“Romans, lend your ears! For here is a story of honor that shines brighter than the sun—and a lesson that no king’s gold, no promise of victory, can buy the soul of Rome!”

After the elephants failed to frighten him, after the gold failed to sway him, King Pyrrhus of Epirus brooded in his tent.

“What men these Romans are!” he thought.

And still the war ground on, red and bitter, neither side bending.

But in the shadows, treachery brewed. One day, to Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, Roman commander and soul of iron, there came a messenger—not from Pyrrhus, but from his own household: the king’s physician.

Whispering like a serpent, he said: "Great Fabricius, I know you hunger for peace. Aid me, and I shall give it to you. I will poison my master. The king shall fall like an ox to the butcher, and you shall have triumph without a fight!"

What did Fabricius do? Did he leap at the chance for easy glory? By the gods—no!

His eyes blazed with righteous fire, and he cried: "Dog! Would you stain the name of Rome with your filth? We fight kings—we do not murder them like cowards in the dark! Begone before I strike you down!"

Then—hear this, citizens—he did more.

He sent the traitor back in chains to Pyrrhus, with a letter that thundered: "Rome wars with swords, not with drugs and daggers. We scorn your life so little that we save it, though you are our foe. Learn this: no man outdoes Rome in valour—or in honour!"

When Pyrrhus read these words, his heart shook within him.

He stretched his hands to heaven and cried: "If such be Rome’s enemies, what would her friends be? Blessed are the men who fight under laws so holy!"

And so the tale ran through every street and camp: that Fabricius, poor in gold but rich in soul, had given back a king’s life for the sake of Roman virtue.