A Smaller History of Rome / from the Earliest Times to the Establishment of the Empire

by William Smith; Eugene Lawrence

The Second Punic War made the Romans undisputed masters of the western shores of the Mediterranean. Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were Roman provinces; Spain owned the Roman supremacy; Carthage was completely humbled, and her powerful neighbor Masinissa was the steadfast ally of Rome. The Roman Republic was now the most powerful state in the ancient world. Her legions had been trained to war by long struggles with Gauls, Spaniards, and Africans, and were superior to all other troops in discipline, experience, and valor. She now naturally turned her eyes toward the East, whose effeminate nations seemed to offer an easy conquest.

The Greek kingdoms in Asia, founded by the successors of Alexander the Great, bore within them the seeds of decay. The mighty kingdom of SYRIA, which had once extended from the Indus to the Ægean Sea, had now lost some of its fairest provinces. The greater part of Asia Minor no longer owned the authority of the Syrian kings. PONTUS was governed by its own rulers. A large body of Gauls had settled in the northern part of Phrygia, which district was now called GALATIA after them. A new kingdom was founded in Mysia, to which the name of PERGAMUS was given from its chief city; and Attalus, who was king of Pergamus during the Second Punic War, formed an alliance with Rome as a protection against Syria and Macedonia. The king of Syria at this time was Antiochus III., who, from his victory over the Parthians, had received the surname of the Great.

EGYPT was governed by the Greek monarchs who bore the name of Ptolemy. They had, even as early as the time of Pyrrhus, formed an alliance with Rome (see p. [66]). The kingdom had since declined in power, and upon the death of Ptolemy IV., surnamed Philopator, in B.C. 205, the ministers of his infant son Ptolemy Epiphanes, dreading the ambitious designs of the Macedonian and Syrian kings, placed him under the protection of the Roman Senate, who consented to become his guardians.

The Republic of RHODES was the chief maritime power in the Ægean Sea. It extended its dominion over a portion of the opposite coasts of Caria and Lycia, and over several of the neighboring islands. Like the king of Pergamus, the Rhodians had formed an alliance with Rome as a protection against Macedonia.

MACEDONIA was still a powerful kingdom, governed at this time by Philip V., a monarch of considerable ability, who ascended the throne in B.C. 220, at the early age of seventeen. His dominion extended over the greater part of Greece; but two new powers had sprung up since the death of Alexander, which served as some counterpoise to the Macedonian supremacy. Of these the most important was the ACHÆAN LEAGUE, which embraced Corinth, Arcadia, and the greater part of the Peloponnesus.[36] The ÆTOLIAN LEAGUE included at this time a considerable portion of Central Greece. ATHENS and SPARTA still retained their independence, but with scarcely a shadow of their former greatness and power.

Such was the state of the Eastern world when it came into contact with the arms of Rome.

We have already seen that during the Second Punic War Philip had been engaged in hostilities with the Roman Republic. Demetrius of Pharos, who had been driven by the Romans from his Illyrian dominions,[37] had taken refuge at the court of Philip, and soon acquired unbounded influence over the mind of the young king. This wily Greek urged him to take up arms against the grasping Republic; and the ambition of Philip was still farther excited by the victories of Hannibal. After the battle of Cannæ (B.C. 216) he concluded a treaty with Hannibal; but, instead of supporting the Carthaginian army and fleet, his proceedings were marked by an unaccountable degree of hesitation and delay. It was not till B.C. 214 that he appeared in the Adriatic with a fleet, and laid siege to Oricus and Apollonia, which the Romans had retained possession of at the close of the Illyrian war.[37] He succeeded in taking Oricus; but the arrival of a small Roman force, under the command of M. Valerius Lævinus, compelled him to raise the siege of Apollonia, and to burn his own ships to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. For the next three years the war was carried on with unaccountable slackness on both sides; but in B.C. 211 it assumed a new character in consequence of the alliance which the Romans formed with the Ætolian League. Into the details of the campaigns which followed it is unnecessary to enter; but the attention of the Romans was soon afterward directed to affairs in Spain, and the Ætolians were left almost alone to cope with Philip. The Achæans also joined Philip against the Ætolians, and the latter people were so hard pressed that they were glad to make peace with the Macedonian king. Shortly afterward the Romans, who were desirous of turning their undivided attention to the invasion of Africa, also concluded peace with him (B.C. 205).

The peace, which thus terminated the First Macedonian War, was probably regarded by both parties as little more than a suspension of hostilities. Philip even went so far as to send to the Carthaginians in Africa a body of 4000 men, who fought at Zama under the command of Hannibal. At the same time he proceeded to carry out his plans for his own aggrandizement in Greece, with out any regard to the Roman alliances in that country. In order to establish his naval supremacy in the Ægean Sea, he attacked the Rhodians and Attalus, king of Pergamus, both of whom were allies of Rome. He had also previously made a treaty with Antiochus, king of Syria, for the dismemberment of the Egyptian monarchy, which was placed under the guardianship of the Roman people.

It was impossible for the Senate to pass over these acts of hostility, and accordingly, in the year after the conclusion of the Second Punic War, the Consul P. Sulpicius Galba proposed to the Comitia of the Centuries that war should be declared against Philip. But the people longed for repose, and rejected the proposition by the almost unanimous vote of every century. It was only by the most earnest remonstrance, and by representing to them that, unless they attacked Philip in Greece, he would invade Italy, like Hannibal, that they were induced to reverse their decision and declare war (B.C. 200).

Philip was at this time engaged in the siege of Athens, which had joined Attalus and the Rhodians. The Consul Galba crossed over to Epirus, and Athens was relieved by a Roman fleet; but before he withdrew, Philip, prompted by anger and revenge, displayed his barbarism by destroying the gardens and buildings in the suburbs, including the Lyecum and the tombs of the Attic heroes; and in a second incursion which he made with large re-enforcements he committed still greater excesses. For some time, however, the war lingered on without any decided success on either side. The Consul Villius, who succeeded Galba in B.C. 199, effected nothing of importance, and it was not till the appointment of the Consul T. Quinctius Flamininus to the command that the war was earned on with energy and vigor (B.C. 198). He forced his way through the passes of Antigonea, which were occupied by the enemy, invaded Thessaly, and took up his winter quarters in Phocis and Locris. In the following year (B.C. 197) the struggle was brought to a termination by the battle of Cynoscephalæ (Dogs' Heads), a range of hills near Scotussa, in Thessaly. The Roman legions gained an easy victory over the once formidable Macedonian phalanx: 8000 Macedonians were killed and 5000 taken prisoners, while Flamininus lost only 700 men. Philip was obliged to sue for peace, and in the following year (B.C. 196) a treaty was ratified by which the Macedonians were compelled to renounce their supremacy, to withdraw their garrisons from the Grecian towns, to surrender their fleet, and to pay 1000 talents for the expenses of the war, half at once, and half by annual instalments in the course of ten years. Thus ended the SECOND MACEDONIAN WAR.