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19-09-2015, 02:13

Agathocles in Italy

In Italy in 303, Taras came into conflict yet again with an Italian power (see chap. 17), this time Rome and its allies, the Lucanians. As usual Taras desperately required help from abroad and as on previous such occasions the lack of opportunities for displaying martial valor at Sparta aided the Tarantines. Cleo-nymus, Acrotatus’ younger brother, used the Tarantines’ money to hire mercenaries in Greece and Italy. With the Tarantines’ regular levy he had an army of 22,000. Faced with an army of that size, the Lucanians decided to make peace (Diod. XX 104), and even Rome, busy elsewhere, made a treaty with Taras whereby the Romans agreed “not to sail past (i. e., from a westerly direction) Cape Lacinium” near Croton (App. Samn. 15).



Cleonymus, deprived of one war, now looked for other outlets for his energy. He captured Corcyra and began raiding in the Adriatic, but was driven from Corcyra in circa 300 (Diod. XX 104-105; Liv. X 2; Trog. Prol. 15).



In Italy, meanwhile, Taras was under attack again. This time the Tarantines appealed to Agathocles (Strab. VI 3,4, p. 280) who defeated their Italian foes. Agathocles too then turned aside to Corcyra. After Cleonymus’ departure from the island, Cassander, the King of Macedonia (see chaps. 20 and 21), had decided to seize it himself. Perhaps desiring to prevent so powerful a ruler from establishing a foothold on the Adriatic, Agathocles defeated a Macedonian fleet which was blockading Corcyra. Thereafter Cassander withdrew his troops and Agathocles took the island (Diod. XXI 2), presumably just before Cassander’s death in 297. In 295 Agathocles would present Corcyra as a dowry to his daughter Lanassa whom he gave in marriage to Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus (Plut. Pyrrh. 9; Diod. XXI 4). The diplomatic marriage betokened Agathocles’ integration into the world of the Hellenistic kings.



But in the meantime matters in Italy required his attention again. He suppressed a mutiny among his mercenaries there, but the non-Greek Brettians in southwestern Italy, his erstwhile allies, inflicted a severe defeat (Diod. XXI 3). Agathocles, undeterred, seized control of Croton in 295 and made an alliance with some of the Iapygians (Diod. XXI 4). This ought to have concerned the Romans, but as the Samnite Wars were occupying them at the time, the Romans left him in peace. In 293 Agathocles crossed over to Italy again with an army 33,000 strong and wrested Hipponium from the Brettians.



 

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