Gauls, the consul Decius Mus, devoted himself exactly as his father had
done at Vesuvius, and by his death won the victory.

The Samnite wars may be considered as ending in 290, when the chief
general of Samnium, Pontius Telesimus, was made prisoner and put to
death at Rome. The lands in the open country were quite subdued, but
many Samnites still lived in the fastnesses of the Apennines in the
south, which have ever since been the haunt of wild untamed men.

[Illustration]




CHAPTER XVI.

THE WAR WITH PYRRHUS.

B.C. 280-271.


In the Grecian History you remember that Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, the
townsman of Alexander the Great, made an expedition to Italy. This was
the way it came about. The city of Tarentum was a Spartan colony at the
head of the gulf that bears its name. It was as proud as its parent, but
had lost all the grave sternness of manners, and was as idle and fickle
as the other places in that languid climate. The Tarentines first
maltreated some Roman ships which put into their gulf, and then insulted
the ambassador who was sent to complain. Then when the terrible Romans
were found to be really coming to revenge their honor, the Tarentines