Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

When he was twice victorious in conflict with the Romans, but lost many of his friends and commanders, he said, If we are victorious over the Romans in one more battle, we are lost! [*](The details may be found ibid. chap. xxii. (397 B). The Pyrrhic victory is like the Cadmean victory, Moralia, 10 A.)

As he was sailing away from Sicily after his failure there, [*](In 276 B.C.) he turned to look back, and said to his friends, What a field of conflict are we leaving behind us for the Romans and Carthaginians to wrestle in! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, chap. xxiii. (398 F).)