The Spartans led by Crown Prince Acrotatus were able to withstand a series of Epiriote assaults until Macedonian reinforcements and Areus' army arrived to relieve the defenders.

Whilst attempting to seize Argos by night, Pyrrhus was set upon by his Argive opponents as well as the Spartans and Antigonus' Macedonians.

Following entreaties from the Greek polis of Tarentum in 281 BC, Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus in northern Greece, invaded Italy with an army of 25,500 and 20 war elephants.

[2] The Epiriote victory caused a number of native groups such as the Samnites and the Lucanians, who were also fearful of Roman expansionism to join Pyrrhus.

[8] Pyrrhus was highly successful in his campaign against Carthage and by 275 BC had managed to restrict them to the settlement of Lilybaeum in the far west of the island.

[12] In order to secure funds to pay his troops, Pyrrhus planned a war against Antigonus II Gonatas, the new king of Macedon.

Citing Antigonus' refusal to provide him with aid during his Italian expedition as a casus belli, Pyrrhus invaded Macedon in the spring of 274 BC.

Pyrrhus began the engagements by slaughtering Antigonus' Gallic rearguard before securing the surrender of the Macedonian war elephants.

[23] In 272 BC, Pyrrhus marched his army through Central Greece to the city of Pleuron from where they were ferried across the Gulf of Corinth to the Peloponnese.

[24] This suggests that the invasion was supported by the Aetolian League, a powerful confederate in Central Greece which was allied with Pyrrhus and hostile to Antigonus.

Several of Sparta's neighbours, namely Megalopolis, Elis and many of the Achaians poleis, supported Pyrrhus' invasion as they would profit from the reduction of Spartan influence in the region.

[26] He told the Spartans that he had come to liberate any cities still held by Antigonus and that he hoped to send his sons to Sparta to obtain a traditional education at the agoge.

[29] It may have been at this time that Pyrrhus assigned Cleonymus a series of independent commands as he is recorded as subjugating the city of Alifeira in Elis as well as sacking Zarax in the Parnon region of Laconia.

They were dissuaded from doing so by Arachidamia, the former queen and grandmother of the Eurypontid King Eudamidas II who convinced them that the women could assist in the city's defence.

Aware that Pyrrhus had elephants with him, the defenders dug a large trench and sunk wagons into the ground at its flanks in order to hinder the Epiriote advance.

[37] Aware of the danger, Acrotatus used a series of depressions to attack this force from the rear and managed to the push the Epiriote flanking group into the trench after inflicting heavy casualties upon them.

The Epiriotes launched an attack in the morning but after this was repelled Pyrrhus became convinced of the futility of the situation and ordered his men to lift the siege.

[44] However, as his troops were ravaging the surrounding countryside, he received news that Antigonus was marching on Argos from Corinth on his way to trap Pyrrhus in Laconia.

By setting up ambushes and occupying strategic positions along the Epiriote line of retreat, the Spartans were able to inflict heavy casualties on Pyrrhus' rearguard of Gauls and Molossians.

[48] Pyrrhus attempted to goad Antigonus into fighting a pitched battle on the plain in front of Argos but the Macedonian king was unmoved.

[41] Although Pyrrhus' Gauls were able to occupy the Argive agora, the rest of the army was delayed due to the war elephants being too large to pass through the gate.

The Macedonian king responded immediately, advancing towards the city walls and sending a relief force inside under the command of his son Halcyoneus.

[55] The Argives, assisted by their Spartan and Macedonian allies, launched a counter-attack on Pyrrhus' Gallic troops in the agora and threw them into a state of panic.

The result was that Pyrrhus, entering the city at the head of his cavalry to assist the Gauls, was unable to effectively communicate his commands to his soldiers.

[55] The weight of the enemy's assault pushed Pyrrhus and his troops from the agora and compelled them to fight in the narrow street leading to the Diamperes Gate.

[53] Pyrrhus was either killed by the force of the tile's impact[41] or, alternately, having fallen dazed from his horse he was decapitated by one of Antigonus' Macedonian soldiers, Zopyrus.

[58] Pyrrhus' head was brought by Halcyoneus to Antigonus, who expressed dismay when he saw it and upbraided his son for acting in such a barbarous manner.

[63] On his journey north to Macedon, Antigonus succeeded in placing garrisons in the cities of Chalcis and Eretria on the important island of Euboia with the outcome being that he further consolidated his power in Greece.

Angered by Macedon's supremacy and full of ambition, Areus formed a coalition with several Greek poleis, most notably Athens.

[64] The war ended in a defeat that was so crushing for Sparta that it would not rise as a regional power again until the reign of Cleomenes III thirty years later.