Pyrrhus, A king of Epyre, by his mothers side descended of Achilles, by his fathers of Hercules, a stout warriour and valiaunt captayne. He ayded the people of Tarentum, and the Samnites agaynst the Romaynes, and in certayn battailes ouerthrew them, and wrought them much trouble. When his sonnes, being but yet children, asked him to whiche of them he would leaue his kingdome, to him (sayth he) that shall haue the sharpest sworde: giuing them to vnderstande, that he would giue the successiõ of his principalirie to manhoode, and not to age. By that spurre he incensed his chil-dren to contend which mought passe other in noble verthe & prowesse.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Pyrrhus, i, m., = *pu/rros.I.Son of Achilles and Deïdamia (otherwise called Neoptolemus), founder of a kingdom in Epirus, slain at Delphi by Orestes, Just. 17, 3, 18; Verg. A. 2, 469; 526 sq.; Ov. H. 8, 3; Hyg. Fab. 97; 123; Dict. Cret. 4, 15. — 2. Pyrrhi Castra, a place in Laconia, Liv. 35, 27; in Triphylia, id. 32, 13. — Hence, B. Pyrrhĭdae, ārum, m., the inhabitants of the kingdom founded in Epirus by Pyrrhus, Just. 17, 3, 3. — II.King of Epirus, about 280 B.C., an enemy of the Romans; on account of his descent from Achilles, called Aeacides (v. h. v.), Cic. Lael. 8, 28; id. Rep. 3, 28, 31; id. Fin. 2, 19, 61; id. Off. 1, 12, 38; 3, 22, 86; Hor. C. 3, 6, 35; Just. 35, 3 sqq.; Sil. 14, 94.