Pyrrhic War - Aftermath

Aftermath

The victory over Pyrrhus was a significant one as it was the defeat of a Greek army which fought in the tradition of Alexander the Great and was commanded by the most able commander of the time. In 272 BC Pyrrhus' life came to an end - one version is that, during a street battle in Argos, a woman threw a roof tile down upon his head. Stunned, he fell off his horse, allowing an Argive soldier to kill him easily.

After its defeat of Pyrrhus, Rome was recognized as a major power in the Mediterranean, as evidenced by the opening of a permanent embassy of amity by the Macedonian king of Egypt in Rome in 273 BC.

New Roman colonies were founded in the south to further secure the territory to Roman domination. In the north the last free Etruscan city, Volsinii, revolted and was destroyed in 264 BC. There, too, new colonies were founded to cement Roman rule. Rome was now mistress of all the peninsula from the Straits of Messina to the Apennine frontier with the Gauls along the Arnus and the Rubicon rivers.