Rome has spent two centuries expanding across Italy, and now her borders are pressing against the Greek cities of the southern coast. Those cities send for help from across the Adriatic: Pyrrhus of Epirus, young and hungry for glory, eager to be remembered as the next Alexander. He arrives with Macedonian phalangites, Thessalian cavalry, and war elephants acquired from Egypt—and he will push Rome back, again and again, at a cost that makes each victory feel like a defeat. Pyrrhus's ambitions do not stop at defending the Greeks; he sees an empire in front of him and intends to carve one out. Rome sees an existential threat and intends to outlast him.