Pyrrhic victory
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A Pyrrhic victory (Pronounced pihrihk) is a victory gained with too great a cost, such that the overall situation becomes worse for the Pyrrhic victor than it was before battle commenced. Usually the phrase refers to a battle, but by analogy it can also mean any struggle (eg; "The football team gained a pyrrhic victory, they won the game but their best player broke his leg").
The phrase alludes to King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Heraclea and Asculum in 279 BC, but with severe casualties of his own. Pyrrhus's famous statement "One more such victory and I am lost" led to the term "Pyrrhic victory" for any victory so costly as to be ruinous.
The French participation in World War I, or the British and Chinese participation in World War II could also be considered Pyrrhic victories. The gruesome French losses in WWI devastated French morale and could be considered to be one of the causes of the easy defeat of France in 1940. Britain was on the winning side in WWII, but was bankrupted and lost its extensive colonial empire.
Other examples of Pyrrhic victories
- The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC
- The Byzantine war against the Sassanids 602-629 - both empires were left in ruins, and the Islamic Caliphate would later conquer the Sassanid Empire, and overrun over half of the Byzantine Empire's territory.
- The Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775
- The Battle of York in 1813
- The Battle of the Alamo in 1836
- The Battle of Isandlwana in 1879
- The Battle of Dolores in 1904
- The Battle of Verdun in 1916
- The Battle of Crete in 1941
- The Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950
See also
External links
- Der sechste Abschnitt der frühen römischen Republik (German) (http://www.gottwein.de/roge/his_0303.htm)
- A detailed description of the Pyrrhic War (http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/pyrrhic-war.htm)de:Pyrrhussieg
es:Victoria pírrica ia:Victoria pyrrhic he:עוד ניצחון כזה ואבדנו nl:Pyrrhusoverwinning pl:Pyrrusowe zwycięstwo sv:Pyrrhusseger