The Epirus king and general Pyrrhus was widely known and extremely popular far beyond the borders of his homeland. Famed in dozens of battles, an ally of Philip the Great and Alexander the Great, Antigonus One-Eyed, answering the question of whom he considers the best commander, said: "Pyrrha, if he lives to old age." Many years after the death of our hero, the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal believed that Pyrrhus surpassed all generals in experience and talent, giving himself only the third place (the second to Scipio). According to another version, Hannibal put Pyrrhus in second place after Alexander the Great, keeping the previous third place for himself.
Pyrrhus of Epirus, portrait herm, Naples, National Archaeological Museum
Plutarch wrote about Pyrrhus:
"They talked a lot about him and believed that both in his appearance and in his quickness of movements he resembled Alexander, and seeing his strength and onslaught in battle, everyone thought that they were in front of Alexander's shadow, or his likeness … The Epirotes gave him the nickname Eagle."
Pyrrhus responded by saying that the warriors' weapons were his wings.
But it must be admitted that, being a brilliant tactician, Pyrrhus proved to be a lousy strategist. His character lacked perseverance and firmness, and, easily lighting up, he cooled just as quickly, and therefore did not bring any of his very promising undertakings to a logical conclusion. Unaware of fear in battle, Pyrrhus invariably gave in to matters requiring patience, endurance, and self-denial. Let's continue to quote Plutarch:
“He lost what he had gained through deeds for the sake of hopes for the future, and hungry for the far and the new, he could not keep what he had achieved, if it was necessary to show perseverance for this. That is why Antigonus likened him to a dice player who knows how to make a clever throw, but does not know how to take advantage of his luck."
It seemed to his contemporaries that if not today, then tomorrow Pyrrhus would accomplish a feat that would put him on the same level with the great Alexander, and descendants were destined to be forever amazed at the insignificance of the deeds of this outstanding commander.
Pyrrhus was born in 319 BC. in the royal family of the small state of Epirus, located in northwestern Greece between Macedonia and the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Epirus on the map of Greece
According to ancient legends, the kings of this country were descended from the son of Achilles Neoptolemus, who, by the way, in his youth also bore the name Pyrrhus ("Red"). Alexander the Great by his mother was a relative of the kings of Epirus and was very proud of his origin, since it gave him the right to consider himself a Hellenic, not a barbarian, and at the same time a descendant of Achilles. Pyrrhus was born 4 years after the death of the great conqueror. The wars of the Diadochi (the commanders-successors of Alexander the Great), blazing in the vastness of the great empire, also influenced the fate of the two-year-old boy. In 317 BC. the army of Kassandra (the son of the famous commander and regent of the empire Antipater) entered Macedonia and surrounded the city of Pidna, where the last members of the family of Alexander the Great took refuge - his mother Olympias, the widow Roxanne and son Alexander.
Olympias, mother of Alexander, medallion
The former Epirus princess Olympias appealed to the king of this country, Eakidus, who went to the aid of a relative, but could not break through the mountain passes blocked by the troops of Kassandra. Moreover, a rebellion broke out in the army of Eacides, the king was deposed, many members of his family died, but the son of Pyrrhus was saved by two courtiers who managed to transport him to the court of the Illyrian king Glaucius.
François Boucher, Rescuing the Baby Pyrrhus
After 10 years, with the help of his patron, Pyrrhus regained the crown of Epirus, but when he left the country for a short time after 5 years, there was a palace coup that cost him the throne. The wars of the Diadochi continued and the 17-year-old Pyrrhus, who remained out of work, did not find anything better than to take part in one of them. He took the side of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus One-Eyed, already familiar to us.
Demetrius I Poliorket - Paris, Louvre
Golden stater Demetrius
Demetrius, nicknamed by his contemporaries "Poliorketus" ("Besieger of the Cities"), was married to Pyrrhus's sister and at that moment he helped his father in the war against the powerful coalition of Alexander's old comrades-in-arms, which included Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus and Cassander. The decisive battle of Ipsus in Asia Minor (301 BC) ended with the death of 80-year-old Antigonus and the complete defeat of his army. Pyrrhus commanded the only detachment that held its ground, and contemporaries drew attention to the young man's promising military talents. Soon, Demetrius managed to sign a peace treaty with the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy, and Pyrrhus volunteered to become a hostage. In Alexandria, he quickly won the respect of Ptolemy, who passed off his stepdaughter for him and helped reclaim the throne of Epirus (296 BC).
