300 - 200 BC (Guardians)

The 3rd Century BC is most remembered for the epic struggles of Pyrrhus and the other Greek states in their campaigns to restore Alexander's empire as well as the brief kinship and eventual conflict between Rome and Carthage over land rights and trade to become the dominant power of the western Mediterranean. This century solidified the rise of Rome as the rising star in the Mediterranean region and set the stage to exert its hegemony over the Western world, which would have considerable influence for the rest of Europe and of history. In India the Maurya Empire rose and fell like its predecessors, although its legacy resulted in Buddhism becoming a major religion both in India and in neighboring countries. In China the Xin Dynasty ruled for much of this century, continuing China's intellectual and cultural development before succumbing to interdynastic pressure and in Anahuac the Zapotec continued to reign supreme as the Mayans consolidated further east.

Pyrrhus, Heir of Alexander
Upon consolidating his position as ruler, Pyrrhus did everything in his power to improve his claim as the candidate best suited to restore Alexander's empire. He married Alexander's daughter Helen in order to bolster his claim to the throne and prepared his military to conquer his rivals. Requests from his Italian possessions to beat back the Romans and Carthaginians were tacitly ignored for now, as Pyrrhus felt the other rivals were more of a concern. By 299 BC Pyrrhus marched into Macedonia to put an end to the rule of the Antigonids, another competing dynasty.

Pyrrhus quickly showed why he considered himself to be Alexander's rightful heir as he swiftly brushed aside Macedonian forces. His army was typically of lesser quality than his Macedonian opponents but he succeeded through the use of Italian light cavalry and Illyrian skirmishers to destroy the enemy's flanks while his Epirote pikemen held the line. By 298 Pyrrhus was in Pella while the Antigonid king was on the run in Thrace and Bithynia. Ownership of Alexander's lavish tomb in Aegea bolstered Pyrrhus' credibility and prestige, and he often visited the tomb to "ask Alexander for guidance."

With relatively little resistance, Pyrrhus conquers the rest of Greece and begins pushing through Thrace when he is forced to return home after a bout of sickness and possible Greek revolt. Hopes of Antigonid resurgence proved unfounded as Pyrrhus managed to continously beat his opponents on the field. The Greek cities could not match him in battle but they tried again and again. While Pyrrhus was now forced to hold his new territories together, more opportunities, and enemies, soon appeared before him.

The Return of the Argeads
Soon, however, Pyrrhus faced two problems, one at home and one further abroad. Back in Macedonia, Alexander IV, as the heir of Alexander, began to gather influence and prestige for himself, as he had more of a claim to the throne than Pyrrhus did. Assassinating the young pretender was not an option as doing so would likely have condemned Greece and Macedonia into civil war. Pyrrhus had to find a solution to the legitimacy problem in his own kingdom before it consumed him.

Another problem more abroad was the reign of his rival Ptolemy, who had obtained the lion's share of Alexander's former empire. He ruled over a realm from Cyrene to Elam, holding the major territories of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria as well as Alexandria and Buchephala, the two capitals established by Alexander himself. Ptolemy thus held the strongest claim through governing over the largest share of Alexander's empire. Like the rest of the Diadochi, Ptolemy desired to annex the rest of the empire. Pyrrhus thus desired to weaken his eastern rival while he was distracted with border struggles against Seleucus, another Diadochi.

Through his effective conquest of Greece, Pyrrhus had obtained the ships of the Macedonian and Athenian navies. Merging those with his own, Pyrrhus soon gathered together a large expedition to spread his own influence east and obtain a base for further campaigns. His fleet departed from Athens in 290 BC and arrived in Egypt not soon after. His navy thrashed much of the Ptolomaic navy and his troops established a beachhead in the Nile delta shortly after.

With Ptolemy away in Babylon to deal with Seleucus' invasion of Mesopotamia, Pyrrhus was able to drive his garrisons from the realm of Egypt by 285 BC. He celebrated in the lavish palaces of Alexandria and donated to its places of learning to commemorate his victory. To help curb his competition, Pyrrhus placed Alexander IV as the ruler of Egypt so as to remove him as a threat so close to home. Pyrrhus envisioned that Alexander IV would be only a client to weaken Ptolemy and when both were sufficiently exhausted Pyrrhus would depose of them both. However, events closer to home once again forced Pyrrhus to return home before he could continue his campaign and ensure Alexander IV's perpetual weakness.

