| Blackhorse MP | 05 Apr 2015 5:04 a.m. PST |
Can anyone suggest good reading that covers Rome's war with Pyrrhus? I find that although interested in the subject, my knowledge of it is pretty superficial. It's time to change that. Thanks in advance. |
| Oh Bugger | 05 Apr 2015 5:18 a.m. PST |
Yeah, Pyrrhus of Epirus from Pen and Sword Press is good. |
 BigRedBat  | 05 Apr 2015 7:18 a.m. PST |
"He Died Old" by Alfred Duggan; historical fiction, but close to fact. A ripping yarn! |
| ElliesdadUK | 05 Apr 2015 7:40 a.m. PST |
BRB – Duggan's "He Died Old" was about Mithridates of Pontus, not Pyrrhus. Geoff |
| williamb | 05 Apr 2015 8:38 a.m. PST |
Plutarch's life of Pyrrhus on the internet
link |
| BigRedBat | 05 Apr 2015 10:19 a.m. PST |
Doh! :-) Indeed it is, I misread the OP. |
 oldbob  | 05 Apr 2015 11:06 a.m. PST |
The only guy I know of who got Rome and Carthage to sign a treaty together, to fight a common enemy. |
| Swampster | 05 Apr 2015 11:14 a.m. PST |
Garoufalias's book link isn't really a ripping yarn but goes into loads of detail – around half the book is footnotes. A couple of pages discussing where the elephants came from, for instance. |
| Mars Ultor | 05 Apr 2015 3:53 p.m. PST |
I second Jeff Champion's book, Pyrrhus of Epirus. Easy reading style and flows well. Also a second to Plutarch b/c you can read all the (fabricated?) rhetorical speeches by the various historical figures (like the retort given by Laevinus to Pyrrhus. It may say more about the Roman self-image of Plutarch's time, I don't know, but they're very clever nevertheless). Oldbob, they sure did! Though there was at least one prior treaty between them that dated to almost the founding of the Republic (c. 509 BC), which was still accessible in Polybius' day but was written in such archaic Latin that it was very difficult to read in his period. But it defined each of their spheres of influence and seems to indicated that Rome had quite a bit of influence on Latium even from early on. |
| oldbob | 06 Apr 2015 12:16 p.m. PST |
Thanks I didn't know about that one! |
| Swampster | 06 Apr 2015 3:53 p.m. PST |
There was at least one and probably two other treaties between the one of 509/8 and the one against Pyrrhus. The first two or three treaties were rather more like non-aggression pacts with agreed areas of influence. |
