King Pyrrhus of Epirus: Elephants at Asculum and a Roof Tile in Argos

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Born around 319 BC, a second cousin of Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus of Epirus was smuggled out of his kingdom at age two during a coup and raised by the Illyrian king Glaukias, who restored him to the throne at 11. He lost it again at 17 while attending a wedding, fought beside his brother-in-law Demetrius at Ipsus in 302 BC, and was sent to Alexandria as a hostage. There he won over Ptolemy, who gave him a stepdaughter in marriage and the troops to retake Epirus. Hannibal reportedly ranked him among the greatest generals in history. In 280 BC the Greek city of Tarentum invited him to fight Rome, and he crossed with about 20,000 heavy infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 20 war elephants.

He beat the Romans at Heraclea and again at Asculum, where Rome lost about 6,000 men and Pyrrhus about 3,500 irreplaceable veterans, prompting his remark that one more such victory would ruin him. He left for Sicily in 278 BC, drove Carthage back, then turned the Sicilian Greeks against him with taxes, forced labor, and executions. Defeated at Beneventum, he invaded Macedon, failed at Sparta, and died in a night street fight inside Argos.

• Pyrrhus won a duel with one of Demetrius's generals, and his troops named him the Eagle.
• The Romans, who had never seen elephants, called them Lucanian cows.
• Leaving Sicily, Pyrrhus called the island a wrestling ring left for Rome and Carthage, a prediction the First Punic War fulfilled.
• His Gallic mercenaries plundered the tombs of the Macedonian kings, and his eldest son Ptolemy was killed commanding the rearguard after the repulse at Sparta.
• In Argos a soldier's mother dropped a roof tile on Pyrrhus, and Pliny the Elder later recorded a legend that his right big toe would not burn.