Cineas Went to Rome to Offer Peace. He Came Back and Said: "I saw a city of kings." | Roman Nights

A King Who Never Lost a Battle. Roman Nights · Season 2, Episode 4 · 282–279 BC · Pyrrhus at Heraclea 00:00 Cold open: the horse smells something, 280 BC 00:53 The Insult in the Theater 10:07 A City That Hires Its Wars 18:55 The Question Cineas Asked 25:23 Taller Than the Masts 35:09 The Two Armies Look at Each Other 45:14 The Grey Wall 53:20 He Marched to Within Sight of Rome 59:56 The Cost of Winning 1:07:24 The People Who Came to Him 1:13:33 Cineas Goes to Rome 1:22:48 The Senate Almost Says Yes 1:30:14 The Blind Man at the Door 1:40:33 A City of Kings 1:48:29 Writer's Note At a theater in Tarentum — the richest Greek city in Italy — the audience got drunk and threw things at a Roman diplomatic mission. They sank some of the ships as they left. The city then sent to Epirus for a king who could protect them, because they had not yet won a war themselves in living memory and saw no reason to start now. This is how Pyrrhus came to Italy. Pyrrhus of Epirus — the general Alexander the Great's veterans said was the finest commander alive. The man who never lost a battle. He brought war elephants. His advisor Cineas went to Rome first, to offer peace. He came very close to being heard. Then a blind senator in his eighties was carried into the chamber, and what he said became one of the most famous speeches in Roman history. The negotiation ended. At Heraclea in 280 BC, Rome met a professional Hellenistic army for the first time. It met the elephants for the first time. It did not run. But it also lost. Pyrrhus marched north to within forty miles of Rome and saw a city still building walls, still enrolling recruits, still refusing to ask what it would take to make this stop. He turned south. Story summary: Tarentum's insult gives Pyrrhus of Epirus his justification to cross to Italy. His advisor Cineas nearly convinces the Roman Senate to make peace — until the blind elder Appius Claudius is carried in and delivers a speech that ends the negotiation. At Heraclea in 280 BC, Rome fights Pyrrhus's professional army and his war elephants for the first time. Romans lose but fight with astonishing tenacity. Pyrrhus wins but uses up irreplaceable men. He marches toward Rome, sees the city mobilizing harder, and turns back. His peace overtures are rejected again. Pyrrhus begins to understand he is fighting a different kind of enemy than any he has faced before.