The first battle in the Pyrrhic War was fought near Heraclea in 280. Heraclea was located southwest of Tarentum on the sole of Italian boot. The Romans camped on the other side of a river. When a scout was captured, the Romans knew Pyrrhus was nearby. Pyrrhus’ army consisted of his troops plus soldiers from Tarentine and several other Greek cities. He had about 35,000 men. The Romans had around 27,000. The Roman consul in command was Publius Valerius Laevinus. The scout was given a guided tour of his army and Laevinus told the spy that there were more Roman armies just like this one. He sent the soldier back with an invitation for Pyrrhus to come see for himself. Pyrrhus did not take the offer, but he did observe the Roman army forming up. Pyrrhus watched and realized he was not facing barbarians. “The discipline of these barbarians is not barbarous.” [Plutarch] He waited for reinforcements. Laevinus was eager for battle, so his cavalry found a ford and threatened Pyrrhus’ flank. They were up against elite Thessalian cavalry, but had the better of the melee. Pyrrhus pulled his army back and Laevinus was able to cross with the rest of his army. Pyrrhus used the tactic associated with Alexander the Great. He had his phalanx hold the enemy infantry while his cavalry probed for a weakness. Pyrrhus joined his cavalry and went to meet the Roman horsemen. He was very conspicuous in his scarlet cloak and horned helmet. An allied cavalryman named Obsidius barged through the king’s bodyguard with his lance aimed at the Epirote. One of the bodyguards speared his horse, but as he went down he was able to do the same to Pyrrhus’ mount. He was unhorsed and badly shaken. He turned over command to Megacles, who masqueraded as him, wearing his armor. When Megacles was killed, Pyrrhus got back on his horse and rode bareheaded to reassure his men that he was still leading them. (In another version, Pyrrhus did not need to recuperate, but he did exchange armor with Megacles because he realized the enemy were targeting him. This does not sound like something Pyrrhus would have done.)
The opposing sides launched attacks and counterattacks with neither prevailing. There may have been as many as seven of these. The Macedonian phalanx was hard to stop, but the Roman maniples were hard to pin down. Pyrrhus brought up his elephants, which he had been holding in reserve. They assaulted the Roman cavalry. The Roman horsemen were involved in typical cavalry melee when the monsters came into view. Elephants are intelligent animals, but not smart enough to tell friend from foe. However, the Epirote and Tarentine horses were smart enough to recognize their stable-mates. Horses that were familiar with them, lost their fear of them. So, it was the Roman horses that began to rear up when the sight and then smell hit them. They also were disconcerted by the noise. The horses became unmanageable. Some threw their masters, who then became stomping bait. Others ran from the battlefield. The elephants next charged the maniples. This was the first time Romans had seen elephants (which they called “Lucanian oxen.”). At first, they stood transfixed at the sight of the lumbering beasts. They were much bigger than horses. The creature had what appeared to be a large box on their back. (Some historians credit Pyrrhus with adding turrets to war elephants.) In the box were two soldiers wielding bows or javelins. There was a man sitting on the elephant’s head who was guiding the animal with a stick. The sight was breath-taking. The legionaries probably had the same emotions that German soldiers had during the Battle of the Somme in WWI when they first encountered tanks. The Romans were frozen at first. Most stood with jaws dropped and tried to process what they were seeing. Being familiar with mythological beasts like the chimera and the centaur, many probably assumed they were sent by the gods on behalf of Tarentum. Clearly, the gods were not favoring the Romans in this battle. Some of the men were up for the challenge or simply were the stereotypical Roman soldiers who refused to run. Unfortunately, few Romans still had pila, having thrown them long before. The battle was at the sword stage and using a sword against the angry metamorphosized oxen meant getting up close. That was asking for mega-Roman courage. Especially after the Romans closest to the charge were trampled or impaled by the tusks. And stabbing the beasts made them angrier! To make matters worse, missiles were thrown from the turrets. In spite of the sensory overload, most of the legionaries did not panic. But few stood their ground. The maniples lost cohesion as the men back-pedaled. And then it became a race to the ford. Luckily, elephants will not charge into water. Most of the Romans lived to fight another day. Rome lost about 7,000 men and had 1,800 captured. Pyrrhus lost around 4,000 men, but the casualties included “the flower of his men, and amongst them his particular friends as well as officers whom he most trusted and made use of.” [Plutarch] These veterans were irreplaceable. And he had defeated soldiers who would not be easy to beat in future battles. The ancient historian Florus had Pyrrhus roaming the battlefield afterwards.
The wounds of all of them were on their chests; some shared deaths with their foes, all had their swords still in their hands, a threatening mien still marked their features, and their anger yet lived even in death. So struck was Pyrrhus with admiration that he exclaimed ‘How easy were it for me to win the empire if I had an army of Romans, or for the Romans to win it if they had me as their king!’
- from The Scipios in Spain
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