Pyrrhic War - First Greco-Roman War
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- When Romans started encroaching on the territory of Greek colonies in Magna Grecia, a capable military commander was summoned to help them. This was Pyrrhus of Epirus, cousin of Alexander the Great. Although Pyrrhus would win several battles against the Roman, each of those victories would put him in a worse position.
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Sources:
Plutarch, "Parallel Lives"
Polybius, "The Histories"
Dio Cassius, "Roman History"
Anthony Everitt, “The Rise of Rome”
Mary Beard, "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome"
Mike Duncan, "The History of Rome"
Special thanks to:
tjcold
Phyrrus: *is about to make a reasonable decision*
Sicilians: "I don't think so buddy"
Both Epiriotes and Sicilians were iIIyrians, this is just a civiI war
@@supermavro6072dumbest shit I evah heard
@@supermavro6072 Sicillians are greek
@@plamenneykov2512 So were the Epeirotes.
@@supermavro6072They were on the same side
Pyrrhus of Epirus' campaign is similar to how Hannibal's brother Maharbal commented Hannibal's accomplishments : "You know how to win a victory, Hannibal, but not how to use it."
@@AndreLuis-gw5ox - Maharbal was the Numidian cavalry commander, mind you. It's not attributed to Scipio at all and it has an ancient source, so, if apocryphal, it's an ancient "fake news".
Maharbal was right anyhow.
I'd say that's pretty unfair. Hannibal did literally all it was possible to do in an unequal campaign. He and his armies spent two years, alone, in enemy territory doing a hit and run campaign of attrition and basically making life miserable for the Romans, and when that didn't seem to be sapping the Roman willpower enough, he brought his forces into a climatic fight that literally inflicted the biggest loss of people Rome ever took in one battle. Which any reasonable nation at that time would take as the time to sign a peace, Rome was just... Rome.
He knew he couldn't stall to win a siege on Rome itself, because they'd be still get supplies via the sea, and if he sat in place for long enough, the Roman legions would pin him down and smash his smaller force. So when the battle of Cannae wasn't enough to break the Romans, he went back to the attrition war for the rest of the decade.
Like... What else was he meant to do? It isn't his fault Carthage was losing Spain at that time.
@@lucyseverine9907 - The war was probably decided in Hispania and not in the most famous battles in Italy or Africa. I used to be fan of Hannibal but in hindsight all that crossing of the Alps feat was a nonsense: he could have fought and defeated the Romans at Gaul better and thus left a better protected rearguard and save that half of his army which unnecessarily perished in the daring but very inefficient crossing of the High Alps... with elephants (facepalm!)
Beyond Hannibal's limitations, the most serious issue was that Rome had near-endless citizen manpower, while Carthage relied on vassal and mercenary troops.
But in any case what Maharbal meant was that Rome does not surrender unless forced to,and that's something Hannibal and the Carthaginians (and other enemies of Rome like the Samnites, Etruscans and Greeks) didn't understand, hoping for negotiations. Again this is something I only recently understood, inspired by others, and something that happens over and over even today, when my country's guerrilla against one of the heirs of Rome was defeated for the very same reason: focusing on a negotiated peace instead of total victory.
2 of his brothers died while trying to support him with troops btw
@@LuisAldamizHannibal was a beast but he and the Carthaginians lacked proper grand strategy. Hannibal was right that a war on Rome’s homefront was the most assured way to guarantee an absolute victory but failed to take that grand strategy further. He should have solidified the alliances made with the Greek and Dacian states. Using them to reinforce/resupply if Carthage wasn’t capable. They should have built up their fleets to trap the Roman navy before they ever crossed the Mediterranean to Spain or Africa
Carthaginians: We surrender and bring u a very favourable treaty.
Pyrrus : i accept
Sicalians : No
Pyrrus: So u will help me in invade Carthage mainland.
Sicilains: No
Pyrrus: Will u give me troops and money to fight romans .
