Macedonian wars
The Macedonian Wars were a series of armed confrontations between the kingdom of Macedonia and the Roman Republic that took place in the centuries III a. C. and II a. C. and that ended with the defeat of the first.
Prelude
At the end of the III century a. C., Macedonia was still the great dominant power in the Eastern Mediterranean. His army, a direct descendant of that of Alexander the Great, was still feared, as was his fighting style, which emphasized combined arms, but placed much more responsibility on phalanx power than Alexander ever did (or ever did). While Rome worked on mobility and flexibility, the Macedonian phalanx became more rigid than ever.
First Macedonian War
During the Second Punic War, Philip V of Macedonia allied with Carthage. Although this agreement did not lead to any pitched battle between Rome and Macedonia, it was historically known as the First Macedonian War. After minor skirmishes, a shaky peace was negotiated that allowed Rome to focus her energies on defeating Carthage. According to Livio, Philip sent a legion under Sopatro to Hannibal at Zama.
Second Macedonian War
In the year 200 B.C. C., Rome being already the dominant power in Italy and the Western Mediterranean, Rhodes and Pergamum asked for help against the continuous Macedonian aggressions in the Dardanelles and Egypt. Rome's attention turned to the Aegean and its ancient feuds with Philip V of Macedon.
Rome demanded Philip's complete withdrawal from Greece. Filipo agreed in part, because he wanted to maintain control over the cities of Demetrius I of Macedonia, in Thessaly; Chalcis, in Euboea; and Corinth, in Achaia; whom the king knew as "Shackles of Greece".
A Greek delegation was sent to Rome, to give the Senate a lesson in Hellenic geography. Negotiations ended in an impasse. However, as a result, the Senate sent the consul Titus Quintius Flamininus, commanding two legions of more than 6,000 infantry and 300 allied horsemen, to expel Philip from Greece. Thus began the second Macedonian war.
After a series of battles throughout the Greek territory, the armies of Philip and Flamininus met at the battle of Cynoscephalus. The Macedonian king was defeated, having to sign a peace treaty whereby he abandoned his claims to Greece. At the same time, a second Macedonian army was defeated by Attalus I, King of Pergamum, in Asia Minor.
Third Macedonian War
Philip V maintained the Macedonian tradition of lordship over the Greeks, inherited from Philip II and Alexander the Great. Although the Romans in the previous war had defeated him and separated him politically from Greece, he never gave up on the idea of ridding himself of Rome's influence over his "backyard."
So, once he managed to put things in order in his country, he devised a strategy to keep the Romans occupied while he recaptured Greece. This strategy consisted of conquering the territories south of the Danube and concluding alliance treaties with the transdanubian barbarian tribes, in order to launch them against Italy. This last part could not be done, as he died in 179 BC. C.
His son and heir to the throne, Perseus, did not continue the policies of his father, who viewed barbarians as little more than slaves. On the contrary, Perseus sought the alliance and friendship of many Greek city-states and Hellenistic kingdoms, achieving as a result that Prusias II of Bithynia, Seleucus IV of Syria (his father-in-law), Rhodes, Bastarnia, Illyria, Aetolia and others were friends. of the. In the 20 years after the Second Macedonian War, hatred of Rome in Greece had increased markedly, as the heavy yoke that the Romans imposed indirectly through the ruling oligarchy had resulted in the general impoverishment of the population.
Taking advantage of this, Perseus began a demagogic policy, inviting those who were persecuted for politics or debt to take refuge in Macedonia, where their rights and assets would be recognized. But the result of this was counterproductive, since the possessing classes, seeing their interests in danger, turned their eyes to Rome in order to get help to get rid of Perseus.
Eumenes II of Pergamum was one of the most ardent promoters of the war: he managed to reach the Senate and present many complaints against Perseus; as a result, Rome declared war on Macedonia. However, military operations did not start immediately, as the Romans were not prepared for war. Back in Pergamum, Eumenes II was the victim of an attack on the island of Delphi, organized by Perseus.
