King of Epirus, and kinsman of Alexander the Great; essayed to emulate the Macedonian by conquering the western World, and in 280 B.C. invaded Italy with a huge army, directed to assist the Italian Greeks against Rome; in the decisive battles of that year and the next, he won "Pyrrhic victories" over the Romans, losing so many men that he could not pursue his advantage; 278 to 276 he spent helping the Greek colonies in Sicily against Carthage; his success was not uniform, and a Carthaginian fleet inflicted a serious defeat on his fleet returning to Italy; in 274 he was thoroughly vanquished by the Romans, and retired to Epirus; subsequent wars against Sparta and Argos were marked by disaster; in the latter he was killed by a tile thrown by a woman (318-272 B.C.).
The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge[1] is a late 19th-century encyclopedia, edited by Rev. James Wood, first published in London in 1900 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.
WikipediaEditions were recorded for 1920, 1930, 1938 and 1956 and was still being sold in 1966. Editors included G. Elgie Christ and A. L. Hayden for 1930, Lawrence Hawkins Dawson for 1938 and C. M. Prior for 1956.[2]
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