Pyrrhus (295 to 272 B. C.) is renowned as the greatest warrior of his
age. He had been driven by his subjects from Epirus, but, assisted with
a fleet and army by Ptolemy I. of Egypt, returned thither and began his
actual reign in 295 B. C. His first efforts were turned against
Macedonia; but, after much fighting, he lost his hold there, in 286 B.
C. It was in 280 B. C. that he began his great enterprise by crossing
over into Italy, to aid the Tarentines against the Romans. In his first
campaign he defeated the Romans in the battle of Heraclea in Lucania.
His skill was aided by a force of armored elephants, and by the
Macedonian formation of the phalanx, both novelties to the Romans. In
the second campaign (279 B. C.) Pyrrhus gained a second dearly bought
victory over the Romans at Asculum, in Apulia, yet with no decisive
result; in 278 B. C. he crossed into Sicily, to help the Greeks there
against the Carthaginians.