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The Cretan War was fought from 205 to 200 BC when King Philip V of Macedon and an alliance of Cretan Greek city-states allied against the island city-state of Rhodes, hoping to weaken Ptolemaic Egypt's hold on the Aegean Sea. However, the Macedonian fleet was defeated off Chios in 201 BC, and the Cretans soon defected to the anti-Antigonid alliance. Ultimately, the pro-Macedonian Cretan city-states of Hierapytna and Olous were annexed by Rhodes.

Background[]

Upon hearing of the Roman victory over Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, Philip V of Macedon decided to shift his focus away from Italy and began to take advantage of a weakened Ptolemaic Egypt, which had been caught in a downward spiral ever since Upper Egypt's revolt against Ptolemy IV Philopator in 205 BC. Ptolemy IV died soon after and was succeeded by his 6-year-old son Ptolemy V Epiphanes, whose authority was confined to Lower Egypt due to the priests of Amun's rebellion. Conflicts over the regency paralyzed the Alexandrian regime and rendered it vulnerable, and this, along with the end of the First Macedonian War with Rome and Antiochus III the Great's return from his great eastern campaign, spelled disaster for Egypt. Both of the great kings hungrily eyed the almost defenseless overseas Ptolemaic possessions, and, while Antiochus launched the fifth of the Syrian Wars, the predatory Philip V gained several of the Cyclades islands and established good relations of the many Greek cities on the west coast of Asia Minor.

War[]

However, Philip quickly earned the ire of both Rhodes and Pergamon, who declared war on him in 201 BC. Soon after, Philip defeated a joint Rhodian-Pergamene relief attempt at Chios with heavy losses and then attacked Pergamon itself. Though Philip decisively defeated the land army outside the walls, he nevertheless failed to take the city. Realizing that attempts to do so would only drain his forces, he annexed most of Caria into a new Macedonian empire. In the autumn, Philip's fleet was attacked at Lade by the Rhodian navy but managed to win anyway. During the winter of 201, a Rhodian fleet blockaded Philip in the Gulf of Bargylia on the Carian coast, where the king struggled to feed himself and his army. The anti-Macedonian alliance knew that it was losing the war, so Pergamon, Rhodes, and Egypt travelled to Rome and informed the Roman Senate of a secret pact that Philip had signed with Antiochus III which would divide the Ptolemaic possessions between them. Philip tricked his enemies into letting him escape in the spring of 200 BC, returning to Macedon. His campaign resumed on land upon his return, and he swept through the region until he reached Abydos, which he besieged. Observing this blatant Macedonian aggression, the Senate asked the people to vote for war. The People's Assembly voted against the war due to war-weariness, as southern Italy had been devastated during the Second Punic War. However, Consul Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus compared the Macedonian threat to that of the old invaders Pyrrhus of Epirus and Hannibal, changing the people's minds. The Romans offered Philip peace if he would cease his hostile actions and pay an indemnity to Pergamon, and, while Antiochus accepted and made peace with Egypt, Philip rebuffed the envoys and took Abydos, whose inhabitants committed mass suicide rather than live under his rule. The Roman invasion of Macedon left the Cretan cities with no major allies, and the largest city on Crete, Knossos, switched sides to Rhodes. Both Hierapytna and Olous surrendered and were forced to sign a treaty favorable to Rhodes and Knossos, and Rhodes gained eastern Crete.

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