Probably the Romans never were satisfied with their Etruscan kings, who seem to have governed with great severity. More than a hundred years before the Gauls came upon them, which was in 390 B.C., they successfully rebelled, drove out the kings and set up a republic. The Etruscans strove to restore them, and the struggle went on until a very important victory was gained by {167} the Roman republican armies at Veii. The Romans had never been so strong in Italy before, and although the attack of the Gauls threatened them with destruction only six years later, those barbarians, after a seven months' siege of the Capitol, went back and made no attempt at establishing their power permanently. The Romans rebuilt their walls and their houses. They were engaged in almost perpetual fighting with other peoples, of whom we should notice particularly the Samnites, in one or other part of Italy. Now and again they met with reverses, but on the whole they prevailed and extended their authority over the countries that they conquered. The aid of the Romans was sought by now one and now another people who found themselves pressed by hostile neighbours; and the help was given in consideration that those who were helped should regard their helper for ever after as their master. [Sidenote: Pyrrhus] It was a little later than 300 B.C. that the Greek city states established along the southern shores of Italy found themselves bothered by the attacks of some inland neighbours and called for the aid of Rome. There was one of these cities, however, and the most important, which repelled the assistance of the Roman Republic, jealous of her growing power. This was Tarentum. And just at the moment when the struggle between the Roman forces and this Greek city, which must inevitably have ended in the defeat of the Greeks, was about to commence, Tarentum found a new ally in Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus. Epirus, as you may see, is the north-western region of Greece, and the nearest to Italy. Pyrrhus had allied himself by marriage with Ptolemy of Egypt and had made a great effort to gain the throne of Macedonia, {168} but was defeated in that attempt and had to content himself awhile with being king of his own little country of Epirus. It was then that there came to him, and was welcomed by him, a call to their assistance by the people of Tarentum menaced by the Roman armies. [Sidenote: Pyrrhic victories] Pyrrhus marched into Italy with a force that was strong in cavalry and also in elephants. The elephants seem to have terrified the Romans, and Pyrrhus won several victories. But though he won victories it was always at so great a cost to his own force that the phrase "a Pyrrhic victory," which you may have heard, is taken even now to mean a victory in which the victor loses more heavily than the vanquished.