Æ - Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus occupied Syracuse — and effectively controlled much of Sicily — between 278 and 276 BC, invited by the Syracusans and other Greek cities desperate for a military leader capable of checking Carthaginian expansion. His Sicilian campaign came directly off the back of his Italian wars against Rome, making these bronzes products of one of antiquity's most overstretched military machines. He came within striking distance of the Carthaginian stronghold at Lilybaeum before his siege collapsed, partly through supply failures and partly through the alienation of his Sicilian Greek allies by his increasingly autocratic demands.

He departed Sicily in 276 BC, reportedly lamenting what a fine battlefield he was leaving for Rome and Carthage.