encouragement. As for himself, he put on an ordinary uniform and encountered the Romans with his full army, save the elephants, and by bringing assistance to the contestants wherever they were in trouble he did his supporters a great deal of good. At first, then, for a large part of the day they fought evenly; but when a man killed Megacles, thinking to have killed Pyrrhus and creating this impression in the minds of the rest, the Romans gained vigor and their opponents began to give way. [Sidenote: FRAG. 40^12] PYRRHUS, NOTING WHAT WAS TAKING PLACE, CAST OFF HIS CAP AND WENT ABOUT WITH HIS HEAD BARE; AND THE BATTLE TOOK AN OPPOSITE TURN. Seeing this, Lavinius, who had horsemen in hiding somewhere, outside the battle, ordered them to attack the enemy in the rear. In response to this Pyrrhus, as a device to meet it, raised the signal for the elephants. Then, indeed, at the sight of the animals, which was out of all common experience, at their bloodcurdling trumpeting, and at the clatter of arms which their riders, seated in the towers, made, both the Romans themselves became panic stricken and their horses, in a frenzy, either shook off their riders or bolted, carrying them away. Disheartened at this the Roman army was turned to flight and in their rout some soldiers were destroyed by the men in the towers on the elephants' backs, and others by the beasts themselves, which with their trunks and horns (or teeth?) took the lives of many and crushed and trampled under foot no less. The cavalry, following after, slew many; not one, indeed, would have been left, had not an elephant been wounded, and by its own struggles as a result of the wound as well as by its trumpeting thrown the rest into confusion. Only this restrained Pyrrhus from pursuit and only in this way did the Romans manage to cross the river and make their escape into an Apulian city. Many of Pyrrhus's soldiers and officers alike fell, so that [Sidenote: FRAG. 40^13] WHEN CERTAIN MEN CONGRATULATED HIM ON HIS VICTORY, HE SAID; "IF WE EVER CONQUER AGAIN IN LIKE FASHION, WE SHALL BE RUINED." THE ROMANS, HOWEVER, HE ADMIRED EVEN IN THEIR DEFEAT, DECLARING: "I SHOULD ALREADY HAVE MASTERED THE WHOLE INHABITED WORLD, WERE I KING OF THE ROMANS."