Note 44 — Chapter IX · THE COMPLETION OF THE ITALIAN CONQUEST

[Mommsenb thinks of Pyrrhus as “simply a military adventurer.” He finds his dream of western empire, “analogous in greatness and boldness to the idea which led Alexander over the Hellespont.” But he finds a vast difference between the chances of success, seeing in the disorganised and independent Italian states “poor material for a united realm.” In all points the plan of the Macedonian appears as a feasible, that of the Epirot as an impracticable, enterprise; the former as the completion of a great historical task, the latter as a remarkable blunder. And yet we must not forget that we look at these attempts from the viewpoint of result not of purpose, and to his contemporaries the conquest of Italy would have seemed easier, if less worth while, than the then apparently impossible dream of Alexander.]