However, Alexander IV did not turn out to be the weak ruler that Pyrrhus had envisioned. While he was nowhere near as great as his father, Alexander did command some respect as a result of his blood and his tacit alliance to Pyrrhus. The native Egyptians, while still unhappy with another foreign ruler, respected him as a pharaoh of the 29th Dynasty that his father established. With enough political acumen and the advice of generals that Pyrrhus had left behind, Alexander IV managed to secure his borders and prevent any reconquest from Ptolemy and his successors.

A Pyrrhic War
Further in the Italian provinces of Pyrrhus' realm, many Greek residents felt threatened by the Samnites, Romans, and Carthaginians, all of whom had seized Greek territory in the last few years. Both Neapolis and Syracuse had fallen, leaving Taras as the only major Greek city in Italy. The Italian Greeks resented being in such danger while Pyrrhus led campaigns further west and demanded that Pyrrhus defend them and reclaim their lands. Otherwise, they threatened, they would take their defense into their own hands.

Concerned that his western flanks were in danger and hoping to forstall insurrection in his lands, Pyrrhus gathered together a force and sailed to Taras to begin preparations to reclaim Sicily and other lost territory. News spread rapidly of his arrival and both the Carthaginians and Romans viewed him as a threat to their growing power. They arranged a military alliance in haste and began preparing to resist the Greek king, who feared that they would take Sicily and Neapolis from them.

Pyrrhus arrived in southern Italy in 280 BC shortly after defeating a Celtic invasion and was soon well-received. Pyrrhus began military operations against the Romans, hoping to defeat them before advancing against the Carthaginians, who he believed to be the bigger threat. Pyrrhus marched against Rome and defeated them at both Asculum and Venusia but failed to take the city, although he did reclaim Neapolis for a short time. Each battle, while victorious for Pyrrhus, cost him dearly and depleted his forces. Pyrrhus' forces were augmented by the Samnites, who had recently been subjugated by the Romans only a few years before.

With the Romans temporarily on the back foot and dealing with a Samnite rebellion, Pyrrhus moved on to Sicily. Syracuse opened its gates in 278 BC to Pyrrhus, who quickly forced out the Carthaginian garrison and moved further west to conquer the island. Despite Carthaginian resistance, Pyrrhus moved against Lilybaeum, the final Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily. While Pyrrhus was successful in crushing any army Carthage sent against him, his losses were such that he felt unable to conquer Lilybaeum and complete his victory, even with Sicilian levies. Forced to pull back, the Carthaginians followed him doggedly, always losing yet forcing costly victories upon the Greeks.

Rising pressure from both the Carthaginians and the Romans forced Pyrrhus to make several decisions regarding what lands to protect and what lands to abandon. Regardless of his choices, his territory in Italy was getting smaller and his ability to resist was being sapped by so many costly victories. Eventually, at the Battle of Kroton in 275 BC, Pyrrhus defeated a joint invasion by the Romans and Carthaginians but at such high cost that he realized further victories would be impossible. Rome and Carthage refused to negotiate and as such Pyrrhus retreated back to Greece, hoping that he could recover and have further success there. Carthage would regain control of Sicily and Rome would conquer the Italian Greek cities within three years, ending any chance of a Greek resurgence in Italy.

The East
Further east in Persia and Mesopotamia, the affairs of the Greek successor states were constantly in flux. Seleucus had finished his expeditions into India and returned with an alliance and several hundred war elephants for use in his further campaigns. Ptolemy lounged in Babylon, still recovering from the loss of Egypt to Pyrrhus and his apparent Argead puppet. Despite this, Ptolemy still had considerable strength in Syria and Mesopotamia and both rulers still entertained the notion of uniting Alexander's former empire. A clash between the two was inevitable.

The two sides battled each other for many decades but neither really gained an advantage over the other. Seleucus was successful in reinforcing his dominant position in Persia and Media but was ultimately unable to wrest Mesopotamia from Ptolemy. Conversely, Ptolemy wasn't able to advance into the Persian heartland despite aid from the Attalids, who also feared the possibility of Seleucid dominance. In addition, both realms began to suffer unrest as Iranian tribes began to push on the northeastern Seleucid borders and the Jews began agitating about foreign gods being worshiped in their capital of Jerusalem. In addition, a migrating group of Celts led by another man named Brennus began migrating to Anatolia after being defeated by Pyrrhus in 281 BC. A coalition formed between the Attalids, Antigonids, and Ptolemy were enough to defeat them at the Battle of Dioclea, ending the Celtic invasion.

