510 



PYRRHUH 



PYTHAGOHAS 



Pyrrhns king of Epiras,* lxrn about 318 B.C., 

 a Greek warrior, was toe aon of .Kacides and a 

 distant kinsman of Alexander the Great. .After 

 experiencing many vicissitude* of fortune in his 

 youth. lu> became wile king of Epirus in 295 B.C., 

 ami in the following year increased his territories 

 by I IIP addition of the western part* of Macedonia. 

 In '281 M.C. a glorious propect op<>ii<il up U-fore 

 the eyes of the restless warrior the comiuest of 

 Koine" and the western world, which would confer 

 on him a renown equal to that i>f hi- Macedonian 

 kiiiHinan. The Tarentines, a Greek colony in 

 Lower Italy, then at war with tin- Romans, sent 

 an embassy to I 'y n liu-. in I lie name of all the Greek 

 colonies in Italy, offering him tin- command of all 

 their troops against tln-ir enemies. The king was 

 overjoyed at the proposal, in-t.-mtly accepted it, 

 and in the beginning of '280 B.C. Hailed for Taren- 

 tum with 20,000 foot, 3000 home, 2000 archers, 500 

 slingers, and a number of elephant*. The ideasure- 

 loring Tarentines were far from pleased at the 

 strict measures taken by Pyrrhus to inure them 

 to the hardships of war. The first battle between 

 Pyrrhus and the Romans, who were commanded 

 by the consul, M. Valerius Lievinus, took place at 

 the river Sins in Lucania. The contest was long, 

 obstinate, and Moody ; ami Pyrrhus only succeeded 

 by bringing forward his elephant*, whose strange 

 appearance ami yi^antii- size excited a Midden panic 

 amoni; tin- Romans. It was a hard-l>oiight victory 

 for Py nliu-. who said, as he looked upon the fielu, 

 thick-strewn with his numerous dead, 'Another 

 such victor}-, and I must return to Epirus alone.' 

 Hence the phrase 'Pyrrhic victory." Many of the 

 Italian nations now joined Pyrrhus, and he pro- 

 ceeded on hU march towards Central Italy. The 

 Roman senate would have accepted the terms 

 proposed by Cineas, the eloquent ambassador of 

 Pyrrhus, but for the stirring speech of old Ap. 

 Claudius Ciecus, which made them resolve to 

 'fight it out' with the foreigner. Pyrrhus, after 

 penetrating to within 20 miles of Koine, found it 

 ini]M>ssible to proceed farther with safety, as one 

 Roman army occupied the city and another hung 

 upon his Hanks and rear. He therefore withdrew 

 to Campania, and thence to Tarentum, where he 

 wintered. The campaign of 279 was carried on in 

 Apulia, and the principal engagement took place 

 near Asculum. The Romans were again defeated ; 

 but Pyrrhus himself lost so heavily that he felt 

 it impossible to follow up his victory, and again 

 withdrew to Tarentum. Here a truce was entered 

 into lietween the belligerents, and Pyrrhus passed 

 over into Sicily to assist the Sicilian Greeks against 

 the Carthaginians, 278. His Krst exploits in that 

 island were lioth brilliant and successful ; but the 

 repulse which he sustained in his attack on Lily- 

 IJM UNI hroke the spell which invested his name. 

 Soon afterwards he became involved in misunder- 

 standings with the Greeks, and in 276 he quitted 

 the island in disgust to renew liis war with Runic. 

