Publius Valerius Laevinus (350–300 BCE)
Born 350 BCE, died 300 BCE.
Publius Valerius Laevinus was Roman consul in 280 BC. A patrician, his plebeian colleague was Tiberius Coruncanius. During his consulship he was assigned to southern Italy to conduct the Pyrrhic War against Pyrrhus of Epirus. Moving south, he fortified Roman lines of communication in southern Italy by garrisoning hostile Lucania with allied troops. He also Pyrrhus' attempts to insert himself as arbitrator of Rome's dispute with the Italiote city of Tarentum. In the summer, Laevinus engaged Pyrrhus at Heraclea with both generals commanding roughly 20,000 men. The resulting battle, however, was a Roman defeat which forced Laevinus to withdraw northwards across the Apennines into Campania. Reinforced with two freshly raised legions, he was able to deter Pyrrhus' pursuit and with the Epirotes' lack of siege equipment force them to withdraw south. Laevinus' failure at Heraclea was derided in the senate. Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus records Gaius Fabricius Luscinus inveighing against Laevinus "declar[ing] that it was not the Epirotes who had conquered the Romans, but Pyrrhus who had conquered Laevinus... [and] that the Roman defeat was not due to their army, but to its general".
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