Ptolemy I Soter, bust, Louvre
Egyptian tetradrachm of Ptolemy I
At that time, a representative of the senior branch of the Pyrrids, Neoptolemus, reigned in Epirus. Pyrrhus and Neoptolemus reached a compromise, becoming co-kings, but the hatred and mistrust between them were too great. It all ended with the murder of Neoptolemus during the feast. Having established himself on the throne, Pyrrhus intervened in the war of the sons of Cassander and received from the victor part of the territory of Macedonia.
More details about the events of those years are described in the article
According to the testimony of contemporaries, during this period, in his behavior, Pyrrhus was very reminiscent of the young Alexander the Great and won universal love for his unconditional nobility, ease of handling, generosity and concern for the soldiers. Unfortunately, he could not maintain these qualities over the next years. Personal courage and courage remained unchanged.
Monument to Pyrrhus in the Greek city of Ioannina
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. By treacherously killing Cassander's son Alexander, Demetrius took possession of Macedonia. But the strengthening of the son of the formidable Antigonus was not included in the plans of his rivals: Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Pyrrhus, who joined the coalition, forced Demetrius to leave Macedonia. But Pyrrhus was cruelly deceived in his expectations, since the rights to this country were declared by Lysimachus - the aged, but not losing his belligerence, commander of Alexander the Great.
Lysimachus
Lysimachus, tetradrachm
Once he killed two lions with his bare hands: one while hunting in Syria, the other in a cage where he was thrown on the orders of an angry Alexander. Now he threw out of Macedonia the lion cub, who had not had time to gain strength - Pyrrhus. But he did not have long to live, since the hero experienced on the battlefields got entangled in the intrigues of the daughters of the ubiquitous Ptolemy, one of whom was his wife, and the other - his daughter-in-law. As a result, he poisoned his own son and provoked the flight of his wife and her relatives to another veteran of Alexander's campaigns - the commander Seleucus. Here he turned out to be too tough for Lysimachus.
Seleucus, tetradrachm
But Seleucus did not reach Macedonia either, since he was treacherously killed by the son of the same Ptolemy, and now Seleucus's killer Ptolemy Keraunus (a fugitive whom the Diadochus commander recklessly accepted at his court), Seleucus' son Antiochus, the son of Demetrius (who died in captivity at Seleucus) Antigonus and Pyrrhus. From Pyrrhus, who at that time received a seductive offer from the citizens of Tarentum, Ptolemy bought off five thousand foot soldiers, four thousand horsemen and fifty elephants (in Italy, these animals made a splash and contributed a lot to the glory of Pyrrhus). After that, Ptolemy defeated Antigonus and died in battle with the Galatians (Gauls). As a result, chaos reigned in Macedonia for a long time, and when Antigonus finally managed to take the vacant position of the king and put some order, Pyrrhus returned from Italy … But, again, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
In 282 BC. the inhabitants of Tarentum (a rich Greek colony in southern Italy), out of their own stupidity, provoked a war with Rome. The reason was the attack on 10 Roman ships that stopped in the city harbor: five of them managed to go to sea, but the rest were captured, their crews were sold into slavery, the commander of the Roman fleet was killed in battle. Not stopping there, the Tarentians attacked the city of Furies, a trade rival of Tarentum, which had entered into an alliance with Rome. Then they rejected the just and quite moderate demands of Rome, which asked only for the liberation of its allied city, compensation for damage, the return of prisoners and punishment of the perpetrators of this spontaneous attack, not sanctioned by the authorities of Tarentum. For some reason, the Tarentians did not take these requirements seriously, the speech of the Roman ambassador Lucius Postumius in Greek caused everyone to laugh because of grammatical errors, and then some idiot even urinated on his toga - to the approving cackle of the subpassionary crowd. The Roman calmly said that this stain on his toga would be washed away by the blood of the Tarentians, and left for his homeland. The following year, the troops of the consul Lucius Emilius Barbula defeated the large army of the army of Tarentum, and only then did its inhabitants have some "enlightenment in the mind": they were terribly frightened and sent ambassadors to Pyrrhus, inviting him to lead the resistance of the "noble" Hellenes against the "aggressive barbarian people Romans ". Pyrrhus was promised command of an army of 300,000 and unlimited funding. For the Italic Greeks who have lost their passionarity, this is not a new thing: on the battlefield they have long been accustomed to putting up mercenaries in their place, the first of which was the king of Sparta, Archides, who in 338 BC. died in the war with the Messapians. Then, for the pampered and careless Greek colonists, the Epirus king Alexander (uncle of Alexander the Great), the Spartan commander Cleonim and, finally, the Syracuse tyrant Agathocles fought. Now 40-year-old Pyrrhus, who was destined to become famous in Italy and enter the cohort of great commanders, was to fight for them with Rome.
