If we win one more such battle against the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.
Ἂν ἔτι μίαν μάχην Ῥωμαίους νικήσωμεν, ἀπολούμεθα παντελῶς.
Politicians
Pyrrhus
King of Epirus (r. 307-302 BC; 297-272 BC) and Hellenistic warlord whose costly defeats of Rome at Heraclea (280 BC) and Asculum (279 BC) gave the Western world the term "Pyrrhic victory." A second cousin of Alexander the Great through his Aeacid mother, he was ranked second only to Alexander among history's commanders by Hannibal himself, according to Livy. Yet his strategic restlessness drained his veterans across Italy, Sicily, Macedon, and the Peloponnese, and his career ended in 272 BC with an absurd death — felled by a roof tile thrown by an old woman from above a narrow street during the chaotic civic battle inside Argos.
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Pyrrhus's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
I have come not to trade, but to fight.
-- Pyrrhus
If you're not genuinely pained by the risk involved in your strategic choices, it's not much of a strategy.
-- Reed Hastings
Simplicity and common sense should characterize planning and strategic direction.
-- Ingvar Kamprad
Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry.
-- Charles V