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Pyrrhic Victory (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 12 hours ago by Cytobit@piefed.social to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

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A Pyrrhic victory is a victory gained at such a cost to the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. The phrase references a statement attributed to Pyrrhus of Epirus. After his victory against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, Plutarch reports that Pyrrhus exclaimed "One more victory over the Romans and we are completely done for!"

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[–] rimu@piefed.social 2 points 12 hours ago

He was a trier though, sounds like he did his best:

Realising that he could not win a war against the Romans, Pyrrhus accepted a request from the Greek city-states of eastern and southern Sicily to help them against the Carthaginians in western Sicily. He went to Sicily and campaigned there for three years. His allies in southern Italy were aggrieved because he abandoned them. He took over all the Carthaginian domains in Sicily except for the stronghold of Lilybaeum. His siege of this city was unsuccessful. After this he wanted to build a large fleet to invade Carthage's home territory in Africa. He needed to man and equip these ships and to do this he treated the Greek city-states despotically. These cities turned against him. He was forced to return to southern Italy. He fought the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum (275 BC), where he was defeated. He then left Italy and returned to Epirus.

That's a pretty long multi-year rampage, taking on all the big players in the region. We can't all be winners 😅