Getting a little ahead of ourselves, let us say that, during the Italic campaign, Pyrrhus taught Rome three very unpleasant, but, in the end, very useful lessons. The first of these was the use of war elephants, which the Romans encountered for the first time. The second is innovative troop formation. Polybius reports:
"Pyrrhus used not only weapons, but also the Italic warriors, when in battles with the Romans he put Roman maniples and units of the phalanx mixed."
The third, and perhaps most important, lesson the Romans learned after the first victory over Pyrrhus - Frontinus writes that after the Battle of Benevent, in imitation of the Epirus general, the Romans began to set up a camp and surround it with a single rampart or hedge:
“In ancient times, the Romans everywhere set up their camps in cohorts in the form of, as it were, separate huts. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the first to introduce the custom of embracing the entire army in one shaft. The Romans, having defeated Pyrrhus on the Aruzian fields near Benevent, took possession of his camp and familiarized themselves with its location, little by little they switched to the layout that still exists today."
But let's take our time and return to 281 BC.
Still not knowing who he had contacted, Pyrrhus was delighted with the prospect that opened before him and set out across the sea at the head of a small army. His plans included the conquest of Italy and Sicily with the subsequent transfer of hostilities to the territory subject to Carthage. Illusions collapsed immediately upon arrival at Tarentum, where Pyrrhus saw the most real subpassionary swamp: the Greeks there
"Of their own free will, they were not inclined either to defend themselves or to protect anyone, but wanted to send him into battle so that they could stay at home and not leave the baths and feasts."
(Polybius).
Pyrrhus immediately took matters into his own hands, closed the entertainment establishments, carried out a total mobilization of the male population of the republic and forbade the townspeople to be idle on the streets. As a result, many Tarentians fled from their "savior" … to Rome (!), Because the subpassionaries have no homeland. The rest realized that they had launched a hefty pike into their pond with their own hands, but it was too late to protest.
The plot turned out to be very interesting: on one side - at that time, the unparalleled tactician Pyrrhus with a small army of Epirus (a country on a par with Macedonia, experiencing the Akmatic phase of ethnogenesis) and the subpassionary Greeks of the rich Italian colonies entering the Obscuration phase. On the other - the Romans experiencing a heroic Ascension phase. We can immediately assume that in the upcoming war, Pyrrhus will win until he runs out of … No, not money, not soldiers and not elephants - the epiroths who came with him to Italy. This is exactly what happened.
In the stubborn battle of Heraclea (280 BC), the Roman troops of the consul Publius Valerius Levin, one after the other, repulsed seven attacks of the infantry of Pyrrhus and the attack of the Thessalian cavalry. And only after Pyrrhus moved his war elephants on them, the frightened Roman cavalry in panic retreated, dragging the infantry along with them.
“With such warriors, I would have conquered the whole world,” said Pyrrhus, seeing after the battle that the slain Romans lay on the battlefield in orderly ranks, not retreating a single step under the blow of the famous Macedonian phalanx.
Tarentum acquired vast territories in the west and north, many of Rome's Italic allies went over to the side of the victors. However, Pyrrhus himself was so impressed by the staunchness and high fighting qualities of the Roman legions that, instead of continuing such a successfully launched campaign, he preferred to enter into negotiations with the enemy. The victor was so uncertain about the outcome of the war that his ambassadors began their activities in Rome with persistent attempts to bribe senators and their wives. This policy did not bring success:
"Let Pyrrhus leave Italy, and then, if he wants, talks about friendship, and while he remains with the troops in Italy, the Romans will fight with him, as long as they have enough strength, even if he puts another thousand Levin to flight."