Sicialians : No
Pyruss : :-[
Pyrrhus: OOOoOoh NOoOoOo
And Cartaghe helps Roman... And then .... Well, they just dispute a island.
an Oversimplified video in this period would be so cool, so many jokes
@@sometingwong2733 there's a tax for this, you know
@@Ziuk1990 Oh no, Oh no, Oh no no no
The story of Rome only gets crazier from here
i thought you made a mistake when one of the senators did not have eyes, but it being caecus shows just how detailed you are and the dedication you have for this channel
15:20
"And it is said that at the time of [Pyrrhus' departure from Sicily] he looked back at the island and said to those about him: "My friends, what a wrestling ground for Carthaginians and Romans we are leaving behind us!" And this conjecture of his was soon afterwards confirmed."
(Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus, paragraph 23)
We used that quote in our video on the Prelude to the First Punic War 😅
Came into this channel to learn about old Roman history, discovered one of the best history channels on TH-cam
The same thing happened to me 2 years ago, I'm so glad he's back
@@supermavro6072 I had a stroke reading that
@@AU_Productions Yeah, it's surprising isn't ?
I did the same, but I just binged all of his videos in 3 days
the early roman Republic is like that friend you keep beating at a game. Until he finally wins one game, then he's done playing and acts like you suck.
Bro this is Genuinely one of the best history channels on TH-cam, congratulations
How the hell do this people keep doing this, these Romans, not just one time in their history but multiple times have they been drawn into a near collapse inducing war, facing multiple defeats, multiple enemies, wars on multiple fronts, even when they are close to breaking point. Any reasonable nation would've surrendered, yet even at such a condition Romans endured and snatched victory and ends up in a better position than they started with and an enlarged territory... Absolutely unbelievable
I have an unfortunate spoiler alert if you wanna know what ended up happening to the Roman Empire.
Indomitable Roman spirit
@@JJforShie1yeah, but hundreds of years later
@@JJforShie1 nah bro, I know the spoiler... I was just wondering the Roman resilience... It never fails to surprise.
@@JJforShie1 Yes, like 700 years later
Pyrrhus was always one of my favored classical commanders. Caesar, Hannibal or Scipio might've reached more fame and conquest but to me he best embodies the warrior king of that time, perhaps it's also the slight misfortune that befall him to garner more sympathy. The term pyrrhic victory doesn't do his victories justice. By all account the Roman Empire might've been a Magna Graecian one.
The quality and attention to detail in these videos is truly outstanding, keep up the great work
So much about how the Punic wars would play out could be seen in the Pyrrhic war.
Rome being able to absorb defeat after defeat and still keep fighting due to huge manpower reservers.
The Carthaginian presence in Sicily not being dislodgeable without naval supremacy.
Carthaginian naval prowes being shown.
Alliance with tribes under Roman subjugation being a crucial part of the plan to defeat them.
Elephants and the rapid adaptiveness of the Roman army to new threats.
Of course, Hannibal would later speak about the greatness of Pyrrhus of Epirus, indicating Pyrrhus was much on his mind during his war with Rome.
But just like Pyrrhus he didn't march on Rome directly when he had the chance. Like what Maharbal said "you know how to gain a victory, but not how to use one".
@@silentecho92able it’s a very interesting aspect of these events. The fact these accomplished generals did not march on Rome shows us there perspective of how difficult they thought it was to take the city.
Most digestible history content on youtube. I can actually follow and understand. Other youtubers just show a still image and yap, this king shows accurate maps, army movements, numbers, clear and well-paced speech, and easy-on-the-eyes visuals to match.
My only problem is that these “episodes” don’t come out fast enough! Great videos, please keep them coming!
Just wanted to say this is without a doubt the best series on TH-cam about the rise of rome. Keep up the hard work the videos are awesome and can’t wait to see more from your channel
Ran into your content a week back, very happy I found you !
Awesome! I just finished the entire playlist and now there is the next video. Thanks for your great work!
I found out your channel a weak ago, i have seen all your videos since and i'm starving for more, love your content!
Nice style and a very clear way of telling difficult faceted history!
I thank the Gods of the algorithm for helping me discover this channel.
