Pyrrhic victory

Pyrrhos I, Latinized Pyrrhus

Listen to a Pyrrhic victory ^?^/ⁱ is a success bought too dearly. In the original sense, the victor emerges from the conflict as weakened as a defeated one and cannot build on the victory. The expression goes back to King Pyrrhus I of Epirus . After his victory over the Romans in the battle of Asculum in southern Italy in 279 BC, he is said to have been . Have said to a confidante: "If we defeat the Romans in another battle, we will be completely lost!" and we are lost! ”In this battle he suffered considerable losses, so that his army was weakened for years and finally lost the Pyrrhic War .

The Cadmean Victory has a similar meaning . In today's parlance, Pyrrhic victory is mostly used in a figurative sense.

Examples of Pyrrhic victories

Web links

Wiktionary: Pyrrhic victory - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ Pyrrhic victory. In: Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander (Hrsg.): German Sprichwort Lexikon. Volume 3, Leipzig 1873.
↑ Pyrrhus, 9/21. in: Plutarchi vitae parallelae . Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig, Vol. 3 Fasc. 1, Konrat Ziegler, Hans Gärtner [ed.], 1996, ISBN 3-8154-1675-2
^ Michael Busch, Karl-Volker Neugebauer: Basic course in German military history . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006, ISBN 3-486-57853-7 , p. 368 below ( Google Books ).
↑ Joseph Nirschl: Textbook of Patrology and Patristics . tape 3 , 1885, ISBN 978-1-143-41074-1 , pp. 253 .
^ Robert Durrer : The Swiss Guard in Rome and The Swiss in Papal Service . Räber, Lucerne 1927, p. 119 ( Google Books ).
^ Sven Externbrink: Le coeur du monde - France and the northern Italian states (Mantua, Parma, Savoy) in the age of Richelieu 1624-1635 . LIT, Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-8258-4390-8 , pp. 202 .
^ Friedrich Luckwaldt: History of the United States of America . 1920, ISBN 978-0-548-82634-8 , pp. 106 .
^ Heinrich August Winkler : History of the West . From the beginnings in antiquity to the 20th century. 2nd Edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59235-5 , p. 419 ( Google Books ).
^ Ernst Willi Hansen, Karl-Volker Neugebauer : The time up to 1914: From the war band to the mass army . 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59009-8 , p. 368 ( Google Books ).
^ Central Intelligence Agency - Office of Russian and European Analysis (ed.): Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict . tape 1 . Washington, DC 2002, The Battle of Vukovar: Croatia Stymies the JNA, p. 99 .

[1] Pyrrhic victory. In: Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander (Hrsg.): German Sprichwort Lexikon. Volume 3, Leipzig 1873.

[2] Pyrrhus, 9/21. in: Plutarchi vitae parallelae . Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig, Vol. 3 Fasc. 1, Konrat Ziegler, Hans Gärtner [ed.], 1996, ISBN 3-8154-1675-2

[3] Michael Busch, Karl-Volker Neugebauer: Basic course in German military history . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006, ISBN 3-486-57853-7 , p. 368 below ( Google Books ).

[4] Joseph Nirschl: Textbook of Patrology and Patristics . tape 3 , 1885, ISBN 978-1-143-41074-1 , pp. 253 .

[5] Robert Durrer : The Swiss Guard in Rome and The Swiss in Papal Service . Räber, Lucerne 1927, p. 119 ( Google Books ).

[6] Sven Externbrink: Le coeur du monde - France and the northern Italian states (Mantua, Parma, Savoy) in the age of Richelieu 1624-1635 . LIT, Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-8258-4390-8 , pp. 202 .

[7] Friedrich Luckwaldt: History of the United States of America . 1920, ISBN 978-0-548-82634-8 , pp. 106 .

[8] Heinrich August Winkler : History of the West . From the beginnings in antiquity to the 20th century. 2nd Edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59235-5 , p. 419 ( Google Books ).

[9] Ernst Willi Hansen, Karl-Volker Neugebauer : The time up to 1914: From the war band to the mass army . 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59009-8 , p. 368 ( Google Books ).

[10] Central Intelligence Agency - Office of Russian and European Analysis (ed.): Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict . tape 1 . Washington, DC 2002, The Battle of Vukovar: Croatia Stymies the JNA, p. 99 .