Pyrrhic War
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The Pyrrhic War 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.
Coin of Pyrrhus minted at Syracuse, 278 BC. Obverse: Veiled head of Phtia with oak wreath, ΦΘΙΑΣ (of Phthia). Reverse: Thunderbolt, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΟΣ ΠΥΡΡΟΥ (of King Pyrrhus).
Pyrrhus of Epirus
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Pyrrhus was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king of Epirus. He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity. Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the term "Pyrrhic victory" was coined.
A marble bust of Pyrrhus from the Villa of the Papyri at the Roman site of Herculaneum, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy
The rescue of the young Pyrrhus after an uprising against his father Aeacides of Epirus by Nicolas Poussin (ca. 1634).
The infant Pyrrhus is presented to King Glaucias by Nicolas-René Jollain (ca. 1779).
Bust of Pyrrhus of Epirus, Roman copy of Greek original inside the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.