As the title says, what if, after the Battle of Asculum, King Pyrrhus of Epirus recognized that another "Phyrric" victory would doom his ambitions in Italy, and he asked for a moderate merciful peacefire with the Romans?
Could he come back to Italy later, carving a truly Phyrric "Empire" out of the Roman Republic?
And could he and his descendants keep together the Epirot Kingdom/Empire he would naturally establish as a result of carving out a part of Italy?
What would be the short term (a generation, or two, or even three) effects of this?