The Pyrrhic victory at Asculum
'One more such victory and we are undone'
King Pyrrhus of Epirus and his elephants beat the Romans at Asculum but lost so many veterans that, according to Plutarch, he said one more such victory over the Romans would ruin him. A win that costs too much has been called Pyrrhic ever since.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 3rd century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Africa
- c. 285 BC Library of Alexandria — 6 years earlier
- c. 280 BC–247 BC Lighthouse of Alexandria — 1 year earlier
Asia
- c. 261 BC Kalinga War — 18 years later
Americas
- c. 300 BC Maya script — 21 years earlier
- c. 300 BC–150 El Mirador, capital of the Preclassic Maya — 21 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Archimedes (aged 8)
- Euclid (aged 46)
- Ashoka (aged 25)
- Qu Yuan (aged 61)
- Arsinoe II (aged 37)