Editing 272 BC (section)

==== Greece ====
* Cleonymus, a [[Sparta]]n of royal blood who has been outcast by his fellow Spartans, asks the King of [[Macedon]]ia and [[Epirus]], Pyrrhus, to attack Sparta and place him in power. Pyrrhus agrees to the plan, but intends to win control of the [[Peloponnese]] for himself. As a large part of the Spartan army led by king [[Areus I]] is in [[Crete]] at the time, Pyrrhus has great hopes of taking the city easily, but the citizens organise stout resistance, allowing one of [[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonus II's]] commanders, Aminias the Phocian, to reach the city with a force of mercenaries from [[Corinth]]. Soon after this, the Spartan king, Areus, returns from Crete with 2,000 men. These reinforcements stiffen Spartan resistance and Pyrrhus, finding that he is losing men to desertion every day, breaks off the attack and starts to plunder the country.
* As they plunder the countryside, Pyrrhus and his troops move onto [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]]. Entering the city with his army by stealth, Pyrrhus finds himself caught in a [[Battle of Argos|confused battle]] with the Argives (who are supported by Antigonus' forces and a detachment from Sparta) in the narrow city streets. During the confusion an old woman watching from a rooftop throws a roof tile at Pyrrhus which stuns him, allowing an Argive soldier to kill him.
* Following his death in Argos, Pyrrhus is succeeded as king of Epirus by his son [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander II]] while [[Antigonus II Gonatas]] regains his Macedonian throne which he has lost to Pyrrhus two years earlier.