Perseus, for his part, even knowing that Rome was officially at war with him, but had not yet attacked him, assumed a defensive stance, which ultimately led to his ruin. He decided not to occupy with his troops the most important strategic points in Greece, which would have given him a substantial head start, and gave the Romans time to carefully prepare for war.
However, it was not all to the advantage of the Romans. Although due to his cowardly attitude most of his friends and allies had distanced themselves from him, when the military operations began (171 BC), the Macedonians they managed to defeat the Roman cavalry and light infantry in Thessaly. This caused his former friends and allies to join him, but Perseus, fearful of the Roman reaction, evacuated his forces from Greece and withdrew to Macedonia, forgoing offensive warfare.
For the next two years the war was passively conducted by Rome and Macedonia; however, the latter displayed great diplomatic activity that brought some results due to the revival of the Macedonian fleet in the Aegean Sea and the apparent inability of Rome to end the war. This generated among the Rhodians the desire to act as intermediaries to end the war, since their trade was strongly contracted because of it. However, the Roman senate noticing the attitude of the Greeks towards Rome, and seeing the danger that this represented, decided to end the war victoriously at any price.
In the 169 B.C. C., a nobleman without fortune was appointed consul, Lucio Emilio Paulo, son of the consul of the same name who died in Cannae during the second Punic war, biological father of Publio Cornelio Scipio Emiliano. Emilio Paulo had many years of military experience acquired in the Ligurian and Spanish wars, and was famous for his impeccable honesty. Arriving at the theater of operations, he quickly restored the discipline that had been relaxed and managed to penetrate into Macedonia as far as the city of Pydna, where Perseus and his army were. There the famous battle of Pydna would take place, the result of which was the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy forever. An interesting fact about this battle is that it was at that time that the famous historian Polybius was captured and taken to Rome, where he later began writing his Histories.
The first clash between the Romans and the Macedonians was so strong that the Roman vanguards were smashed and the legions began to retreat to the heights surrounding the Roman camp. Immediately the Macedonian phalanxes opened up to give chase to the Romans. Emilio Paulo took advantage of this circumstance, and threw the reserves to the sides and rear of the phalanxes, ending up completely breaking their formation, and the pursued legionaries turned around and surrounded the Macedonians. The Macedonian cavalry, seeing the defeat of the infantry, chose to withdraw from the battlefield.
The entire confrontation ended in less than an hour, resulting in 20,000 Macedonians dead and 11,000 prisoners. Roman losses were much lower. Perseus, seeing his defeat, cared only for the salvation of his treasures (he was greedy like no other), and was the first to flee the battlefield.
Perseus fled with his gold (about 6,000 talents) to Samothrace, in whose sanctuary he hoped to find a safe haven. But the Romans, who respected no sanctuaries of any kind, forced him to surrender his treasures and his two sons, and he was confined in Italy, where he died some years later. His eldest son Philip (and technically heir to the Macedonian throne) died two years after his father, while the youngest became a mere scribe.
As a result of the war, Macedonia was divided into four nominally independent republics, whose inhabitants were not allowed to have diplomatic, commercial or matrimonial relations with each other. Macedonia was prohibited from trading timber, building materials, precious metals, or salt with anyone. The fortresses were dismantled and the population disarmed. The Macedonian monarchy was destroyed forever.
The resulting impoverishment and the memory of Macedonia's ancient freedom and glory caused the Macedonians to revolt against Rome 20 years later, when an impostor posing as Perseus's deceased son Philip appeared. The end result was the transformation of Macedonia into a Roman province.
Fourth Macedonian War
The Fourth Macedonian War, between 150 B.C. C. and 148 B.C. C., took place against a Macedonian pretender to the throne, who was destabilizing Greece again, trying to re-establish the old kingdom. The Romans quickly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna. In response, the Achaean League declared war in 146 BC. C., although its leaders knew they had no chance of winning. Polybius blames the demagogues of the League cities for this. The League was defeated, and the city of Corinth was destroyed.