Asculum
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Another such victory and we shall be utterly ruined,” the Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus supposedly muttered after his army lost thousands of soldiers while defeating the Romans at Asculum in 279 B.C.
From Washington Post • May 18, 2022
The phrase, about a victory won at too great a cost, refers to King Pyrrhus of Epirus' subduing of Roman forces in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 22, 2015
The word pyrrhic comes from the Greek general, Pyrrhus, who defeated the Romans at the Battle of Asculum but lost so many troops that he couldn’t defeat Rome itself.
From Time • Mar. 19, 2014
Here they encamped on a plain at the foot of the Apennines, near a place called Asculum.
From Pyrrhus Makers of History by Abbott, Jacob
Pompeius in person fought a great battle before Asculum, as before related, and captured the town; and in the following year the Peligni and Vestini submitted to him.
From The Gracchi Marius and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History by Beesley, A.H.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
