Pyrrhus
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Pyrrhus. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
pir'us, a king of Epirus. He lived about 318-272 B. C. He was a cousin of Alexander the Great, and, having had some small success in wars with his immediate neighbors, he became fired with an ambition to create an empire in the West as Alexander had done in the East. Rome was busy bringing the Greek cities of southern Italy under her sway. Tarentum, an opulent city, was the last to hold out, and sent a call for help to Pyrrhus. He accepted gladly. He landed on Italian soil in 280 B. C. with a fine army and a force of war elephants, something new to the Romans. Pyrrhus won the first battle decisively, but, as he looked over the field strewn with the bodies of his choicest soldiers, he exclaimed, "Another such victory, and I shall be ruined," hence an expensive success is called a Pyrrhic victory. The Romans were all but ready to treat for peace, but old Appius Claudius, a blind senator, cried out, "Rome shall never make peace with a victorious foe." According to the Roman tellers of the tale, the ambassador of Pyrrhus returned to him with the report that it was useless to make war on Rome, for the Senate was like an assembly of kings--unconquerable. Pyrrhus won a second victory as costly as the first, crossed into Sicily to stir up the cities there, recrossed to Tarentum, was defeated by the Romans, and returned home a disappointed man. According to all accounts, he met his end while storming the Greek city of Argos. A woman stunned him with a tile thrown from a house top, and he was slain ere his supporters could rescue him.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
King of Epirus, being obliged, on the murder of his father, to seek safety by flight, found a home, parent, and tutor in Glaucus, King of Îllyria, and ascended his father's throne, 295 B. C. Having attempted to possess himself of Macedon, he was defeated in a great battle. In 281 b. c. he made war on the Romans with the Samnites and in a battle fought on the Syris, in Calabria, totally defeated the Roman army. It cost him heavily however and the Romans ultimately triumphed. Pyrrhus returned to Greece, and, in a subsequent war with the Argives, was killed, by a tile thrown on his head from the roof of a house, as he entered Argos, 273 b. c.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
See page A famous king of Epirus, son of Aeacides and Phthia. He wrote several Phaeton Driving Apollo 's Chariot. See page ge 222. books on encampments and the ways of training an army. He fought against the Romans with much valor, and they passed encomiums on his great military skill. He was killed in an attack on Argos, by a tile thrown on his head from a housetop.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The story these accounts tell is still the story told today, because it rests almost entirely on Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus and a Roman tradition that has not been replaced by new evidence. Modern reference works have tidied up details the three entries disagree on: his death at Argos is dated 272 BC (Aiton's figure) rather than Collier's 273, and the Italian campaign is broken into the victories at Heraclea (280) and Asculum (279) and the check at Beneventum (275), where Aiton's 1910 account simply speaks of two costly wins and a defeat. Archaeology has added the setting rather than the man: the great theatre at Dodona, one of the largest in Greece, was built under Pyrrhus and has been excavated and partly restored since these entries were written. Historians now read the noble Roman speeches — blind Appius Claudius refusing peace, the senate "like an assembly of kings" — as patriotic literature rather than reportage, much as Aiton's cautious "according to the Roman tellers of the tale" already hinted.
Written for this edition, 2026.