The Third Macedonian War was fought from 171 to 168 BC when the Roman Republic fought its final war against the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon. The Roman victory at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC brought an end to the independence of the Hellenistic kingdom of Macedon, which was divided into four client republics loyal to Rome.
Background[]
In 196 BC, at the Isthmian Games in the Peloponnese, the Roman general Titus Flaminius took to the speaker's platform and proclaimed that Rome would leave the Greeks free, untaxed, and autonomous after a century of Macedonian rule. He was showered with honors by the Greek Cities, and the Roman Senate decreed five days of thanksgiving for the victory at the Battle of Cynoscephalae. While there, Flaminius was met by Seleucid envoys who congratulated him on his victory and assured the Romans of Antiochus III the Great's peaceful intentions. However, they were met coldly, and Antiochus was told to withdraw his garrisons from the Greek cities and not to intervene in Greek affairs. Ultimately, Rome fought Antiochus in the Roman-Seleucid War of 192-188 BC, and, following the Roman victory over the Seleucids at the Battle of Magnesia, Rome began to rule its Greek "friends" with an iron fist.
The Macedonian royal court at Pella became divided over the Roman issue as Philip V of Macedon's Romanized son and heir Demetrius returned from years of serving as a hostage. One circle was led by Demetrius, consisting of pro-peace nobles, while another group formed around Philip V and his eldest son Perseus, who advocated resistance against the invaders. Both factions engaged in a propaganda war, and Perseus' mother was slandered as a low-birth concubine. After Demetrius told the courtier Didas of his plan to flee to Rome, Didas betrayed this plan to Perseus and poisoned Demetrius in 181 BC on Philip's orders. This caused a deterioration in Roman-Macedonian relations. In 179 BC, Philip V died in Amphipolis while preparing for a campaign in Thrace, and Perseus became the new King of Macedon. He eliminated rivals to the throne and sent emissaries to the Roman Senate to seek the Senate's recognition of his legitimacy; reluctantly, this was granted. Perseus then entered into alliances with the various Greek Cities, annoying the Romans.
Eumenes in Rome
To the east, Perseus married his sister to Prusias II of Bithynia, who married Seleucus IV Philopator's daughter, forging a network of useful Hellenic allies in Asia Minor, to the increasing anger of Pergamon, which was excluded from these affairs. Its king Eumenes II served as an informant to the Roman Senate, and, in 175 and 174 BC, repeated Roman warnings to Perseus refused to cow the young king. After he marched his entire army on a peaceful parade through Delphi, Perseus established that he was the protector of the Greeks, not the Romans. Pergamon now beseeched the Romans for help, and, in 172 BC, Eumenes himself came to plead his case, claiming that the peace had allowed Macedon to restore its former strength. He cynically played on the post-Hannibalic fear of invasions in Italy, convincing Rome to intervene.
Roman troops landing at Apollonia
It now became clear to Perseus that the Roman Senate was intent on destroying him. Roman envoys sent to negotiate a truce with Perseus then boasted of deceiving him into thinking there was even a chance of peace, as the Romans were merely buying time to refit a fleet of old ships and embark a powerful army from Brundisium to Apollonia. More traditionalist Senators opposed this duplicity, but it became clear that this was the only way to run an empire. The Senate decided that the only way to maintain power in Greece would to be having no equals, and the Third Macedonian War began with the arrival of the Roman army in Greece.
War[]
The Roman consul Publius Licinius Crassus crossed the Adriatic Sea in the late summer of 171 BC in order to take control of the legions there, while Eumenes and his Pergamene army arrived at Chalcis and disembarked with 6,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry of his own. The Romans had unquestioned mastery of the Aegean, so they dismissed the allied vessels, only maintaining Eumenes' assistance. Perseus invaded Thessaly to the south and encamped to the south of Mount Ossa, taking command of his late father's rebuilt army. Licinius secured the Greek west coast and advanced into Thessaly, meeting Perseus' army at the Battle of Callinicus. The two sides fought to a draw, although the Romans lost 200 cavalry and 2,000 infantry to Perseus' 60. Further skirmishes followed the battle, but the campaigning season was essentially over. The Romans proceeded to raze the anti-Roman cities in Boeotia; Haliartus was completely annihilated after a short siege, and 2,500 men were sold into slavery, while the town remained desolate for decades afterwards. The increasing Roman savagery in Greece and the Macedonian victory at Callinicus made Perseus the champion of the Greeks, and the Molossians of Epirus defected to him. Perseus then launched a successful raid on the Roman fleet at Oreus, destroying ships and spoiling grain supplies. However, Perseus knew that he needed a decisive victory in battle.
Battle of Pydna[]
The Battle of Pydna
By 169 BC, Rome's position in Greece was precarious, and only the arrival of the new consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus in 168 BC breathed fresh life into the floundering Roman cause in Greece. He took command of two Roman and allied (Etruscan and Samnite) legions, some 22,000 legionary infantry, plus thousands more light infantry (including velites and Greek allies), 4,000 cavalry (including 1,000 famed Numidian cavalry), and 22 war elephants. Meanwhile, Perseus had 44,000 foot (21,000 phalangists, plus Thracian javelinmen and Illyrian archers) and 4,000 horse. In the summer of 168 BC, Paullus invaded Thessaly and met Perseus at the foot of Mount Olympus. A misbehaving mule sent to fill up jugs of water for the Romans escaped from its handlers, causing the Roman water gatherers to discover the positions of Perseus' Thracian allies. The Roman soldiers brawled with the Thracians over the mule, which the Thracians tried to steal, drawing the two armies into action in the Battle of Pydna. The increasing uneven terrain made the Macedonian phalanges vulnerable as they advanced, and the Romans charged into the exposed arteries of the phalanx and slaughtered the phalangists. Alexander the Great's military legacy was finally buried, with the legion replacing the phalanx as the Mediterranean world's strongest fighting formation. Paullus was voted a triumph and rode through Rome on a chariot with his treasures and soldiers riding behind him, while the Antigonid line was extinguished and the Macedonian kingdom forever gone.