 While crossing over to the mainland the Cartha- 

 ginians attacked him and destroyed seventy of 

 his ships. In 274 he fought a great battle with 

 the Romans, under the consul Curius Dentatus, 

 near Hcneventtim, and was utterly defeated, escap- 

 ing to Tarcntiini with only a few personal attend- 

 ants. He now saw himself forced to abandon Italy 

 and rntiim to Epirus, where he almost immediately 

 engaged in war with Antigonus (ionatas, son (if 

 Demetrius, and king of Macedonia. His MI 

 was complete, for the Macedonian troops deserted 

 to him en mnne, and he once more obtained IHMMM- 

 ion of the country ; lint nothing could satisfy his 

 love of lighting, ami in IPS* than a year lie \\.-i- 

 induced t.. .Titcr on a war with the Spartans. He 

 marched a large force into the Peloponnesus and 

 tried to take their city, but was repulsed in all his 



attempt*. He then proceeded against Argos, where 

 he met his death by means of a tile hurled 

 at him by a woman from the roof of a house, 

 272 B.C. 



l'>rus> a genus of trees and shrubs of the 

 natural order Rosacea*, sub-order Pointer, li.-n ing a 

 In > celled fruit, with a cartilaginous einloearp and 

 two seeds in each cell. It includes species diller 

 in^ \ciy much in appearance, in foliage, and in 

 almost everything except the characters of the 

 Mower and fruit, and formerly constituting the 

 genera Sorbus, Aria, Aronia, &c., or included 

 in Mespilus (see MKLILAR) and Crakrgus. Some 

 liptaniats separate the Apples (Mains) as a dis- 

 tinct genus. Amongst the species of Pyrus are 

 some of the most valuable friiiU of temperate 

 climates and some highly ornamental trees and 

 shrubs. See APPLE, PEAR, SERVICE, ROWAN, 

 BEAM-TREE. The so-called Pyrus japonica is 

 really a Cydonia ; see QUINCE. 



Pytfhley, a village of Northamptonshire, S 

 miles S\V. of Kettering, whence the famous I'ytch- 

 ley Hunt takes name. Amongst more than twenty 

 masters of the hunt the most noted have been 

 Lord Althorp (afterwards Earl Spencer; master 

 from 1808 to 1817), 'Squire 'Osbaldeston (1827-34), 

 and Mr Payne ( 1844-48). See FOXHUNTING ; and 

 H. O. Nethercote, The Pytchley Hunt, Pott and 

 Present (1888). 



Pythacoms is for us at once the glorified and 

 the actual founder of the Pythagoreans a philo- 

 sophical school or sect which exercised a profound 

 and lasting influence on the course of ancient 

 science, philosophy, and theology from pre-Socratic 

 times in Lower Italy, and then, down to the days 

 of the Roman empire, in Greece, in Alexandria, 

 and elsewhere. It cannot be too carefully l>orne 

 in mind that the earliest written information we 

 have about Pythagoreanisni is the fragments 

 not of Pythagoras himself but only of i'hilolans, 

 a successor, that the school was at first mainly 

 characterised by its ethico-religious and poli- 

 tical tendencies, and that the founder became 

 among later Mthonati the object of mystical rever- 

 ence and contemplation ; accordingly our know- 

 ledge about the doctrines of the Pythagoreans and 

 alKiut the personality of Pythagoras is extremely 

 limited. Aristotle, "for example, only speaks of 

 the Pythagoreans in \\\rtsiim( of (I reck plnloMiphy, 

 and he with Plato probably only knew of Pytha- 

 goras through the oral utterances of Philolaus. 

 Pythagoras was born in Samos about 582 B.C. As 

 regards his education we know only that he was 

 made acquainted with the teachings of the early 

 Ionic philosophers, and, through his travels ( which 

 are said to have been not only among the K^yptians, 

 hut among the Pho?nicians, the Chaldeans, the 

 Persian Magi, the Indians, Jews, Druids, Thracians, 

 &c.), with those of the Egyptian priests. About 

 530 he settled in Crotona, in Magna Gnrcia, where 

 he founded the moral and religious school called by 

 his name. Pythagoreanisni was first a life anil not 

 a philosophy, a life of moral altxtinciice and purifi- 

 cation, reactionary against the popular and the 

 poetic religions, but yet sympathetic towards the 

 old (Doric) aristocratic forms and institutions. All 

 that can lie certainly attributed to Pythagoras is 

 the doctrine of transmigration of souls, the institu- 

 tion of certain rcligiousand ethical regulations, and 

 the beginning ]>erha|>8 of those investigations into 

 nnmbenand the relations of numlMTs which made 

 the school famous. The Pythagoreans as an aris- 

 tocratic party Ixtcame unpopular after the defeat 

 of the Sylttrites by the ( 'rotoniales in 510 (8C6 

 CROTONA, SYIIAHI'S), and at first were instru- 

 mental in putting down the democratic party in 

 Lower Italy; but the tables were afterwards turned 



