Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC): Pyrrhus of Epirus Against Rome

The Pyrrhic War was fought from 280 to 275 BC between King Pyrrhus of Epirus, in north-western Greece, and the Roman Republic, with a long interlude in which Pyrrhus fought Carthage in Sicily. Called in by the Greek city of Tarentum, Pyrrhus beat the Romans at Heraclea and Asculum, but his losses were so heavy that a “Pyrrhic victory” still means a win not worth its price. His failure left Rome master of southern Italy and set it on course for its first war with Carthage.

Background: Tarentum and Rome

By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had won the Samnite Wars and controlled most of central Italy. Its expansion now brought it into contact with the Greek cities of the south, known as Magna Graecia. The richest and most powerful was Tarentum (Greek Taras, modern Taranto).

An old treaty apparently barred Roman warships from the Gulf of Tarentum. In 282 BC Rome sent a garrison to protect the Greek city of Thurii, and a small Roman fleet of ten ships appeared off Tarentum. The Tarentines attacked it, sinking several ships, then expelled the Roman garrison from Thurii. When a Roman envoy, Lucius Postumius, came to demand redress, he was reportedly mocked. Rome declared war, and Tarentum turned to Pyrrhus.

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus (319 or 318-272 BC) was king of the Molossians and ruler of Epirus, and a second cousin of Alexander the Great, through Alexander’s mother Olympias. He had fought in the wars of Alexander’s successors and briefly ruled Macedonia. Ancient writers considered him one of the finest generals of his age; Hannibal is said to have ranked him among the greatest commanders.

In 280 BC Pyrrhus crossed to Italy with, according to Plutarch, about 20,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers, 500 slingers and 20 war elephants. He was joined by Tarentines, and later by Samnites, Lucanians and Bruttians who resented Roman power.

The Italian campaigns (280-279 BC)

Heraclea (280 BC)

The consul Publius Valerius Laevinus met Pyrrhus near Heraclea, on the Gulf of Tarentum. The Romans crossed the river Siris and fought hard, but Pyrrhus’s elephants, beasts the Romans had never seen, panicked their cavalry and decided the battle.

Losses were heavy on both sides. Plutarch cites Dionysius of Halicarnassus for nearly 15,000 Roman dead and 13,000 on Pyrrhus’s side, but the more cautious Hieronymus of Cardia for about 7,000 Romans and fewer than 4,000 of Pyrrhus’s men.

Diplomacy and Asculum (279 BC)

After Heraclea, Pyrrhus sent his adviser Cineas to Rome to offer peace. Tradition says the Senate was inclined to accept until the aged and blind Appius Claudius Caecus, builder of the Via Appia, had himself carried into the Senate and persuaded it to refuse any peace while an enemy army stood in Italy. Pyrrhus advanced into Latium but, finding no support among Rome’s allies, withdrew.

The Roman envoy Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, sent to negotiate over prisoners, became a model of Roman integrity in later stories, refusing Pyrrhus’s bribes and later warning him of a plot to poison him.

In 279 BC the armies met again at the Battle of Asculum in Apulia, over two days of fighting. Pyrrhus won, but Hieronymus put the losses at about 6,000 Romans and 3,505 of the king’s men, including many of his best officers. It was after this battle that Pyrrhus is said to have remarked that one more such victory would undo him.

The Sicilian campaign (278-276 BC)

Rome and Carthage now renewed their treaty, promising each other help against Pyrrhus. When the Greek cities of Sicily, led by Syracuse, appealed to him against Carthage, Pyrrhus left Italy in 278 BC.

At first he swept almost all before him, capturing the Carthaginian stronghold of Eryx and driving Carthage back to its western base at Lilybaeum. He failed to take Lilybaeum after a two-month siege, however, and his harsh demands for men and money turned the Sicilian Greeks against him. In 276 BC he returned to Italy, losing part of his fleet to a Carthaginian attack in the Strait of Messina.

Beneventum and withdrawal (275 BC)

In 275 BC Pyrrhus attacked the consul Manius Curius Dentatus near Maleventum in Samnium. A planned night march to surprise the Roman camp went astray, and the Romans drove off his exhausted troops. Some accounts say a wounded young elephant caused its mother to panic, throwing Pyrrhus’s lines into disorder. Ancient writers disagree on whether the battle was a clear Roman victory or a draw, but it ended Pyrrhus’s Italian ambitions.

He sailed back to Epirus later that year with, Plutarch says, 8,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, leaving a garrison in Tarentum. The Romans later refounded Maleventum as the colony of Beneventum (“good event”) in 268 BC.

Myths and facts

Myth: Pyrrhus lost because of his elephants. The elephants were decisive in his favour at Heraclea and helped at Asculum. The Romans learned to counter them with missiles, fire and open formations, and the animals did contribute to the confusion at Beneventum, but Pyrrhus’s deeper problem was his inability to replace veteran soldiers lost in battle.

Fact: “Pyrrhic victory” is an ancient idea. Plutarch’s account of Pyrrhus’s remark after Asculum gave rise to the phrase. The exact words vary between ancient sources, and the comment may be partly legendary, but the sense, that another such victory would ruin him, was already attached to Pyrrhus in antiquity.

Myth: Pyrrhus was simply a reckless adventurer. Ancient writers admired his skill as a tactician, and his campaigns showed real strategic logic in trying to unite the western Greeks. His failure owed much to Rome’s unusual ability to raise fresh armies from its network of citizens and allies.

Key people

• Pyrrhus: king of Epirus, brilliant tactician but restless strategist.
• Cineas: Thessalian orator and Pyrrhus’s chief diplomat.
• Publius Valerius Laevinus: Roman consul defeated at Heraclea.
• Gaius Fabricius Luscinus: Roman envoy and consul, famed for honesty.
• Manius Curius Dentatus: consul who fought Pyrrhus at Beneventum.

Timeline

• 282 BC: Tarentum attacks a Roman fleet and expels the Roman garrison from Thurii.
• 280 BC: Pyrrhus lands in Italy and defeats the Romans at Heraclea.
• 279 BC: Pyrrhus wins the costly Battle of Asculum.
• 278 BC: Pyrrhus crosses to Sicily to fight Carthage.
• 276 BC: After failing at Lilybaeum, Pyrrhus returns to Italy.
• 275 BC: Battle of Beneventum; Pyrrhus returns to Epirus.
• 272 BC: Pyrrhus is killed at Argos; Tarentum surrenders to Rome.
• 264 BC: The First Punic War begins.

Consequences

The war proved that Rome could absorb huge losses and keep raising new armies, while a Hellenistic king far from home could not. After Tarentum’s surrender in 272 BC, Rome brought the Greek cities and remaining Italian peoples of the south into its alliance system, completing its control of the peninsula.

The spoils helped pay for Rome’s second aqueduct, the Anio Vetus, begun in 272 BC, one of the aqueducts of ancient Rome. Rome also gained international standing: Ptolemy II of Egypt sent an embassy to establish friendly relations in 273 BC. Just nine years after Pyrrhus left, Roman intervention at Messana in Sicily led to the First Punic War against Carthage.

Why it matters

The Pyrrhic War was Rome’s first major conflict with a Greek Hellenistic army, and its outcome confirmed Rome as the ruler of Italy. It also gave the world an enduring phrase: a Pyrrhic victory, a success so costly that it brings no real gain.