PYRRHO (-anis), the founder of the Pyrrhonists' or the Sceptics' school of philo sophy among the Greeks, was a native of Elis, and in his youth maintained himself by his paintings. He afterwards studied under Bry son and Anaxarchus, and is said to have gone with the latter in the expedition of Alexander the Great. He flourished 304 B.C., and died at the age of go. He left no writings behind him, and his system, Pyrrhonism, was first presented in a written form by Timon, his disciple. His main tenets were that the end of philosophy was practical,—it ought to lead to happiness ; but, to live happily, things, and their relation to us, must be known; but, according to Pyrrho, all things are indifferent as to truth or falsehood, no certainty can be attained by our senses or mental faculties, and to every posi tion a contrary may be advanced ; and the true relation of the philosopher, the happy man, to things, consists in the entire suspension of judgment and the withholding of every posi tive assertion. The scepticism, however, of the New Academy, under Arcesilaus and Carneades, and of the Pyrrhonists, or of the later Sceptics, ./Enesidemus, Agrippa, and Sextus Empiricus, were of slight influence on the course of philosophic development, when compared with that of Zeno the Eleatic. PYRRHUS, iSyr'-rhus.' I. See NEOPTOLE MOS. 2. A celebrated king of Epirus, was son of fE'acides and Phthia, born 318 B.c., and claimed descent maternally from Achilles, and paternally from Hercules. He was edu cated at the court of King Glautias, of Illy ileum, his family being in banishment from Epirus, and when twelve years old he was placed on his ancestral throne by Glautias, but was expelled five years after, through the intrigues of Cassander, who again procured the throne for the usurper NeoptolEmus, who had held it from the exile of dEacides to the restoration of Pyrrhus. The youthful exile then went with his brother-in-law Demetrius to the East, and took a prominent part in the battle of Ipsus, 300, and, on afterwards going as a hostage for Demetrius into Egypt, he received the hand of Berenice's daughter Antigone, and soon obtained from Ptolemy I., Suter, a sufficient force to attempt the re covery of his throne, in which he was suc cessful, 295. He then attacked King Lysima chus of Macedonia, and was for a time in possession of a part of his 'dominions, 286. He now devoted himself to developing his resources, and, in 280, crossed over with an army to Italy, to aid the Tarentines, at their request, against the Romans ; but in a storm on the voyage he lost a large portion of his troops. On his entrance into Tarentum he
began to reform the manners of the inhabi tants, and, by introducing the strictest disci pline among their troops, to accustom them to bear fatigue and despise danger. In his first battle with the Romans he obtained the vic tory, but with great loss, over the consul Valerius Lmvinus, near Heraclea, but for this he was especially indebted to his elephants, whose bulk and novel appearance terrified the Roman cavalry, and forced the foot at last to give way. Pyrrhus advanced within twenty-four miles of Rome, and sent his minister, Cineas, to propose peace ; but the persuasive eloquence of Cineas was unavailing, and, while reporting the failure of his mission, he said that the Roman Senate was a venerable assembly of kings, and that to attack the Romans was to attack another Hydra. In 279 Pyrrhus again defeated the Romans under the consuls P. Decius Mils and P. Sulpiclus Saverrio, near Asciilum ; but his losses were so considerable that he gladly accepted the invitation of the Greek cities in Sicily to cross over to aid them against the Carthaginians. His operations in Sicily, 278-276, were marked by no successes, and, after his failure in an attempt on Lily bMum, which made him very unpopular among the Greeks, and occasioned several plots against him, he returned to Italy, in the autumn of 276, to resume the war with Rome, and united with his forces the garrison which he had left in Tarentum. In 275 he was de feated, near Beneventum, by the consul Curios Dentatus : his forces were by this defeat reduced to 8,000 foot and soo horse, and he was therefore compelled to return to Epirus. To recruit his exhausted exchequer he attacked King Antigentis II., of Macedonia, and suc ceeded in wresting the throne from him. He afterwards marched against Sparta, but, being unsuccessful in his assault, he retired, and encamped before Argos, which was then torn with political dissensions. He marched his forces into the town by night, but the delay caused by bringing in the elephants gave opportunity to the citizens to rally, and a fierce engagement ensued, in which Pyrrhus, in dis guise, was killed with a tile thrown from a housetop by a woman whose son he was about to run through, 272. Thus perished, in his 46th year, an excellent and sagacious prince, extolled by the great Hannibal as the first of commanders. 3. PYRRHUS II., of Epirus, 367 B. c., grandson of (r) and son of Alexander II., of Epirus, and Olympias, was murdered by the people of Ambracla.