Aeacides released these soldiers from his army, but as a result his army was too small to achieve anything. Many of his soldiers did not like their service and mutinied. In 317 BC, when Pyrrhus was only two, Olympias requested Aeacides' support yet again and he marched on Macedon a second time. In 319/318 BC, Arrybas, Aeacides' father and the regent of Epirus, died leaving Epirus to the joint kings Aeacides and Neoptolemus.Īeacides supported Olympias in her fight against Cassander and marched on Macedon. Aeacides was a cousin of Olympias, making Pyrrhus a second cousin to Alexander the Great. 319 BC, Pyrrhus was born to prince Aeacides of Epirus, and Phthia, a Thessalian noblewoman, the daughter of the Thessalian general Menon. Pyrrhos was also used as an alternate name for Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Homeric Greek mythology. The Latinized Pyrrhus derives from the Greek Pyrrhos ( / ˈ p ɪr ə s/ Greek: Πύρρος), meaning flame-like or flammable, derived from the word Pyr ( / ˈ p ɪr/ Greek: Πύρ) meaning fire and the suffix -ros ( / ˈ r ə s/ Greek: ρος) meaning -able or 'pertaining to'.

The Epirote assault on Sparta was thwarted, however, and Pyrrhus was killed during a street battle at Argos. Pyrrhus seized the Macedonian throne from Antigonus II Gonatas in 274 BC and invaded the Peloponnese in 272 BC. He proceeded to take over Sicily from Carthage but was soon driven out, and lost all his gains in Italy after the Battle of Beneventum in 275 BC. During what came to be known as the Pyrrhic War, Pyrrhus fought Rome at the behest of Tarentum, scoring costly victories at Heraclea and Asculum. He saw action during the Wars of the Diadochi and regained his throne in 297 BC with the support of Ptolemy I Soter. Pyrrhus became king of Epirus in 306 BC at the age of 13, but was dethroned by Cassander four years later. Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the term ' Pyrrhic victory' was coined.

He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king ( Malalas also called him toparch ) of Epirus. Pyrrhus ( / ˈ p ɪr ə s/ Greek: Πύρρος Pýrrhos 319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period.

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