017- Pyrrhic Victories

Many of the traditions that surround modern Christmas have their roots in Saturnalia and the Feast of Sol Invictus. 

It was inevitable that the Romans and Cartheginians would run into each other one day. 

It’s 279 BC. On a large plain in Southern Italy near the town of Asculum, a famous Greek warlord likened to Alexander the Great faces down the legions of the Roman Republic. His name was Pyrrhus of Epirus. And the victory that he won at Asculum would come to define his legacy. ...

In 281/280 BC, the Hellenistic King Pyrrhus ventured to southern Italy to aid the Italiote-Greek city of Tarentum against a rising power based in central Italy. This enemy was the Romans. Over the next 150 years this civilisation would rise to become the Mediterranean superpow ...

Synopsis: With Rome encroaching from the north and south, the sons of Grypus battle Parthians, usurpers and local powers to keep their hold on Syria. “As he lingered on the banks of the Euphrates, (Sulla) received a visit from Orobazus, a Parthian, who came as an ambassador ...  Show more

In 9CE three Roman legions were walking through Germany when they were ambushed in what would become one of the most notorious defeats throughout Rome’s history. The loss of the legions were a crippling blow to Rome’s plans of expansion, and redrew the borders in the province. Gu ...  Show more