he pitched his camp near Nauplia. On the following day he sent a herald to Antigonus, calling him a robber, and challenging him to come down into the plain and fight with him for the kingdom.

But Antigonus replied that in conducting a campaign he relied more upon opportunities than upon arms, and that many roads to death lay open to Pyrrhus if he was tired of life. And now to both kings came ambassadors from Argos, entreating them to go away and allow the city to be neutral, but well-disposed towards both. Antigonus, accordingly, consented, and gave his son to the Argives as a hostage; Pyrrhus also agreed to go away, but since he gave no pledge, he remained under suspicion.

Moreover, Pyrrhus himself had a significant portent; for the heads of his sacrificed cattle, though they already lay apart from the bodies, were seen to put out their tongues and lick up their own gore. And besides this, in the city of Argos the priestess of Apollo Lyceius ran forth from the temple crying that she saw the city full of corpses and slaughter, and that the eagle which visited the scene of combat presently vanished away.

At dead of night Pyrrhus came up to the walls of the city, and finding that the gate called Diamperes had been thrown open for them by Aristeas, was undiscovered long enough for his Gauls to enter the city and take possession of the marketplace. But the gate would not admit his elephants, and therefore the towers had to be taken off their backs and put on again when the animals were inside, in darkness and confusion. This caused delay, and the Argives, taking tile alarm, ran up to the Aspis and other strong places of the city, and sending to Antigonus called upon him for help.

Antigonus marched up close to the city, and lying in wait there himself, sent his generals and his son inside with a considerable relief-force. Areus also came, with a thousand Cretans and Spartans (the most lightly armed). All these troops united in an assault upon the Gauls and threw them into great confusion. And Pyrrhus, who now entered the city with shouts and cries by way of Cylarabis,[*](A gymnasium just outside the city towards the East.) noticed that the Gauls did not answer his men with any vigour or courage, and therefore conjectured that their response was that of men confounded and in distress.

Accordingly, he led on faster, pushing along the horsemen in front of him, who were making their way with difficulty among the water-conduits, of which the city is full, and were in peril of their lives from them. And now, in this night-battle, there was great uncertainty as to what commands were given and how the commands were carried out; men straggled and lost their way among the narrow streets, and generalship was of no avail owing to the darkness, confused shouting, and confined spaces; both parties therefore were unable to accomplish anything and waited for the day.