Those Samnites hill billies are a pain in the toga
Just found this channel not too long ago, and its small size blew my mine, dudes got this small of channel releasing banger videos that are very well made, this will soon be one of the staple history youtube channels I can feel it
I remember watching the first 10 episodes like 2 years ago, good to see that your channel is still alive
Very excited for the vids on the Punic War! Love the content!
You deserve way WAY more views, this is quality content
Great video! Really fun videos on some maybe somewhat lesser known Roman wars. I always knew that Pyrrhic victories came from ancient battles but I didn’t know that it was from a guy named Pyrrhus fighting the Roman’s.
I just discovered this channel, but both its subtitled videos and the topics it covers have made your channel one of the best channels on TH-cam for me. I wish you continued success.
Finally another one out !, ive been really enjoying your animation for these past couple days, keep up the good work 🎉
Pyrrhus one of the greatest ancient Greek generals! 🇬🇷
@@marcoluppo5783 Alvane go back to your sheeps. Pyrrhus was 5,000% Greek. He has nothing to do with the Illyrians or turcoalbanians like you.
@@marcoluppo5783 Pyrrhus was 5,000% Greek. He has nothing to do with the Illyrians or turcoalbanians like you.
In my opinion , he is behind only Alexander the Great
Magistra Vitae: *Drops a new video*
Me: *MORE*
The journey continues! Let's go! This part I'm very interested in so few people know about theses times and wars.
Phyrrus lost because he didn't have enough Lavish Equipment.
That bar messages at 10:54 had me laughing.
How many LOTR reference do you need?
Magistra: *Yes*
Another great installment !
Your english is more varied than in previous videos and ease of understanding is in my book now on easy mode, well done!
Also your style and attention to detail is wonderful
This is a very fun and entertaining way of learning roman history. Great job.
Phyrrus had a few lines in my history book. It was like "he declared war, he lost". So deep
You should get a better history book 😂
@@MagistraVitae nah that's because in school our history lessons starts the first humans and ends with the cold war. It's difficult to give him more than a page or two, he didn't do that much honestly
Keep up the good work man! You deserve more subscription!
Found your channel two hours ago and there's already a new video!
13:50 love the lil lotr reference ❤ lovely vid!
Here's comes the Chad, the Myth, the Legend
PYRRHUS OF EPIRUS ! Napoleon of Antiquity !
The king is back 👀
how do you not have more subs, these are very well made videos
quick kinda stupid question that I have not found a reliable answer anywhere. Did Pyrus spoke Hellenic or Illiric or what kind of language? + Why consider Pyrus Hellen, when he was in an area that is not Greece or Illiria?
Ancient Epirus was inhabited by three different groups: the Chaonians, the Molossians, and the Thesprotians. Of these, the Molossians were the greatest and Pyrrhus himself was Molossian.
The area of Epirus was inhabited by the proto-Greeks during the Bronze Age. In that time they spoke the proto-Greek language similar to one spoken in other parts of Greece. After the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Doric invasion the language evolved into the North-West Doric dialect of Ancient Greek (similar to one spoken Aetolia in the Peloponnese).
After the Third Macedonian War in which the Molossians sided against Rome, they were systematically destroyed, but the Greek language couldn’t be erased from the region.
In short: Pyrrhus and the Molossians were Greek, they saw themselves as Greek, and they spoke the Greek language. Pyrrhus was not Illyrian, and only connection he had to Illyria was that short period he spent there with Glaucias.
Pyrrhus is a greek name and he spoke greek,the romans themselves vjewed the conflict as Rome against the greeks 😂 go and read Cicero
Pyrrhus' greatest enemy was his attention span.
Very informative yet easy n simple to follow along
Great video Magistra, I really like the rise of the Roman Republic. Such an underrated era of history. What will the next video be about?
Thanks, it'll be about events related to Rome and Carthage that happened before the Punic Wars
@@MagistraVitae okay. So basically continuing the timeline?
