Philip V of Macedon

The Mediterranean in 218 a. C.

Philip V (Greek Φίλιππος Ε; 238-179 BC) was king of Macedonia from 221 to 179 BC. c. He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty. Philip V's reign was characterized primarily by the unsuccessful struggle with the rising power of Rome. Filipo was attractive and charismatic as a young man. A gallant and valiant warrior, he was inevitably compared to Alexander the Great and called "the darling of Hellas" (ἐρώμενος τῶν Ἑλλήνων).

Youth

He was the son of Demetrius II, who died when the future monarch was ten years old (229 BC). After the death of Demetrius, Philip's uncle ―Antígono III Doson― administered the kingdom until his death (221 BC). After this death, Philip became ―at the age of seventeen― the monarch of one of the largest kingdoms in the Mediterranean.

Upon his accession to the throne, he showed that he intended to make Macedonia the greatest power in the Mediterranean. In the first year of his reign, he caused the Dardanian and other tribes that settled in the north of the kingdom to withdraw.

Social warfare

During the Social War, his influence forced the assembly of the Hellenic League to be held in Corinth. He led the League in battles against Aetolia, Sparta, and Elis. At the same time, he was able to firmly impose his authority among ministers and advisors. His leadership during the Social War made him known and respected both within his kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean.

First Macedonian War

After the peace of Naupactus in 217 B.C. C., he tried to take the Roman positions along the eastern shore of the Adriatic. He first tried to invade Illyria by sea, though without much success: his first expedition in 216 BC. C. had to be aborted, while a second resulted in the loss of his entire fleet in 214 BC. c. A third expedition by land was more successful after the capture of Lissus (212 BC).

In 215 B.C. C., he signed a treaty with Hannibal, who was fighting in Italy. This treaty defined the spheres of influence of these two Mediterranean powers, although it was of little value to either side. The Carthaginian embassy that Hannibal sent to King Philip was intercepted by the legate Publius Valerius Flaccus while he was patrolling the coast of Calabria.After the legendary battle of Cannae, Philip declared himself an ally of the Carthaginians.

Philip's assistance to his allies in order to protect them from attacks by the Romans, Spartans and their allies became progressively more complicated.

The alliance that Rome established with the Aetolian League in 211 B.C. C. neutralized his ground advantage. The intervention of Átalo I of Pérgamo made difficult the position of Philip in his own territory.

However, he was able to take advantage of Attalus' withdrawal from Greek territory in 207 BC. C., Roman inactivity, and the growing role of Filopemen, strategos of the Achaean League. After taking Termo, the political and religious center of Aetolia, he forced the Aetolians to sign an unfavorable peace in 206 BC. C., in which the Hellenic monarch imposed his own terms and conditions. The following year, he signed a peace treaty with the Romans that would become known as the Peace of Phoenix. The First Macedonian War ended in a technical Roman victory, as Philip had been prevented from supporting Hannibal.

Expansion in the Aegean

After an agreement with the Seleucid king, Antiochus III with the aim of taking control of the Egyptian territory, which was controlled by the young king Ptolemy V, Philip managed to take control of the Egyptian territories located in the Aegean Sea and in Anatolia. This Macedonian expansion alarmed neighboring states such as Rhodes and Pergamum, which clashed with his army at Chios and Lade (near Miletus) in 201 BC. C. About that same time the Romans were victorious over Carthage.

Second Macedonian War

The kingdom of Macedonia on the eve of the second Macedonian war (circa 200 B.C.)

In 200 B.C. C., with Carthage as a minor threat, the Roman Senate declared war on Macedonia, arguing that it was intervening in Hellenic territory to protect the freedom of the Greeks. After the campaigns in Macedonia in 199 a. C. and in Thessaly in 198 a. C., Philip and his army were definitively defeated in Cynoscephalas (197 BC).

Alliance with Rome

The peace treaty after the defeat between Philip V and the Romans limited the monarch's influence to Macedonia and forced him to pay an indemnity of 1,000 talents. Philip also had to cede most of his fleet and hand over a number of hostages, including his own son, Demetrius.

After fulfilling the stipulations of the treaty, he cooperated with the Romans and sent them aid to fight the war against King Nabis of Sparta in 195 BC. C., he also lent aid to the Romans against his former ally, Antiochus III (192-189 BC).

In exchange for his help when Roman forces under Scipio Africanus and his brother Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus moved through Macedonia and Thrace in 190 BC. C., the Romans forgave him the remaining compensation that he had to pay and his son Demetrius was released. Philip then focused his energies on consolidating his power in Macedonia. He reorganized the country's internal affairs, cleaned up the treasury, reopened the mines, and issued a new currency.

Final years

Despite his cooperation, Rome remained suspicious of Philip's intentions. Accusations from neighboring states towards Macedonia, especially from Pergamum, caused a constant intervention of the Romans in the country's politics. For his part, Philip was afraid of a future invasion by the Romans that would depose him from the throne and therefore tried to expand his influence in the Balkans through diplomacy and force. In spite of everything, the efforts of the monarch were undermined by a policy in favor of the Romans exercised by his son Demetrius. Rome considered the possibility of putting Demetrius on the throne before his older brother, Perseus. All these factors eventually led to a fight between the two brothers that forced Philip to execute Demetrius for treason in 180 B.C. C. This decision had a very harsh impact on the health of Philip who died the following year in Amphipolis.

On his death he was succeeded by Perseus, who became the last king of Macedonia.

Ancestry