Reminds me of Marathon. Good updates dude and thanks for the balloon.
Yeah, you're right! I didn't think of it at the time of writing, but it looks a bit like the Persian retreat after Marathon.
Since only two people do more than lurking here I figured they deserved a balloon.
Book VII, 26-31.
Background:
Alexandros had lost his army. Athena was back in Antigonid hands. But, the Antigonids now knew the cost of killing an Aiakid. When Alexandros arrived back in Epeiros he thanked his survivors for their services, distributed the loot of the campaign and let them go home to their families.
When he himself returned to Ambrakia in the autumn of 262 he heard about his father’s retreat from Italy. Pyrrhos and his Italian army had disembarked on the island of Corcyra (Corfu). We have seen earlier that the Epirote citizens did not like their king’s engagement to the far away Taras. The general probably had expected a very different coming-home.
The text:
[…]
Pyrrhos had sent messengers to Ambrakia to announce his return. Thereupon the citizens of the city assembled and voted over this matter. Almost all agreed that Pyrrhos should no longer be considered their king and that he was not welcome with his army of foreigners.
[…]
After this they unanimously declared Alexandros as their king.
[…]
Almost all the other important cities followed the example of Ambrakia and sent messengers to Pyrrhos to tell him that he and his army were not to enter their territory.
[…]
Alexandros felt sorry for his father, but he had just excepted a ceasefire with the Antigonids. They could keep Athena, while he could keep Pella. Epeiros also had to pay a large yearly sum for the next 10 years.
The war was finally over, but he knew his father would want to renew the conflict immediately, so he accepted the offer to come to Ambrakia, where he was crowned as King of Epeiros.
[…]
Pyrrhos knew he had two options: to invade Epeiros, attack his own son and reclaim his throne or either to go into voluntary exile. He chose the latter and loaded all those who still wanted to follow him back on the ships – Budaros, the Illyrian admiral of the fleet was only loyal to Pyrrhos himself and not to the Epirote throne – and set sail to the East.
[…]
In 260, we find Pyrrhos and his army of runaway Italians in Asia Minor. He was there either a mercenary general or simply as a friend of Ptolemaios Philadelphos, king of Ptolemaic Egypt.
Whether he was welcomed at the court as an long time ally as the legitimate king of Epeiros or just hired as a mercenary, we may never know. But it is certain that Ptolemaic Egypt needed all the help they could get at this point.
The empire of that other successor, Seleukos, was laying waste to much of the countryside of Asia Minor. All Ptolemaic strongholds there were under siege too. Pyrrhos was sent to one those important towns under siege, the city of Tarsos.
The text:
[…]
The Syrians had set up their camp between the city walls and the river Kydnos. Scouts soon found a fordable place some distance from the main road. Pyrrhos knew he had to wait though, since his army numbered only 2000 foot and 500 horse.
The horses he had been given from the stables of Ptolemaios himself, since Pyrrhos himself had not brought any on the ships.
[…]
The small army made manoeuvring easier for Pyrrhos and he sneaked closer and closer to the river without being noticed by the Syrian commander. Of the infantry he set 1500 men near the main road to cross the river at the bridge. he horse, and the rest of the infantry he took with him to the shallow spot of the river.
[…]
At this sign, Zenodotos Euergetes, governor of Tarsos sallied out. The Syrian commander Omanes Bethalagas reacted forming a battle line as close a he could towards the city. He left 5000 men to guard the bridge over the Kydnos.
[…]
The split, panicked and disorganised Syrian rearguard was soon beaten, both at the shallows and at the bridge. Pyrrhos’ soldiers then marched upon the engaged and unsuspecting Syrians.
[…]
The victory that Pyrrhos had crafted at the bridge on the river Kydnos proved to be an important one. It boosted the morale of all Ptolemaic towns of Asia Minor, which soon drove what was left of the Seleucid armies back up north, away from the Ptolemaic held coast line.
The loss of so many men proved costly for the Seleucids, since their main armies where out campaigning in Media, Parthia and even further to the East. This gave the Ptolemaios II Philadelphos the opportunity to capture the important Syrian town of Antiocheia in the spring of 259, after laying siege to it for the winter.