- that was the answer of the Senate.
Ambassador Pyrrhus, the famous Thessalian orator Kineas, in his report called the Senate "an assembly of kings", and compared Rome to the Lerneiss hydra, which instead of a severed head grows two new ones. A great impression was made on Pyrrhus and the embassy of Fabrice Luscin, according to an agreement with which the captive Romans were sent home on parole on the Saturnalia holidays, who then all, without exception, returned back.
Unable to reach a compromise, Pyrrhus abandoned an offensive war, preferring them to defend the occupied territories. A huge Roman army under the command of the consuls Sulpicius Severus and Decius Musa soon entered Apulia and settled near the city of Ausculus.
Giuseppe Rava. Pyrrhus and his army at the battle of Ausculus
The battle that took place near this city in 279 BC went down in history as the Pyrrhic victory. Pyrrhus was seriously wounded, one of the Roman consuls (Decius Mousse) was killed, and the military-political situation could be safely declared a stalemate: Rome refused to conduct peace negotiations and prepared for war until the last warrior, while Pyrrhus did not have enough strength to inflict decisive defeat. He was no longer happy that he had contacted such allies, and with such an enemy, and dreamed only of avoiding further participation in hostilities in Italy without damage to his honor. Just at this time, ambassadors from Sicily, engulfed in civil war, arrived to him. Tired of strife, the inhabitants of the island proposed to elevate one of the sons of Pyrrhus to the throne. Pyrrhus agreed, in Tarentum he left Milo's detachment, in Locra - another, under the command of his son Alexander. This adventure was another mistake of our hero. The fact is that only the southern part of the country belonged to the Sicilians proper at that time. In the northeast of Sicily, Campanian mercenaries, who called themselves the Mamertines ("the tribe of Mars"), were entrenched, and the northwest was in the hands of Carthage. As payment for the royal crown, the Sicilians expected help from Pyrrhus in the war against the aliens. He did not disappoint their expectations and acted very successfully, the Carthaginian army was pushed back into the mountains, the Mamertines were blocked in Messana (modern Messina).
Battle campaign of Pyrrhus in Sicily
This was followed by routine measures to siege fortresses, blocking mountain passes, negotiations, and so on - that is, exactly what Pyrrhus, due to his character, did not like to do, to put it mildly. Instead, he decided to land troops in Africa and defeat Carthage in its ancestral lands. For these purposes he needed additional troops, sailors and ships, and Pyrrhus, without hesitation, decided to get them in the same way as in Tarentum - by violent mobilization. The result of these ill-considered measures was an uprising. Pyrrhus had enough strength to restore order, but the hero had already lost interest in this enterprise and after three years he chose to return to Italy. Sailing away from Sicily, Pyrrhus said: "What a battlefield we leave to the Romans and Carthaginians!"
Meanwhile, Tarentum's position was critical. Taking advantage of the absence of Pyrrhus, the Romans inflicted a series of defeats on the Greeks and their Italic allies and threatened the very existence of this republic. The former captives of Pyrrhus, as part of the Roman army, at this time spent the night outside the camp until they managed to kill two enemy soldiers. There were practically no epirots left in the army of Pyrrhus, there was only hope for mercenaries, but the treasury of Tarentum was exhausted, and therefore Pyrrhus, who desperately needed money, decided to rob the temple of Proserpine in Locri. Unlike Pyrrhus, the Romans wasted no time, they learned to fight with elephants and Pyrrhus's troops were defeated at the Battle of Benevent (275 BC). However, there is evidence of the doubtfulness of the decisive success of the Romans in this battle. Thus, Justin writes:
"He (Pyrrhus) knew military affairs so well that in the wars with the Illyrians, Sicilians, Romans and Carthaginians, he was never defeated, but for the most part turned out to be the winner."
And Polybius, speaking of the battles of Pyrrhus with the Romans, states:
"Almost always the outcome of the battle was doubtful for him."
That is, Justin reports that the Romans were never able to defeat Pyrrhus, and Polybius, not very highly evaluating the initial successes of Pyrrhus in Italy, at the same time does not call him the defeated, and the Romans the victors. The battle was lost, but not the war, but Pyrrhus had already realized the futility of further campaign and longed to return to his homeland.
