VIII. THE RETREAT FROM ITALY 188 IX. THE FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS 210 X. THE RECONQUEST OF MACEDON 235 XI. SPARTA 249 XII. THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF PYRRHUS 268 ENGRAVINGS. Page THE ROMAN ENCAMPMENT _Frontispiece_. MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS 12 EURYDICE IN PRISON 57 MAP--GRECIAN EMPIRE 110 THE TROPHIES 132 THE ELEPHANT CONCEALED 145 THE ASSAULT 177 THE ROUT 206 THE FALLEN ELEPHANT 223 THE CHARGE 283 THE DEATH OF PYRRHUS 300 [Illustration: MAP--EMPIRE OF PYRRHUS.] PYRRHUS. CHAPTER I. OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. B.C. 336-321 Situation of the country of Epirus.--Epirus and Macedon.--Their political connections.--Olympias.--Her visits to Epirus.--Philip.--Olympias as a wife.--She makes many difficulties.--Alexander takes part with his mother in her quarrel.--Olympias is suspected of having murdered her husband.--Alexander's treatment of his mother.--His kind and considerate behavior.--Antipater.--Character of Antipater.--Alexander's opinion of him.--Olympias makes a great deal of trouble.--Alexander sends Craterus home.--Alexander's wife Roxana.--Her babe.--Aridæus.--The two competing claimants to the crown.--Some account of the Ptolemaic dynasty.--The distribution of Alexander's empire.--Compromise between the rival claims.--Question of marriage.--Cleopatra.--Nicæa.--Nicæa is sent to Babylon.--Antipater's plan.--Another matrimonial question.--Cynane.--Excitement in the army.--Ada's new name.--Various intrigues.--Schemes of Antipater and Ptolemy.--Nicæa.--Perdiccas' plans.--A battle.--Craterus is killed.--Discontent.--Unpopularity of Perdiccas.--Transit of the Nile.--Extraordinary incident.--Great numbers swept into the river and destroyed.--The kings are to be sent back to Babylon.--Antipater returns to Macedon full of honors. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, entered at the very beginning of his life upon the extraordinary series of romantic adventures which so strikingly marked his career. He became an exile and a fugitive from his father's house when he was only two years old, having been suddenly borne away at that period by the attendants of the household, to avoid a most imminent personal danger that threatened him. The circumstances which gave occasion for this extraordinary ereption were as follows: