Who is king pyrrhus of epirus

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Martin's Press. Early Roman Armies. Oxford, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing. Tinsley, Barbara Sher Selingsgrove, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna University Press. Wilkes, John []. The Illyrians. Leveque, Pyrrhos Paris Abbott, Jacob Makers of History: Pyrrhus. Winkes, Rolf Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Alcetas II. Antigonus was killed in action and his son had to flee. However, Demetrius still possessed a large navy and had garrisons in the cities of Greece, where Pyrrhus may briefly have served as one of the governors of his brother-in-law.

But not for a long time. In the negotiations that started after the battle of Ipsus, Demetrius agreed to hand over to his opponent Ptolemy of Egypt his wife's brother as a hostage. In Antiquity, this was a very common diplomatic practice: hostages ensured that the opposing sides would keep their promises.

So, in or Pyrrhus, not yet twenty, arrived in Alexandria , the Greek-style capital of the ancient country of the Nile , and it appears that pharaoh Ptolemy really liked the valiant young man, who gave proof of his strength and courage during hunting parties and other exercises.

Ptolemy's stepdaughter Antigone became Pyrrhus' bride. She was the daughter of Berenice I , who had once been married to an otherwise unknown man named Philip and had later married Ptolemy. Pyrrhus' biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea remarks that the Molossian leader "had a particular art of gaining over the great ones to his own interest", note [Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus , 4.

On the other hand, the great ones knew how to use Pyrrhus. In , Ptolemy financed a new coup in Epirus -the fourth one during Pyrrhus' life- and sent the Molossian leader with an army of mercenaries back to Epirus. Pyrrhus played his cards carefully. He announced that he would share power with Neoptolemus, who believed the promises of the man who was, after all, his relative.

Pyrrhus became king of the Molossians and leader of the Epirote confederacy for the second time, and acted as Ptolemy's watchdog in Europe, guarding the Egyptian interests against Cassander of Macedonia.

From now on, Pyrrhus started to embark upon larger projects. In , he killed Neoptolemus during a banquet and was able to make his people believe that his colleague had been disloyal. Having secured his rear, he went for the big prize: the Macedonian kingship.

In , Cassander had died, leaving the throne to his son Philip IV, who had died within two months of natural causes. His two brothers had divided the kingdom: Antipater received the western and Alexander V the eastern half, the river Axios being the border. As was to be expected, they immediately started to quarrel.

Alexander felt threatened, and invited Demetrius and Pyrrhus to come to his assistance. Pyrrhus invaded Macedonia in and restored the balance of power between the two brothers. This was to become Pyrrhus' capital: a city with access to the sea that was neither Molossian, nor Thesprotian or Chaonian. For Pyrrhus, every Epirote was thus irreplaceable. Following his victory at Ausculum, Pyrrhus found himself without many of the key officers and soldiers who had ventured with him from Epirus barely two years earlier — men whose quality could not be matched by his allies in southern Italy.

Unable to replenish his Epirote losses, Pyrrhus soon left southern Italy without any permanent gains against Rome. For the next two years he campaigned in Sicily, aiding the Sicilian-Greeks against the Carthaginians. The campaign started with tremendous success.

Yet Pyrrhus ultimately failed to completely expel the Carthaginian presence from the island and soon after lost the faith of his Sicilian-Greek allies. In BC, Pyrrhus returned to southern Italy once again and fought one final battle against Rome at Beneventum the following year. But the Epirote king was once again unable to make a significant breakthrough, and the result proved inconclusive although later Roman writers claim it was a Roman victory. For three more years, Pyrrhus waged war on the Greek mainland — fighting various foes such as Macedonia, Sparta and Argos.

Yet in BC, he was unceremoniously killed in a street fight in Argos when he was hit on the head by a roof tile thrown by the mother of a soldier he was about to strike down.

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