Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
III. Having thus escaped from their pursuers they proceeded to
Glaukias, the king of the Illyrians. They found him sitting at home
with his wife, and they laid the child on the ground between them. The
king was full of thought, for he feared Kassander, the mortal enemy of
Æakides, and he remained silent for a long time. Meanwhile Pyrrhus of
his own accord crawled up to Glaukias, took hold of his cloak and then
stood up at his knees, causing the king first to smile and then to
feel pity for him, as he stood like a suppliant holding his knees and
weeping. Some say that he did not embrace Glaukias, but that he laid
hold of an altar and stood, putting his hands round it, so that
Glaukias thought that he must be acting under some divine impulse. In
consequence of this he at once gave Pyrrhus in charge to his wife,
bidding her bring him up with her own children. Shortly after, when
his enemies demanded that he should be given up, and Kassander even
offered two hundred talents, Glaukias refused to betray him, and when
he was twelve years of age he marched into Epirus with an army and
restored him to the throne.
The appearance of Pyrrhus was more calculated to strike terror into
the beholder than to impress him with an idea of the dignity which
becomes a king. He had not a number of separate teeth, but one
continuous bone in his upper jaw, with only slight lines showing the
divisions between the teeth. He was thought to be able to cure
diseases of the spleen by sacrificing a white cock, and then gently
pressing with his right foot in the region of the spleen of the
sufferer, who lay upon his back meanwhile. No man was so poor or
despised that Pyrrhus would not touch him for this disorder if
requested to do so. He also received, as a reward, the cock which was
sacrificed, and was much pleased with this present. It is said that
the great toe of that foot had some divine virtue, so that when the
rest of his body was burned after his death, it was found unhurt and
untouched by the fire. But of this hereafter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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