A Pyrrhic victory (/ˈpɪrɪk/ PIRR-ik) is a victory gained at such a cost to the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.
The phrase references a statement attributed to Pyrrhus of Epirus. After his victory against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, Plutarch reports that Pyrrhus exclaimed "One more victory over the Romans and we are completely done for!"
The Battle of Sari Bair (Turkish: Sarı Bayır Harekâtı), also known as the August Offensive (Ağustos Taarruzları), represented the final attempt made by the British in August 1915 to seize control of the Gallipoli peninsula from the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
At the time of the battle, the Gallipoli Campaign had raged on two fronts – Anzac and Helles – for three months since the Allied land invasion of 25 April 1915. With the Anzac front locked in a tense stalemate, the Allies had attempted to carry the offensive on the Helles battlefield – at enormous cost and for little gain. In August, the British command proposed a new operation to reinvigorate the campaign by capturing the Sari Bair ridge, the high ground that dominated the middle of the Gallipoli peninsula above the Anzac landing.
Pyrrhus (/ˈpɪrəs/ PIRR-əss; Ancient Greek: Πύρρος Pýrrhos; 319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king (Malalas also called him toparch) of Epirus. He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity. Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the phrase "Pyrrhic victory" was coined.
Pyrrhus became king of Epirus in 306 BC at the age of 13, but was dethroned by Cassander four years later. He saw action during the Wars of the Diadochi and regained his throne in 297 BC with the support of Ptolemy I Soter. He co-ruled Macedon together with Lysimachus after driving out Demetrius in 288 BC. In 284 BC, he was driven out of Macedon by Lysimachus. During the eponymous Pyrrhic War of 280–275 BC, Pyrrhus fought Rome at the behest of Tarentum, scoring costly victories at Heraclea and Asculum. He proceeded to take over Sicily from Carthage, but after some initial success, he was soon driven out and returned to Italy where he lost all his gains after the Battle of Beneventum in 275 BC.
The Battle of Asculum was a poorly documented battle that took place near Asculum (modern Ascoli Satriano) in 279 BC, and was thought to have lasted either one or two days, between the Roman Republic under the command of the consuls Publius Decius Mus (who by some accounts died before the battle) and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, and the forces of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. The battle took place during the Pyrrhic War, after the Battle of Heraclea of 280 BC, which was the first battle of the war. There currently exist accounts of this battle only by three ancient historians: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio, although these historians in turn reference other historians whose work is now lost. Asculum was in Lucanian territory, in southern Italy. The Battle of Asculum was the original "Pyrrhic victory". Two main accounts of the battle survive. Plutarch describes a two-day battle where Pyrrhus attacked the Romans on the first day over rough terrain before on the second day Pyrrhus secured flat terrain which allowed his elephantry and cavalry to defeat the Romans. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, followed by Dio and Zonaras, instead presents a single-day battle in which Roman forces break through the Epirote centre, producing an inconclusive engagement that ended in the night. Plutarch's narrative however is the more reliable. A third variant tradition, rather than marking a Epirote victory or indecision, instead reports that the Romans won; the historian Patrick Kent dismisses these claims as products of patriotic Roman historiography, attributing them to the poet Ennius and later Roman historians' biases. Jeff Champion suggests that it was a narrow tactical victory to Pyrrhus.
This article concerns the period 279 BC – 270 BC.
A strategic victory is a victory that brings long-term advantage to the victor and/or disturbs the enemy's ability to wage a war. When historians speak of a victory in general, they usually refer to a strategic victory. Usually it comes together with a tactical victory on the field that allowed to further progress the objectives of the campaign, but it is also possible for a tactical defeat to be considered a strategic victory because it managed to achieve other goals (e.g. by imposing so many casualties on the opposing side to cripple their advance, resulting in a Pyrrhic victory for the enemy).
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805) was a British Army officer, Whig politician and colonial administrator. In the United States and United Kingdom, he is best known as one of the leading British general officers in the American War of Independence. His surrender in 1781 to a combined Franco-American force at the siege of Yorktown ended significant hostilities in North America. Cornwallis later served as a civil and military governor in Ireland, where he helped to bring about the Act of Union; and in India, where he helped to enact the Cornwallis Code and the Permanent Settlement.
Born into an aristocratic family and educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge, Cornwallis joined the British Army in 1757, seeing action in the Seven Years' War. Upon his father's death in 1762 he succeeded to his peerage and entered the House of Lords. From 1766 to 1805 he was colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot. Cornwallis next saw military action in 1776 in the American War of Independence. Active in the advance forces of many campaigns, in 1780 he inflicted a major defeat on the Continental Army at the Battle of Camden. He also commanded British forces in the March 1781 Pyrrhic victory at Guilford Court House. Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown in October 1781 after an extended campaign through the Southern colonies, marked by disagreements between him and his superior, Sir Henry Clinton.
Publius Decius Mus was Roman consul in 279 BC and suffect consul in 265.
A plebeian, his colleague in his ordinary consulship of 279 was the patrician Publius Sulpicius Saverrio. The two consuls fought a joint campaign against Pyrrhus of Epirus as part of the Pyrrhic War. They engaged Pyrrhus near Asculum with about equal forces of 40,000 men and in the resulting battle were defeated. Pyrrhus' losses, however, were large and famously exclaimed that another such victory would spell the end of his campaign, giving rise to the modern phrase "Pyrrhic victory".
The 1972 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon was a successful re-election campaign for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. They were reelected president and vice president after decisively defeating George McGovern and Sargent Shriver of the Democratic Party.
Nixon authorized the formation of his 1972 campaign committee, Nixon-Agnew '72, on January 7, 1972. On August 23, he secured the nomination of the Republican Party at its convention in Miami Beach, Florida. The convention nominated Vice President Agnew as his running mate.