Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/622

Rh 610 PYRRHUS. dicated by the Athenians. The letters of the in- scription evidently belong to about the period of the Peloponnesian war. (Ross, in the KunsiUatt^ 1840, No. 37 ; Schiill, Arch'doL MiWieU. aus Griechenland, p. 126 ; R. Rocliette, Lettre a M. Scltorn, pp. 396, 397, 2d ed.) Raoul-Rochette makes the very ingenious suggestion that the statue of Athena Hygieia by Pyrrhus should be identified with that statue which was dedicated by Pericles to the goddess in gratitude for the recovery of his favourite Mnesicles from the injuries re- ceived by a fall during the building of the Pro- pylaea. [Mnesicles.] Be this as it may, it is clear that Pyrrhus was an eminent artist of the Athenian school at the middle of the fifth cen- tury, B. c. 3. Agathobulus F. L. Pyrrhus, a Greek freed- man of the Roman era, whose name occurs in an inscription found at Pesaro, as Figulus Sigillator^ that is, a maker of the small terra-cotta images called sigilla. (Orelli, Tnscr. ImI. Select. No. 4191; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Scliorn, pp. 397, 398, 2d ed.) [P. S.] PYRRHUS (nup^os), king of Epeirus, bom about the year B. c. 31 8, was the son of Aeacides and Phthia, the daughter of Menon of Pharsalus, a distinguished leader in the struggle between Mace- donia and Greece after the death of Alexander, usually called the- Lamian war^ The ancestors of Pyrrhus claimed descent from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, who was said to have settled in Epeirus after the Trojan war, and to have become the founder of the race of Molossian kings. His father had succeeded to the throne on the death of his cousin Alexander, who was slain in Italy in b. c. 326. Alexander was the brother of Olympias, the wife of Philip and the mother of Alexander the Great ; and it was this connection with the royal family of Macedonia, which brought misfortune upon the early years of Pyrrhus. His father Aeacides had taken part with his relative Olympias, and had marched into Macedonia to support her against Cassander ; but when the latter proved victorious, and Aeacides and Olympias were obliged to take to flight, the Epeirots, who disliked their king and were unwilling to be any longer involved in war with Cassander, met in a general assembly, and deprived Aeacides of the throne. Aeacides himself was out of the way ; but many of his friends were put to death, and Pyrrhus, who was then a child of only two years old, was with diffi- culty saved from destruction by the faithful ad- herents of the king. They escaped with the child to Glaucias, the king of the Taulantians, an Illyrian people, who afforded him protection, and nobly refused to surrender him to Cassander. Aeacides died soon afterwards in battle, and Pyrrhus was brought up by Glaucias along with his own children. About ten years afterwards, when Demetrius had shaken the power of Cassander in Greece, Glaucias restored Pyrrhus to the throne ; but as he was then only twelve years old, the kingdom was governed by guardians. But Pyrrhus did not long remain in possession of his hereditary dominions. Deme- trius was obliged to abandon Greece, in order to cross over to Asia to the assistance of his father, Antigonus, who was menaced by the united forces of Cassander, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus ; and as Cassander had now regained his supremacy in Greece, he prevailed upon the Epeirots to expel their young king a second time, Pyrrhus, who was PYRRHUS. still only seventeen years of age» joined Demetrius, who had married his sister Deidameia, accompanied him to Asia, and was present at the battle of Ipsus, B. c. 301, in which he gained great renown for his valour. Though so young, he bore down for a time every thing before him with that impetuous courage, which always distinguished him in his subsequent engagements. But his eflforts could not restore the day, and he was obliged to fly from the field. Antigonus fell in the battle, and Demetrius became a fugitive ; but Pyrrhus did not desert his brother-in-law in his misfortunes, and shortly after- wards went for him as a hostage into Egypt, when Demetrius concluded a peace with Ptolemy. Hero Pyrrhus was fortunate enough to win the favour of Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy, and received in marriage Antigone, her daughter by her first hus- band. Ptolemy now supplied him with a fleet and men, and he was thus once more able to return to Epeirus. Neoptolemus, probably the son of Alexander who died in Italy, had reigned from the time that Pyrrhus had been driven from the king- dom ; but as he had made himself unpopular by his harsh and tyrannical rule, Pyrrhus found many partisans. The two rivals consented to a compromise and agreed to share the sovereignty between them. But such an arrangement could not last long ; and Pyrrhus anticipated his own destruction by putting his rival to death. This appears to have happened in B. c. 295, in which year Pyrrhus is said to have begim to reign (Veil. Pat. i. 14. § 6) ; and as Cas- sander did not die till the end of b. c. 297, the joint sovereignty of Pyrrhus and Neoptolemus could have lasted only a short time, as it is impro- bable that Pyrrhus ventured to return to his native country during the life -time of his great enemy Cassander. Pyrrhus was twentj'-three years of age when he was firmly established on the throne of Epeirus (b. c. 295), and he soon became one of the most popular princes of his age. His daring courage made him a favourite with his troops, and his afta- bility and generosity secured the love of his people. His character resembled in many respects that of his great kinsman, the conqueror of Persia ; and he seems at an early age to have made Alexander his model, and to have been fired with the ambition of imitating his exploits and treading in his footsteps. His ej'es were first directed to the conquest of Ma- cedonia. Master of that country, he might hope to obtain the sovereignty of Greece ; and with the whole of Greece under his sway, there was a bound- less prospect for his ambition, terminating on the one side with the conquest of Italy, Sicily, and Carthage, and on the other with the dominions of the Greek monarchs in the East. The unsettled state of Macedonia after the death of Cassander soon placed the first object of his ambition within his grasp. Antipater and Alexander, the sons of Cassander, quarrelled for the inheritance of their father ; and Alexander, unable to maintain his ground, applied to Pyrrhus for assistance. This was granted on condition of Alexander's ceding to Pyrrhus the whole of the Macedonian dominions on the western side of Greece. These were Acar- nania, Amphilochia, and Ambracia, and likewise the districts of Tymphaea and Parauaea, which formed part of Macedonia itself. (Plut. Pyrrh. 6, with the emendation of Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome^ vol. iii. note <11 1, Ylapavalav instead of UapaXiav.) Pyrrhus fulfilled his engagements to Alexander