Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In 272 BC, Cleonymus, a Spartan of royal blood who was denied the throne, asked Pyrrhus to attack Sparta and place him in power. Pyrrhus agreed to the plan, intending to win control of the Peloponnese for himself. Pyrrhus gathered an army of 25,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 24 war elephants and invaded the Peloponnese under the ruse of ...
Despite (or perhaps because of) this, Pyrrhus went to war yet again. [47] The realm of his rival king Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon was the most obvious target. Pyrrhus raised an army from his Epirote garrisons, Gallic mercenaries and the troops he had brought back from Italy and marched east into Macedon.
Pyrrhus' advance on Argos did not go smoothly as his army was constantly harassed by vengeful Spartan troops led by Areus. By setting up ambushes and occupying strategic positions along the Epiriote line of retreat, the Spartans were able to inflict heavy casualties on Pyrrhus' rearguard of Gauls and Molossians. [46]
The Greek king Pyrrhus is known to have made Epirus a powerful state in the Greek realm (during 280–275 BC) that was comparable to the likes of Ancient Macedonia and Ancient Rome. Pyrrhus' armies also attempted an assault against the state of Ancient Rome during their unsuccessful campaign in what is now modern-day Italy.
Following this, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus, ending the war. Three years later, in 272 BC, the Romans captured Tarentum. The Pyrrhic War was the first time that Rome confronted the professional mercenary armies of the Hellenistic states of the eastern Mediterranean. Rome's victory drew the attention of these states to the emerging power of Rome.
Areus nevertheless repelled the attack and pursued Pyrrhus until his death in Argos. Thanks to the prestige of this victory, Areus founded another alliance in 267 BC with Athens and Egypt against the Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas. The following Chremonidean War was however a disaster for the Greeks; Areus died in battle near Corinth in 265 BC.
Map depicting the campaigns of Pyrrhus in southern Italy and Sicily and the location of Epirus in Greece. In 281 BC, at the request of the Greek city of Tarentum, Pyrrhus, the King of the Greek state of Epirus, began the Pyrrhic War taking an army of 25,500 men and 20 elephants to Italy to help fight the Romans. [1]
Pyrrhus features in the player's speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) where his killing of Priam is described; The Second Part of the Iron Age, the final play in the Ages series by Thomas Heywood; Pyrrhus is a leading character in Andromaque (1667), a play by Jean Racine; Astianatte (1725), an opera by Leonardo Vinci