TO THE PROBLEM ABOUT THE “PYRHUS VICTORY”

Abstract

The purpose of the article is comprehensively investigate the origin of the idiom “Pirrhic victory” on the example of the battle og Heraclea in 280 B. C. The source base of the research is the work of ancient historians and the Locry an Temple Archives (39 bronze tablets with inscriptions, stored in the city of Lokry in the temple of Olimpian Zeus and were found in the period 1958-1959 by the German researcher P. Franke). The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity, scientificity, verification, author’s objectivity, as well as the use of general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization. The scientific novelty consists in a comprehensive analysis of the idiom “Pirrhic victory” in various versions of its modern interpretation and its relation to the ancient analogue “Cadmian victory” in various versions of the ancient understanding within the framework of the Hesperian campaign (280–175 B. C.) of Pirrhus of Epirus (319/318-282 B. C.). The general strategic balance of forces and resources of the opposing sides, as well as the number of participant in the Battle of Heraclea are analyzed. It was found that in the surviving fragments of the work ancient historians only Diodorus uses the definitions “Cadmian victory” in relation uses to the battles with the participation of Pirrhus Aetus against the Romans, however, it is identical to the modern interpretation of the “Pirrhic victory”. It was revealed that in counting the number of participants in the Battle of Heraclea, some historians due to the imperfection of their chosen methodology allowed inaccuracies, which, in turn, contributed to the distortion of the idea of the specifics of the military confrontation between Pyrrhus and Rome. Calculations of the general strategic ratio of the forces of the warring parties were made on rhe basis of available sources. The incorrectness of using the tern “Pirrhic victory” in relation to both the battle of Heraclea (280 B. C.) and the battle of Ausculum (279 B. C.) has been proven. The first use of the tern was recorded in a didactic book “The Study of History Rendered Easy, by a Plan Founded on Experience” (authorship Ann Fletcher, S. Dutton and H. F. Dutton published in 1798, the book is a school textbook in which the authors did not engage in analysis or criticism of ancient primary sources).