of his master by poison. The two consuls sent it to the king with the
following letter:--"Caius Fabricius and Quintus Æmilius, consuls, to
Pyrrhus, king, greeting. You choose your friends and foes badly. This
letter will show that you make war with honest men and trust rogues and
knaves. We tell you, not to win your favor, but lest your ruin might
bring on the reproach of ending the war by treachery instead of force."

Pyrrhus made enquiry, put the physician to death, and by way of
acknowledgment released the captives, trying again to make peace; but
the Romans would accept no terms save that he should give up the
Tarentines and go back in the same ships. A battle was fought in the
wood of Asculum. Decius Mus declared he would devote himself like his
father and grandfather; but Pyrrhus heard of this, and sent word that he
had given orders that Decius should not be killed, but taken alive and
scourged; and this prevented him. The Romans were again forced back by
the might of the elephants, but not till night fell on them. Pyrrhus had
been wounded, and hosts of Greeks had fallen, among them many of
Pyrrhus' chief friends.

He then went to Sicily, on an invitation from the Greeks settled there,
to defend them from the Carthaginians; but finding them as little
satisfactory as the Italian Greeks, he suddenly came back to Tarentum.
This time one of the consuls was Marcus Curius--called Dentatus, because
he had been born with teeth in his mouth--a stout, plain old Roman, very
stern, for when he levied troops against Pyrrhus, the first man who
refused to serve was punished by having his property seized and sold. He
then marched southward, and at Beneventum at length entirely defeated
Pyrrhus, and took four of his elephants. Pyrrhus was obliged to return
to Epirus, and the Roman steadiness had won the day after nine years.