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Pyrrhic War
The Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) was largely fought between the Roman Republic and Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, who had been asked by the people of the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy to help them in their war against the Romans. A skilled commander, with a strong army fortified by war elephants (which the Romans were not experienced in facing), Pyrrhus enjoyed initial success against the Roman legions, but suffered heavy losses even in these victories. Plutarch wrote that Pyrrhus said after the second battle of the war, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." He could not call up more men from home and his allies in Italy were becoming indifferent. The Romans, by contrast, had a very large pool of military manpower and could replenish their legions even if their forces were depleted in many battles. This has led to the expression " Pyrrhic victory", a term for a victory that inflicts losses the victor cannot afford in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Carthage
Carthage () was a settlement in modern Tunisia that later became a city-state and then an empire. Founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, Carthage reached its height in the fourth century BC as one of the largest metropolises in the world George Modelski, ''World Cities: –3000 to 2000'', Washington DC: FAROS 2000, 2003. . Figures in main tables are preferentially cited. Part of former estimates can be read at Evolutionary World Politics Homepage Archived 2008-12-28 at the Wayback Machine and the centre of the Carthaginian Empire, a major power in the ancient world that dominated the western Mediterranean. Following the Punic Wars, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly. Carthage was settled around 814 BC by colonists from Tyre, a leading Phoenician city-state located in present-day Lebanon. In the seventh century BC, following Phoenicia's conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Carthage became independent, gradually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrrhic War Italy En
A pyrrhic (; el, πυρρίχιος ''pyrrichios'', from πυρρίχη ''pyrrichē'') is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two unaccented, short syllables. It is also known as a dibrach. Poetic use in English Tennyson used pyrrhics and spondees quite frequently, for example, in '' In Memoriam'': When the blood creeps and the nerves prick. "When the" and "and the" in the second line may be considered as pyrrhics (also analyzable as ionic meter). Pyrrhics alone are not used to construct an entire poem due to the monotonous effect. Edgar Allan Poe observed that many experts rejected it from English metrics and concurred:The pyrrhic is rightfully dismissed. Its existence in either ancient or modern rhythm is purely chimerical, and the insisting on so perplexing a nonentity as a foot of two short syllables, affords, perhaps, the best evidence of the gross irrationality and subservience to authority which characterise our Prosody. War dance By extension, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marrucini
The Marrucini were an Italic tribe that occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient ''Teate'' (modern Chieti), on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers. Other Marrucinian centers included ''Ceio'' (San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore), ''Iterpromium'' (whose ruins are under the Abbey of San Clemente at Casauria), ''Civitas Danzica'' ( Rapino), and the port of ''Aternum'' (Pescara), shared with the Vestini. History The tribe is first mentioned in history as a member of a confederacy with which the Romans came into conflict in the second Samnite War, 325 BC, and it entered the Roman Alliance as a separate unit at the end of that war (see further Paeligni). Language A few inscriptions in the Marrucinian language survive. They indicate that the language was a member of the Sabellian group, probably closely related to Paelignian. Most of the inscriptions are very short, but there is one longer inscription, a bronze tablet inscribed wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Epirus
Epirus (; Epirote Greek: , ; Attic Greek: , ) was an ancient Greek kingdom, and later republic, located in the geographical region of Epirus, in north-western Greece and southern Albania. Home to the ancient Epirotes, the state was bordered by the Aetolian League to the south, Ancient Thessaly and Ancient Macedonia to the east, and Illyrian tribes to the north. 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. History Prehistory Epirus has been occupied since at least Neolithic times by seafarers (along the coast) and by hunters and shepherds (in the interior) who brought with them the Greek language. These neolithic peoples buried their leaders in large tumuli (mounds of earth that were raised over a gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Strait Of Messina
The Battle of the Strait of Messina was fought in 276 BC when a Carthaginian fleet attacked the Sicilian fleet of Pyrrhus of Epirus, who was crossing the strait to Italy. Pyrrhus had left Italy for Sicily on the Autumn of 278 BC and scored several major victories against the Carthaginian armies, but Roman successes against Pyrrhus' Italian allies convinced him to return to Italy.Mommsen 2008, p. 107Venning & Drinkwater 2011, p. 80 While Pyrrhus was transporting his troops to Rhegium his fleet of 110 decked warships and hundreds of transports was attacked by the Carthaginians. The Carthaginian navy sank 70 of the Greek ships and damaged 28. Pyrrhus' surviving ships, amounting to 12 warships plus the transport ships, docked at Locri where he had left his son Alexander when he opened his Sicilian campaign.Cowan 2007, p. 67 Sources * * * References {{Messina Strait of Messina Strait of Messina 276 BC Straits of Messina Strait of Messina Strait of Messina Strait of Messina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Beneventum (275 BC)