It is unknown whether Pyrrhos and his army helped with the taking of the city. In fact we know little at all about the actual taking of the city.
It was enormously difficult to capture a city of that size and with such fortification by direct assault, unless the garrison was ridiculously small, which is unlikely in this case.
Since the city was taken after a siege of only six months, way to short to starve such a city out, it seems plausible to me that the city was taken not by force, but by treachery from within the walls.
The fact that we know there was at least some fighting in the streets, so it seems most likely that the gates were opened by rebellious citizens who favoured the Ptolemaic Empire above the Seleucid Empire, after which the Ptolemaic troops could storm in and surprise the enemy troops at their barracks.
Pyrrhos was definitely, and perhaps tragically, there during the attack on Palmyra in the summer of 258. The independent city had happily raided the Ptolemaic territories in the Levant on request of the Seleucids.
The Ptolemaic Empire no longer recognised the independence of Palmyra and attacked. Pyrrhos and a Ptolemaic captain, seemingly under the Epirote's command, set up camp at opposite sides of the city. They soon risked a direct attack.
The text:
[…]
The Italians breached the wall first, attacking and plundering anything they saw in the streets. The Egyptians soon entered the city too and began to push their way to the citadel.
[…]
The fighting was hard and many casualties were suffered on both sides, but it was over fairly soon. The citadel surrendered and the town gave up his independence, becoming a subordinate of the throne of Ptolemaios.
[…]
Pyrrhos, who was not used to the desert sun, had watched to whole battle from his horse, in full panoply. It was during the fourth hour of fighting that he fell of his mount.
[…]
This was the last surviving fragment of H___’s manuscript. It was an honour to be asked to translate this extraordinary work. We can only imagine how epic this work must have been in its complete form. The amount of detail of the surviving fragments is already extraordinary.
An oral tradition, written down by P___ more than a century later, tells us that Ptolemaios II himself came from Antiocheia to visit Pyrrhos on his sickbed. The Epirote had been suffering high fever for more than a week by then and had not left his bed since.
P____, de vita Pyrrhi, XX.
[…]
The moment the Ptolemaic King entered the room, Pyrrhos stood up with great effort and bowed. Ptolemaios immediately asked him to sit down and told him the King of Epeiros was nothing less than an equal to him.
Pyrrhos answered by thanking him and saying that the King of Epeiros was Alexandros. He assured Ptolemaios that Alexandros was an able King and will continue the alliance with the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
He also asked the King to ask Alexandros to release the writer Hieronymos, if he was still alive.[1]
He then said to the king that if Tyche [Latin name: Fortuna] would have let him he would have liked to talk some more, but alas, he and her were not very good friends.
The king left the quarters and Pyrrhos fell back asleep. He never woke up again. The great general’s sixtieth summer was his last one.
It is said that Ptolemaios cried when he heard the news. He ordered the body to be picked up and brought to Alexandria to be embalmed and buried in the Egyptian fashion.
Even the Palmyrans showed respect for the general who had cost them their independence and a funeral procession by all the women of the city accompanied the body on the first few miles on its voyage to Alexandria.
The Palmyrans from then on boasted that although they had lost their independence, it had taken the best since Megas Alexandros to defeat them.
[…]
[1] For Hieronymos see Book IV, 20-23. The old writer was indeed released and lived on to see his 104th birthday.
Pyrrhos is remembered as one of the greatest generals in history. But he is also remembered as one of the most unlucky characters history has to offer. Perhaps he made a few tactical mistakes in his life (going to Italy, returning to Italy, not taking Arpi, taking Arpi), but he lacked the luck to do anything with his military victories.
On top of that there’s the whole affaire with Alexandros. He knew his son was able as King of Epeiros, so Pyrrhos went into voluntary exile, where he died, possibly of a heatstroke, although some claim he was hit by a roof tile thrown by an enemy soldier’s mother in the streets of Palmyra, which caused a wound that got infected.
Exile
Originally Posted by the man with no name
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