With the strength of both nations sapped, the geopolitical landscape began to change. The farthest Seleucid provinces broke off and became the Greek Kingdom of Bactria while the Parthians, one of the Iranian tribes, began to intrude upon northeastern Persia. With much of their military power focused in central Persia and Media, the Seleucids were unable to react to these threats for some time. Additionally, the Jews and Phoenicians chafed under the rule of the Ptolomies, but were too close to centers of Greek power to revolt successfully. Both realms were established with the goal of unifying Alexander's empire but ironically their struggles to do so only made them more unstable that before.

The Argolid Hegemony
However, the greatest unifier of them all, Pyrrhus, had another problem in his efforts to maintain his hold over the Greek world. In his absence the southern Greeks began to chafe under his rule. Compared to Alexander, Pyrrhus was respected but not nearly revered, as Alexander had conquered the Greeks but led them to the ends of the earth. Former powers like Athens and Sparta began to conspire against him. Places like Crete, already infamous as an island of brigands, began to be even more restless.

When open revolt began in 271 BC, Pyrrhus readied his forces for another campaign. The cities of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Argos had risen against him and raised armies of their own. Calls for help from other Diadochi went out but only the Antigonids were interested, given the feud they had between them and Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus requested help from Alexander IV, but he received no reply. WIth little other choice, Pyrrhus marched south, hoping to defeat the Greek cities before returning north and ending the Antigonid threat once and for all.

Pyrrhus broke the Athenians in battle but couldn't afford to wait them out in a siege. Moving into the Peloponnese, he laid siege to Sparta in 270 BC but withdrew as the Argives and Corinthians closed in and he wanted to fight them in the field. At the Battle of Thyrea in the same year, Pyrrhus faced a united army of Spartans, Corinthians, Argives and the remnants of the Athenians. He was able to break the ranks of all but the Argives, who resisted firmly and would not rout. Just when he was about to hit their flanks and force them to either run or be cut down, Pyrrhus was hit by a rock thrown by an Argive soldier and fell from his horse, breaking part of his spine. His forces pulled back to defend their king, giving the Argives the opportunity to withdraw with much of their force intact yet giving Pyrrhus his final victory.

Pyrrhus died soon after the battle as a result of his injury. His son Helenus succeeded him to the throne, but he didn't have the military aptitude that either Alexander or Pyrrhus had. Pyrrhus' generals soon withdrew from southern Greece, as they feared that morale was too low and the Argives still had much of their force intact. Argos became the dominant power in southern Greece, as the other cities had their militaries largely destroyed, allowing Argos to establish the last period of the traditional Greek hegemonies. Helenus and his successors would eventually lose Macedonia back to the Antigonids and continue to struggle against both them and the Argolid Hegemony for many decades more.

The Samnites
In Italy, the rising power of Rome was still strong, having just recently incorporated the region of Campania and the city of Neapolis after victory over the Samnites in the Second Samnite War. Despite this victory, tensions between the two powers remained noticeable, and relations between Rome and its northern Etruscan neighbors were also increasingly fraught as the Romans gained more power and territory. Eventually, these agreements would be broken and the fragile peace was shattered.

By 298 BC, open war returned to Italy. The Samnites and Etruscans entered into an informal alliance to curb Roman power, and in their quest they also brought in their Umbrian and Celtic allies as well. Rome was not caught off guard and readied its armies to do battle against its multiple foes. The Romans had allies of their own, namely the Lucanians who feared Samnite power and the inability of the Greeks to maintain safety. In order to combat multiple enemies, the Romans split their forces in two, one for the Samnites and the other for the northern coalition.

By 290 BC, the Romans stood victorious over all their foes. Samnium was occupied and annexed by the Republic, as was half of Umbria. Etruscan power had been completely broken but they were allowed a small degree of independence for the time being, while the Gauls had been forced back from central Italy once again. Upon concluding this war Rome was the undisputed power in Italy for the time being, with only Carthage and the Greek states to rival it for dominance over the western Mediterranean.