Pyrrhus of Epirus

PYRRHUS of Epirus is remembered mainly for a quote but he was actually an excellent and respected ruler and general.

He spent most of his childhood as a refugee taking refuge first in the court of the Illyrians after his father was expelled by the Molossians. Pyrrhus however had the good fortune as a young adult to eventually be taken in by Ptolemy and trained and educated by this great ruler.

ON regaining his realm he expanded it to include other parts of North west Greece   and defeated the Macedonians in battle and his use of tactics was admired by Greeks and later Romans and Hannibal.

His people called him the eagle but the Eagle must  fly and Pyrrhus blocked to ruling Greece and Macedon turned westwards and took sides with the Tarentines against the Romans planning according to Plutarch to conquer first Italy and Sicily and next Northern Africa and use those conquests and resources to gain control over all of Greece and Macedon.

Yes he lost most of his forces to the Romans but the Roman losses were great too and it was six years before he finally abandoned his attempts to conquer Italy and Sicily and returned to Greece.

Want more details? Read Plutarch's Lives!

Heirs of Alexander The Seleucids

Seleukos or Seleucus in Latin was another of the Diadochi generals and commanders who seized part of Alexander's conquered realms after his death.
He was a great city builder founding amongst many other cities teh famous Tetrapolis of Antioch Apamea Laodicea and Seleucia.

As with many other dynasties the first two or three rulers were excellent but then there was a decline. 

Seleucus Nicator  the first shown above started off controlling a vast area of Asia from the Mediterranean coast across to the Indus valley. He traded off the far eastern section of his realm for  trained Indian war elephants.

Persia and other areas were lost to the Parthians but the Seleucid empire had a brief revival and expansion westwards under Antiochus the 3rd who conquered Greece but defeated lost all the lands west of the Taurus mountains.

One of the most interesting queens of the Seleucid dynasty mother and wive to several of them was another Cleopatra, Cleopatra Thea a Ptolemid princess.

Faced with the Roman advance to the West and the rise of the Parthians to the East Seleucid dynasty sadly declined destroying itself with internal conflcit between various heirs and pretenders and cousins until its realm was little more than Syria and the two final rulers was slain by Pompey. 

Syria became a Roamn province and is now once again being fought over but the Seleucids left a legacy of city building and Antioch still stands today.