Yes, in chronological order
@@MagistraVitae Hi, I'm a huge fan of your channel and completely understand if you might have a tight time schedule, but do you have any hint as to when the next video might come out? I'm have been dying for more ever since I finished the entire series in a few hours lol
@Faris-bk6xu it's sometimes hard to balance video making with real life responsibilities, but we will try hard to put out a video every 2-3 week. We would love to publish them quicker, but between research, writing, animating and audio it takes some time. Glad you like them!
While most people focus on the Roman Empire, I find the early Republic history - specifically the 3rd century BC - the most fascinating. You’ve definitely earned a subscription!
Let's go another video from the GOAT
Very well done! The only note Malaventum does not mean bad events but bad wind was and is in fact a very windy place (Mala Ventum). After the battle the wind was considered benevolent and therefore Bene Ventum now known as Benevento
Can you please cover Sulla's war?
Of course! As soon as we get to it chronologically.
@@MagistraVitae another iconic series after Dovahhatty. Go boys go!
The Magister hath returned, all hail the Magister
Let’s go an upload
I cannot wait for you to cover the second punic war.
There are so many events left out by other youtubers between cannae and zama
This channel is underrated, keep it up!
A small comment for the bih algorithm
All hail the algorithm
Tactically the battle of Beneventum was a draw. it was a major strategic victory for the Romans as after this battle and the casualties Pyrrhus suffered, he was obliged to leave Italy, but they did not actually win the battle in the field. It is a great misconception to present the battle as an easy win for the Romans. The battle lasted the whole day and when the sun fell Pyrrhu's army was still holding its ground. But after the sunset Pyrrhus saw that he had too many losses and decided to withdraw instead of continuing the battle the next day
Great video telling about Epirus. Would love to see a movie about Pyhrus now. 💯
AMAZING CHANNEL BRO LOVE FROM TURKIYE ANIMATIONS ARE GREAT WE WILL SEE THE DAY YOU HAVE A MILLION SUBSCRIBES
Entertaining and informative!
This channel has AMAZING potential
I just discovered your channel, love your videos man! This one was greatly informative, I feel bad for Pyrrhus now.
Glad I found this channel! Keep it up!
0:28 why there are two areas in Anatolia which were not conquered first near Byzantine and other north east of Anatolia where pontus kingdom will be in 100 year's. What are these city states or kingdoms anyone know?
Those were likely Macedonian allies or Vassal states that Alexander propped up because governing it was not feasible. Similar to the tributary system that the Persians adopted Alexander likely copied them and made Autonomous states that are a pain to be governed by Greeks but easy to govern by locals.
I think those are Heraclea Pontica and Pontus
@@nathac487thanks 👍
@@nathac487Pontic Greeks always wanting independence
This is great! I really like your LOTR references😄
This channel will hit 1 Mio soon
this reminds me of the Clash of Clans of Supercell.. a mobile game back in 2014 until present..
Pyrrhus:"Failed to take Rome"
Hannibal:"I can do better".....fails to take Rome
Great video, and love the art style.
Love this channel
Woo! New Magistra Vitae video!
All that just to be killed by a tile thrown out a window.
After Alexander the Great , i consider Phyrrus the best Greek general.If he had cohesion on the interior and the resources Rome had , he couldn even emerge victorious.
Love this channel, just Subscribed.
Great video and animation
I know you've answered this a lot, but what program did you use for the animations? The characters are so adorable.
The characters are made as vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator along with the maps. The backgrounds are made in Photoshop and animations in After Effects.
@@MagistraVitae Appreciate it!
Maleventum? Sometimes it seems like History is all made up with silly names like this, which sounds like "bad event", although it probable meant "bad wind", bad auspices for Pyrrhus in any case.
No, it was called Maleventum because the name in the osci language was Maloenton (root Mal related to rock and stone, it was a place where it was extracted) and the Romans decided to call it Maleventum (that actually means bad event) because it was the way the pronunciation could be romanised.