The Battle of Beneventum (275 BC) was the last battle of the Pyrrhic War. It was fought near Beneventum, in southern Italy, between the forces of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece, and the Romans, led by consul Manius Curius Dentatus. The result was a Roman victory (possibly strategic) and Pyrrhus was forced to return to Tarentum, and later to Epirus. Background The Pyrrhic War broke out when Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, in Greece sailed to southern Italy, ostensibly to aid the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy in a dispute with the Romans. Ancient historians agreed that his real motive was the conquest of Italy. Besides the Tarentines, three Italic peoples of southern Italy, the Samnites, Lucani and Bruttii, who were in conflict with the Romans, fought alongside the forces of this Greek king. Pyrrhus won two battles (the Battle of Heraclea and the Battle of Asculum) which were highly wasteful for him because he suffered heavy casualties. He realised that he cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Asculum
The Battle of Asculum took place in 279 BC between the Roman Republic under the command of the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, and the forces of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. The battle took place during the Pyrrhic War, after the Battle of Heraclea of 280 BC, which was the first battle of the war. There exist accounts of this battle by three ancient historians: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio. Asculum was in Lucanian territory, in southern Italy. Prelude and Armies Cassius Dio wrote that during the winter of 280/279 BC both sides prepared for the next battle. In the spring of 279 BC, Pyrrhus invaded Apulia. Many places were captured or capitulated. The Romans came upon him near Asculum and encamped opposite him. In Plutarch's account, after resting his army, Pyrrhus marched to Asculum to confront the Romans. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Pyrrhus had 70,000 infantry, of whom 16,000 were Greeks. The Romans had more tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Heraclea
The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of consul Publius Valerius Laevinus, and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Although the battle was a victory for the Greeks and their casualties were lower than the Romans, they had lost many veteran soldiers that would be hard to replace on foreign soil. Background Tarentum was a Greek colony, part of Magna Graecia. The members of the leading faction in Tarentum, the democrats under Philocharis or Ainesias, were against Rome, because they knew that if the Romans entered Tarentum the Greeks would lose their independence. The Greeks in Tarentum had grown afraid of Roman expansion after the Third Samnite War. After the surrender of the Samnites in 290 BC, the Romans founded many colonies in Apulia and Lucania, the most important of which was Venusia. In 282 BC, after a battle against the Samnit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manius Curius Dentatus
Manius Curius Dentatus (died 270 BC) was a Roman general and statesman noted for ending the Samnite War and for his military exploits during the Pyrrhic War. According to Pliny, he was born with teeth, thus earning the surname Dentatus, "toothed." Dentatus was a tribune of the plebs sometime between 298 and 291 BC. As tribune, he foiled efforts by the ''interrex'' Appius Claudius Caecus to keep plebeian candidates out of the consular elections. If his tribunate is dated to 291, his actions advanced his own candidacy, but since Appius served three times as ''interrex'', the earliest date accords better with the timeline of Dentatus's own career. Dentatus served his first term as consul in 290 BC, with a colleague by the name of P. Cornelius Rufinus (cos. 290 and 277 BC, dict. 276 BC and ancestor of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix the dictator) during which time he defeated both the Samnites and Sabines and celebrated two triumphs. Returning home he took on a massive public works p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publius Decius Mus (279 BC)
Publius Decius Mus was a Roman politician and general of the plebeian gens Decia. He was the son of Publius Decius Mus, who was consul in 312 BC. As consul in 279 BC, he and his fellow consul, Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, combined their armies against Pyrrhus of Epirus at the Battle of Asculum. Pyrrhus was victorious, but at such a high cost that the security of Asculum was guaranteed. This is the origin of the term " Pyrrhic victory". According to one tradition, Decius died in the field; Tusculanae_Disputationes#Book_1 according to another, he survived. Both his father and grandfather had fallen in battle after performing the ritual of devotio In ancient Roman religion, the ''devotio'' was an extreme form of '' votum'' in which a Roman general vowed to sacrifice his own life in battle along with the enemy to chthonic gods in exchange for a victory. The most extended description of th ... before the troops, before rushing the enemy. According to one report, Mus was planning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publius Valerius Laevinus
Publius Valerius Laevinus was commander of the Roman forces at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC, in which he was defeated by Pyrrhus of Epirus. In his '' Life of Pyrrhus'', Plutarch wrote that Gaius Fabricius Luscinus said of this battle that it was not the Epirots who had beaten the Romans, but only Pyrrhus who had beaten Laevinus. Laevinus was consul, along with Tiberius Coruncanius, in 280 BC. See also * Valeria (gens) * Pyrrhic War Sources *''The Life of Pyrrhus'' by Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...br>http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/pyrrhus.html] Roman patricians 3rd-century BC Roman consuls Laevinus, Publius Ancient Roman generals Pyrrhic War {{AncientRome-mil-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umbrians
The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria. Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on easily defensible hilltops. Umbria was bordered by the Tiber and Nar rivers and included the Apennine slopes on the Adriatic. The ancient Umbrian language is a branch of a group called Oscan-Umbrian, which is related to the Latino-Faliscan languages. Origins They are also called ''Ombrii'' in some Roman sources. Ancient Roman writers thought the Umbri to be of Gaulish origin; wrote that they were descended from an ancient Gaulish tribe. Plutarch wrote that the name might be a different way of writing the name of the Celto-Germanic , which loosely means "King of the . Livy suggested that the , another Gaulish tribe, might be connected; their Celtic name ''Isombres'' could possibly mean "Lower Umbrians," or inhabitants of the country b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
