# Pyrrhus travels backward in time?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pyrrhus-travels-backward-in-time/129479>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 24, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pyrrhus-travels-backward-in-time/129479 "2002-09-24T17:31:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Satyagrahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Satyagrahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satyagrahi)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pyrrhus-travels-backward-in-time/129479/1 "2002-09-24T17:31:31Z")

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In the [SD Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpyrrhic.html) posted 9/24/02:

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*  
> In 280 BC, Pyrrhus crossed over the sea to Italy…\*\*  
> \<snip\>  
> [later] **He gave up that campaign as hopeless in 286 BC and returned to Italy…**

Did Pyrrhus master time travel or is this a misprint?

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**Author:** ![cdhostage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pyrrhus-travels-backward-in-time/129479/2 "2002-09-24T22:01:58Z")

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🙂 I imagine a misprint.

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pyrrhus-travels-backward-in-time/129479/3 "2002-09-25T00:07:25Z")

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Man, I hate to be nitpicky super-geek, but I have a couple of minor differenvces with this otherwise well-written report:

> [@](#):
>
> Following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Alexander’s empire was divided into three smaller empires.

Understandable oversimplification :).

> [@](#):
>
> Forty years later, those were beginning to crumble.

I think I would disagree here. Macedonia was not yet settled ( and wouldn’t be until after Pyrrhus’ death ), but was actually moving towards a relatively prosperous period of stability. Ptolemaic Egypt was still under capable rulers and was a major power ( Ptolemy I Soter to some extent got the ball rolling as a patron of Pyrrhus ). The heterogenous Seleucid empire started dissolving almost from the first day, but its real degeneracy, like Egypt’s, still lay some time in the future. Pyrrhus career coincides with a reltively high-water mark in the Hellenistic Age.

> [@](#):
>
> Epirus at the time was a large and powerful state

Not at all, really. It was a small and not terribly powerful state. Pyrrhus’ army, like most Hellenistic armies in this period ( Macedon partially excepted ) was largely mercenary in character and he was bankrolled by Ptolenmy I in regaining his Epirot throne and by his rivals in mainland Greece and Macedon ( Ptolemy Keraunos, Antiochus I, and Antigonos Gonatas ) in his Italian campaign, who were relieved to get a dangerous claimant to the Macedonian throne out of the way. Later he supported himself off Magna Graecia and Sicily while fighting his grinding campaigns.

> [@](#):
>
> He then was supported by Ptolemy I of Egypt in his efforts to increase his state

No, Ptolemy I was dead by then and Ptolemy II Philadelphos was running the show in Egypt.

> [@](#):
>
> and become independent of Macedonia (the remnant of Alexander’s Empire in the area).

Eh, no - He invaded Macedon in 275 immediately upon his return from Italy. Partly to secure funds ( which poor Epirus didn’t have ) to pay for his much battered army, but also to make yet another bid for the Macedonian throne. After defeating Antigonus Gonatas at Aoos, AG’s Macedonian troops went over to Pyrrhus en masse. AG continued resisting from a few formidable strongholds ( despite being defeated again by Pyrrhus’ son Ptolemaeus ) and Pyrrhus, a piss-poor politician and indifferent grand strategist at the best of times, screwed up royally by letting his Gaul mercenaries plunder the royal tombs at Aigai ( destroying any local popularity ) ,then leaving his son in charge of Macedon while he got involved in a fairly pointless campaign in the Peloponnese that ended with him taking that roofing tile in the head.

- Tamerlane