After a 6-year absence, he returned to Epirus to immediately start a war in the Macedonia he had left. He was very popular in this country, the inhabitants of which remembered his fairness, nobility and ease of treatment. Antigonos' troops sent to the border joined the army of Pyrrhus. In the decisive battle, the famous Macedonian phalanx also went over to his side; only a few coastal cities remained under the rule of Antigonus. But our hero again had no time to complete the work, so well begun in Macedonia, again: the younger brother of one of the Spartan kings called Pyrrhus to march to his hometown, and he happily set off in search of new glory.
Pausanias writes:
“Having defeated Antigonos' own troops and the Galatian mercenary army that he had, he (Pyrrhus) pursued him to the coastal cities and took possession of Upper Macedonia and Thessaly himself. In general, Pirus, who was very inclined to seize everything that came into his hands - and he was already not far from capturing all of Macedonia - interfered with Cleonimus. This Cleonimus persuaded Pyrrhus, leaving the Macedonians, to go to the Peloponnese to get Cleonimus the royal throne … Cleonimus brought Pyrrhus to Sparta with twenty-five thousand infantry, two thousand horsemen and twenty-four elephants. The very large number of troops showed that Pyrrhus wants to acquire Sparta for Cleonimus, and the Peloponnese for himself."
The Italian campaign did not teach him anything; with a tenacity worthy of better use, Pyrrhus went to meet his death. When the three-day assault on the city did not bring success, he again, for the umpteenth time, lost interest in the purpose of his journey and headed for Argos, where another admirer of his talents dreamed of gaining power with the help of the army of the famous adventurer. To Pyrrhus's surprise, the Spartans followed him, continuously attacking his rearguard. In one of these battles, the son of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy, was killed.
“Having already heard of the death of his son and shocked with grief, Pyrrhus (at the head of the Molossian cavalry) was the first to break into the ranks of the Spartans, trying to saturate the thirst for revenge with murder, and although in battle he always seemed terrible and invincible, but this time with his audacity and strength he overshadowed everything that had happened in previous battles … Jumping from the saddle, in a foot battle, he laid down his entire elite squad next to Ewalk. After the end of the war, the excessive ambition of its rulers led Sparta to such senseless losses."
(Pausanias).
The city of Argos, in which there was a fierce struggle between two parties, closed its gates, on a hill near the city of Pyrrhus he saw the troops of his enemy Antigonus, he placed his own army on the plain, and detachments from Sparta were located to the side. Embittered by his failures, Pyrrhus decided to take a risky step. When one night his supporters opened the gates, he ordered his army to enter the city. The inhabitants of Argos raised the alarm in time and sent messengers to Antigonus. The Spartans also considered it their duty to intervene in what was happening. As a result, a terrible night battle began on the streets of the city, in which the warriors entered into battle with the first opponents that came to meet, and the townspeople from the windows of houses fired bows or threw stones at both.
“In this night battle, it was impossible to understand either the actions of the troops or the orders of the commanders. The disunited detachments wandered through the narrow streets, in the darkness, in the cramped quarters, amid screams coming from everywhere; there was no way to lead the troops, everyone hesitated and waited for the morning"
(Pausanias).
Having regained command of the troops, Pyrrhus decided to withdraw his soldiers from Argos. Fearing an ambush, he sent his son Gelena, who remained outside the city, orders to break down part of the wall and await his return. Gehlen misunderstood his father: having decided that he needed military assistance, he did not stop his troops at the wall, but led them to an assault. As a result, on a narrow street, the retreating army of Pyrrhus faced the advancing army of Gehlen. There was a huge traffic jam in which many soldiers died. Pyrrhus's army suffered the most damage from its own elephants. At this time, many of the inhabitants of Argos stood on the roof, throwing down pieces of tiles. One such debris, thrown by an old woman, severed Pyrrhus's cervical vertebrae. The first at his body were the soldiers of Antigonus, who cut off his head. Pyrrhus's army without a commander surrendered to Antigonus.
Death of Pyrrhus, engraving
Argos, a monument to Pyrrhus at the site of his alleged death
This is how the great commander died ingloriously, unable to learn how to properly manage his abilities.
