Pyrrhus of Epirus
319–272 BCE · Greek (Epirus) · Hellenistic Period
Known for: King whose costly victories against Rome gave the world the term 'Pyrrhic victory'
Pyrrhus was the king of Epirus and one of the finest tacticians of the ancient world—Hannibal reportedly ranked him second only to Alexander the Great. He defeated the Romans twice in southern Italy, but at such devastating cost that he reportedly said, 'One more such victory and I am undone'—coining history's most famous expression of hollow triumph.
He was restlessly ambitious, fighting campaigns in Italy, Sicily, and Greece without consolidating any of them. He was killed in the most undignified way possible: an old woman threw a roof tile at his head during a street battle in Argos, stunning him long enough for a soldier to decapitate him.
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