@@matteovillosio - Interesting. However I wonder how linguists have found that "mal-" meant stone or similar, when Oscan is poorly attested and should be anyhow close to Latin (Italic). The only possible Indoeuropean cognate I can find is Celtic (mostly Brythonic) *maginos. Does it follow that logic?
this is much more interesting than I thought
FYI: Diadochoi = διάδοχοι = heirs, someone who inherits something or descends from someone
"Although Pyrrhus would win several battles against the Roman, each of those victories would put him in a worse position."
No wonder why the West is so deluded and losing so badly in Ukraine.
Great video, I love this series
Those Tarentines were really stupid … the way they treated the Roman envoy , knowing that Rome was very powerful , even in those early days .
After all that trouble he got killed by a tile throwing old woman. 😂
Just started thinking abt this war too, perfect timing, itd be neat if you made a discord to go along with your channel for non patreon fans
Great video!
I think at 11:44 the years must be wrong? You are jumped back in time?
Yes, that was a mistake that snuck into the script first, and then the video.
The biggest mistake Phyrrus made was to win against the romans
i never undertood how did rome do to muster so many armies so quikly so many times along its violent timeline ...
I just have to subscribe because of the cute animations!😂
Bro, are you from Croatia or somewhere else from ex-Yu? Anyways I enjoyed the video
Very high quality
What was the population in old times, how did they gathered 30 thousand troops.
During the Phyrric War population of Rome was around 280 000, and it was the largest city in Italy at that time. If we then add allies, Romans could easily field 30 000 troops.
Soon after, during the Firs Punic War, the Romans would field upwards of 100 000 troops.
Yippe an New video! (You should still make an game)
Likes for the likes god. Comments for the comment throne.
Beneventum means "good winds", basically the same as "Buenos Aires". Maleventum was the Latin form of the native Oscan Maloeis or Malieis (cf. Acragas → Agrigentum) so probably didn't mean "bad winds", which would have been a terrible name anyway. Of course it would be appropriate for the Latins to interpret the name of an enemy city as being bad - and I imagine that having conquered it, they felt embarrassed by owning a city that sounded like it was named for farts.
Pyrrhus was a capable but unlucky commander. He went on a war that wasn't his, got betrayed by those who called him and had to face the only barbarians of his time that weren't just an unruly horde. Also before their contacts with greeks romans weren't that corrupted as society, they were more like Spartans. But after conquering greek territory they systematically fell for riches, pleasures and unfair competition for ranks
Alexander didn't name his conquest Macedonia. The name for this new regions were summed as Oikumene.
The term "Oikumene" (or "Ecumene") derives from the Greek word "οἰκουμένη" (oikouménē), which translates to "the inhabited world" or "the known world." In ancient Greek geography and historiography, this term was used to refer to the inhabited and civilized world as understood by the Greeks, encompassing regions from the Mediterranean basin and the Near East to parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia.
The concept of the Oikumene evolved over time, reflecting the Greeks' expanding geographical knowledge and their encounters with various cultures and civilizations. Initially, it was centered around the Aegean Sea and the territories of the Greek city-states, but it expanded significantly following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the subsequent Hellenistic period.
Oikumene is a concept unrelated to state borders. Sparta and Syracuse were part of the Okikumene, but weren't part of Alexander's realm. Alexander's conquests were incorporated into the Empire of Macedonia.
I love the rpg style ❤
1 little thing I noticed at 8:27 "The Romans had trouble reaching the greeks with their short swords" I assume you're referring to the gladius. The short sword that the Romans started using near the end of the second punic war. Until then the romans were fighting just like the Greeks as hoplites fighting with spears and shields.
No, we are referring to the Greek style xiphos sword. It is somewhat longer than gladius, but still shorter than a Greek spear.
It's true that the Romans started using shorter gladius during the Second Punic War, but it's not true that they used a Greek style phalanx in the time of Pyrrhus. During the Samnite Wars the Romans switched from a Greek style phalanx, to a Samnite style maniple system. Although the triarii in the third line used spears, the first two lines used swords instead.
If you want to learn more I invite you to take a look at our video on Roman military reforms. Cheers :)
11:43 surely this is 279 BC