Pyrrhus as enemy of Rome

Pyrrhus matched this model. His power base was his kingship over the Molossians, a traditional office with customary limitations. To this he added the post of hegemon, or commander, of the Epirote League, an alliance of Epirote communities to which each contributed forces and funds toward common goals. Pyrrhus also controlled cities and districts in his own name, which were administered by his personal officials and commanders; here he was able to raise revenue and soldiers as he wished. Altogether these territories served to provide the means for pursuing greater ambitions than had traditionally been within reach of the Molossian king, and Pyrrhus would spend much of his reign doing just this on an increasing scale. Accordingly, when he received the Tarentines’ invitation in 281, he resolved to seek opportunities in the West.
For this Italian campaign the following year, he assembled his forces at Tarentum itself. Molossians and other Epirotes formed the core of his army, which included about twenty war elephants; to this core, Pyrrhus added large numbers of mercenaries. The Tarentines contributed their citizen army. Meantime the Romans, who also were fighting in Etruria and Umbria, had their own forces in the south. Lucius Aemilius Barbula, who as consul in 281 had commanded the Roman army ravaging Tarentum’s territory, had remained nearby over the winter (one of the earliest known instances when a Roman army did not return home after a summer’s campaigning). The armies of Pyrrhus and Barbula engaged at Heraclea, southwest of Tarentum. After a hard-fought battle, Pyrrhus won, but with immense loss of life, giving rise to the expression “Pyrrhic victory” for a battle won at such cost that it almost amounted to a defeat. A bronze plaque found at the sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus records the dedication of some of the plunder following this victory: “King Pyrrhus and the Epirotes and the Tarentines to Zeus Naios from the Romans and their allies.”
After the battle at Heraclea in 280, the war spread. Lucanians, Samnites, the Bruttii, and some of the Greek cities that had been allies of Rome, all decided to join Pyrrhus. With his army and allies he now invaded Campania, but without capturing any major community or inspiring any to desert Rome and join him. Next he turned toward Rome itself, approaching to within fifty miles (80 km) of the city. By this time, however, another Roman army which had been campaigning in Etruria returned to protect Rome, and Pyrrhus hesitated to press on. Instead, he returned to Tarentum, where he began offering peace terms. Our sources preserve different versions of his demands (conveyed through his envoy Cineas), which seem to have either confused Roman historians or offended their patriotic sensibilities. According to one account, Pyrrhus demanded that the de-feated Romans give up all the land they had taken from the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttii and become his allies, in effect thereby ending both their empire and their independence. Nonetheless an elderly, blind senator, Appius Claudius Caecus, who had been censor in 312, is credited with having persuaded the senate to reject these inordinate demands; copies of his speech may have survived into the first century B.C. The war resumed again in the following year (279). Pyrrhus brought over reinforcements from Epirus, hired more mercenaries, acquired new elephants, and raised additional funds from his allies.

The financial contributions imposed on them may have undermined his popularity for a time. Certainly they were onerous. A number of inscribed bronze tablets, which record the finances of the temple of Zeus Olympius at Locri, probably date to this year. They record the payment of over 300 tons of silver from the temple treasury “to the king.” Pyrrhus led his army through Apulia with the apparent intention of marching on through Samnium toward Rome. He met the Romans at Ausculum, and another lengthy, fearsome clash ensued. Once again, Pyrrhus proved victorious in battle, but at terrible cost.

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