Py'rrhias
（
*Purri/as). an Aetolian, who was sent by his countrymen during the Social War (B. C. 218), to take the command in Elis. Here Mydon he took advantage of the absence of Philip, and that the incapacity of Eperatus the Achaean praetor, to make frequent incursions into the Achaean terancient ritories, and having established a fortified post on combatant, Mount Panachaicum, laid waste the whole country as far as Rhium and Aegium.
The next year (B. C. 217) he concerted a plan with Lycurgus king of Sparta for the invasion of Messenia, but failed in the execution of his part of the scheme, being repulsed by the Cyparissians before he could effect a junction with Lycurgus.
He in consequence returned to Elis, but the Eleans being dissatisfied with his conduct, he was shortly after recalled by the Aetolians, and succeeded by Euripidas. (
Plb. 5.30,
91,
92,
94.)
At a later period he obtained the office of praetor, or chief magistrate of the Aetolians, in the same year that the honorary title of that office was bestowed upon Attalus, king of Pergamus, B. C. 208.
In the spring of that year he advanced with an army to Lamia to oppose the passage of Philip towards the Peloponnese, but though supported with an auxiliary force both by Attalus and the Roman praetor Sulpicius, he was defeated by Philip in two successive battles, and forced to retire within the walls of Lamia. (
Liv. 27.30.)
It is not improbable that
Sipyrrhicas, who appears in Livy (
31.46) as chief of the Aetolian deputation, which met Attalus at Heracleia. is only a false reading for Pyrrhias. (Brandstäter,
Gesch. des Aetolischen Bundes, p. 412.)
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E.H.B]
