King Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus defeated the Roman army of the consul Laevinus in a battle on the banks of the river Siris, near Heracleia (280). He marched towards Rome, but when he learnt that the Romans had raised more troops to replace those lost he sent Cineas to make peace with the Romans. The senate was inclined to agree, but a fiery speech from the blind Appius Claudius convinced the senate to reject Pyrrhus' proposals, and so an answer was sent back that Pyrrhus must first leave Italy before any treaty or alliance could be discussed.

The senate did, however, send an embassy under Caius Fabricius to discuss the treatment of prisoners of war. Pyrrhus agreed to send the prisoners of war back to Rome on parole with the condition that they would return to him after the Saturnalia if no peace could be arranged. The prisoners duly did so when the senate voted that any who remained in Rome would be executed.

Another battle was fought at Asculum (279), and although Pyrrhus won, it was on this occasion that he said "One more victory against the Romans and we will be ruined" - the origin of the expression Pyrrhic victory. At the beginning of the next year, when Fabricius was consul, one of Pyrrhus' doctors proposed poisoning him to Fabricius but Fabricius rejected the proposal and informed Pyrrhus of the doctor's disloyalty, whereupon Pyrrhus released the prisoners of war in gratitude. Not to be outdone, the Romans then released their prisoners.

The Sicilians now sought Pyrrhus' help against the Carthaginians, and this gave him an excuse to leave Italy. Pyrrhus campaigned for two years but then the Sicilians grew restive under Pyrrhus' strict discipline, and after the execution of Thoenon, one of the leading citizens of Syracuse, on suspicion of being involved in a plot against Pyrrhus, came to hate him worse than the Carthaginians. A request from Tarentum for his help again gave Pyrrhus an excuse to leave Sicily and go back to Italy (276).

In Italy Pyrrhus found he had lost much of his support among the Samnites and Tarentines who resented his having abandoned them to fight in Sicily, and he was defeated by the consul Manius Carius (275). He sailed back to Epirus with only 8,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, having been away for six years with nothing to show for it except a depleted treasury (274).

The only way he knew to raise money to pay his army was by more wars, and so together with some Gauls he invaded Macedonia, now ruled by Demetrius' son Antigonus (273). Pyrrhus soon defeated Antigonus, leaving him with just a few coastal cities. Pyrrhus was now invited by Cleonymus of Sparta to intervene in his struggle with the other Spartan king, Areus (272). Pyrrhus led an army of 25,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry plus 24 elephants into the Peloponnese but was unable to take the city of Sparta.

Aristippus of Argos was reputed to be friendly with Antigonus, so his rival Aristeas invited Pyrrhus to come to Argos. His army was attacked en route by the Spartans and Pyrrhus' son Ptolemy was killed in the battle. Aristeas let Pyrrhus' forces into Argos, but in the street fighting Pyrrhus was stunned by a tile hurled from a roof by an Argive woman. While he was only partly conscious, one of Antigonus' men recognised him and killed him. Antigonus gave orders for him to be given a decent burial.

Pyrrhus wrote books on military tactics and strategy, but they do not survive. Antigonus described him as a gambler who made many good throws, but did not know how to use them to best effect. When Hannibal was asked by Scipio Africanus who he thought the greatest general ever was, Hannibal put Pyrrhus in the top three, although his position varies in different versions of the story.

Ancient Sources:
Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus
Plutarch's Life of Demetrius

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