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A Battle that changed the World

 A battle that changed the World. By The Doc.

 At the end of the 4th Century B.C. Rome and Greece came to blows in Italy. Greece had spread its influence throughout the Mediterranean and there were many totally Greek cities in Italy as we now know it.

Rome attacked the Greek cities in the south, and in response, Greece, in 280 B.C. sent Pyrrhus, a King of a Northern Greek State, with an army to try to conquer Rome, and thus to rule the whole of Italy.

Pyrrhus was a capable leader and with the help of 20 elephants and 26,000 troops, he defeated the Roman army at Hereclea, killing 7000 with the loss of 4000 of his own troops. Thinking the Romans would sue for peace, Pyrrhus marched up the east coast of Italy. He was wrong and the Roman Consuls Fabricius and Quintus Aemelius fought him at Asculeum. Pyrrhus won again, this time losing 3500 of his troops to the Roman 6000 man loss

. After this battle, Pyrrhus commented "If we are victorious in one more battle against the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." This was to be known as the "Pyrrhic Victory" in later ages.

For a couple of years, Pyrrhus campaigned in Sicily, and the Greco-Roman war grumbled on. When Greek allies in southern Italy were in danger of defeat by Romans in 275 B.C., Pyrrhus returned from Sicily. He mustered up 40000 men in all.

 At Maleventum , (Evil Wind literally), he moved against a like number of Roman troops. He attempted an outflanking manoeuvre at night through a heavy forest, but for want of enough spare torches on what was a very dark night, dawn found him floundering in the forest rather than formed up on the battlefield on the other side. Manius Curius and his formidable Roman army carried the day and Pyrrhus suffered his first defeat. Interestingly the "spin doctors" of the day changed the name of the city at the site of the battle to Beneventum, which it retains to this day (actually Benevento which is north east of Naples). Pyrrhus could see the problem posed by a dominant Rome. He warned his fellow Greek Rulers that if Rome were not stopped in Italy, she would eventually take over Greece. His pleas for more men and another campaign in Italy were not acted on, and the rest is History. Rome was free to dominate Italy and to set up its huge Empire and thus to influence the religion, language, cuisine, moral attitudes, politics, armed forces, public health and legal systems of the Western World.