The First Macedonian War was fought from 214 to 205 BC amid the Punic Wars. Taking advantage of Roman reverses during the Second Punic War, Macedon gathered allies and launched a campaign to gain territory in Illyria and Greece. Naval raiding was also carried out. From the Roman perspective the war was a sideshow to the struggle with Carthage, and ended without any major territorial changes.
Background[]
Antigonus Doson's army on the march
Following the death of Pyrrhus of Epirus at the Battle of Argos in 272 BC, Antigonus II Gonatas was firmly in control of Macedon, and has also established hegemony over the Greek city-states. He then did his best to maintain his control over his homeland, raising a great sacred mound to honor the Argead house, reorganized the provincial system to increase its efficiency, and was vigilant in keeping Macedonian coinage a high-quality currency. He extensively utilized the great Antigonid fleet and the naval fortresses of Demetrias, Chalcis, and Corinth to ferry troops to strategic locations. An Athenian-led, Ptolemaic-supported attempt at shaking off Macedonian domination in the Chremonidean War of 267-261 BC failed, but crucial fortresses such as Acrocorinth were lost during his reign, which ended on his death in 239 BC. His successor, Demetrius II of Macedon, ruled for an uneventful decade, and he died in 229 BC. The late king's own son Philip V of Macedon came to the throne as a child, and a distant relative, Antigonus Doson, served as his regent. Doson raised Philip as his own son and energetically set to campaigning to beat back Macedon's enemies. He first expelled the Illyrians from the kingdom and then crushed the Aetolian League, and he renounced all Macedonian claims south of the Thermopylae pass to stabilize Macedon. Antigonus accepted the title of King by the army, and he appointed Philip his official heir. After another series of victories, including the first-ever seizure of Sparta by a foreign army, Doson died in 221 BC, leaving behind a resurgent, stable, and increasingly powerful Macedon to Philip V, who now ascended to the throne. From 220 to 217 BC, the Aetolian War saw the Aetolian League and its allies again challenge Macedonian hegemony, and it was at this time that Demetrius of Pharos arrived at Philip's court. Hannibal's victories over Rome in the Second Punic War led to Demetrius advising Philip to end the Social War and attack Italy himself to acquire hegemony over the Mediterranean. Accepting the military status quo and ending the war at Naupactus, Philip again drove the Illyrians from Macedon and, in the winter of 217 BC, he built a fleet of 100 light warships. In the summer of 216 BC, he made his first attempt at securing Illyria's coastal region, but the approach of a Roman fleet forced him to return home. After the Battle of Cannae, Philip sent an embassy to Hannibal to secure an alliance with Carthage, but the envoy, Xenophanes, was captured by a Roman praetor. Xenophanes claimed that he was travelling to Italy to make peace with Rome, and he was released; however, he was captured again on his way back to Macedon with the treaty with Hannibal in hand, and the Romans were warned of the Macedonians' plans. Philip resumed his attacks on coastal Illyria, attacking Corcyra in 214 BC.
War[]
In 214 BC, Philip launched a major offensive. His land army marched into Illyria from Epirus as 120 galleys sailed up the Straits of Otranto, seizing Oricum and besieging Apollonia. The Illyrians called to Rome for help, and the Roman commander Marcus Valerius Laevinus crossed the Adriatic with 55 heavy warships and recaptured Apollonia and Oricum. After these victories, he wintered his fleet in Oricum while Philip burned his ships and retreated overland to Macedon. He then attacked through the Pindus mountains and made significant gains in 213-212 BC, taking the inland Dassaretis, Parthini, and Atintani tribal settlements without a significant Roman response, as Rome did not have the land troops to spare for a side venture. During the later part of 212 BC, when Philip once again reached the Adriatic, he seized Lissus, another possible staging point. Rome now acknowledged the Macedonian threat, so the Roman Senate began to use diplomacy as a weapon and enticed other Greek states to do the neutralizing for them. Rome allied with the Aetolian League, who would get any captured town or city in exchange for the booty going to the Romans. Sparta, Elis, Messenia, Illyria, and Pergamon also joined in the war, and the Romans took important centers such as Anticyra. Philip made little gains against the coalition, and, in 207 BC, Rome derailed peace talks. From 206 to 205 BC, the Macedonians were gradually forced into peace, and hostilities were temporarily concluded.