Pyrrhus

King Pyrrhus was at dinner at an ale-house bordering on the theatre, when he was summoned to go on the stage.

When these things are remembered no one will marvel at the ease with which Alexander held the Empire of Asia, or at the difficulties which others have had to keep an acquisition, such as Pyrrhus and many more; this is not occasioned by the little or abundance of ability in the conqueror, but by the want of uniformity in the subject state.

In Pierces Supererogation, Harvey ironically compares Nashe's 'Orient witt' to 'the renowned achates of king Pyrrhus, that is, the tabernacle or chauncell of the Muses, Apollo sitting in the midst, and playing vpon his Iuory harpe most enchauntingly' (Aa2v).

One of the prominent rulers in the Greek world at the time was Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus and a distant relative of Alexander.

Could members of the public be excused for asking 'what price justice' whilst marvelling at a victory even Pyrrhus himself may have been proud of?

Aux vers 107 a 140 du premier livre de la Franciade, en effet, Jupiter raconte comment il a derobe le jeune Astyanax a la furie de Pyrrhus, lui substituant une "image feint" (133) que l'agresseur porta aussitot au sommet d'une haute tour et lanca "pie contre-mont au travers de la rue / A chef froisse" (138-39).

"Nestor" opens on a note of historical decorum when Cochrane, one of Stephen's students, responds correctly with "Tarentum" (the query being, what city sent Pyrrhus?); but the episode quickly devolves into a pedagogical farce.

This happened in the battle of Asculum in 279 BC when Greek King Pyrrhus defeated a Roman army in a pitched battle at a cost of more than one third of his army.

That general was Pyrrhus and we now call these situations--apparent victories that cost so much they're not sustainable--Pyrrhic victories.

The sorrowful: "Pyrrhus to his colleague Chius: I grieve because I hear you have died; and so farewell."