Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (27 page)

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opportunity to flee when they learned that soon they would be attacked in the rear; all three hundred Spartans, including Leonidas, then fought to the death to hold the pass. The Romans and their allies won their Battle of Thermopylae when M. Porcius Cato led a detachment of two thousand soldiers in a surprise strike upon the Aetolians; this successful tactic allowed Cato to attack Antiochus' army from behind. Antiochus, deserted by the Aetolians, now found himself fighting a war of liberation for the Greeks who were fighting against him. Beaten, Antiochus fled to his kingdom.

The Romans sent L. Scipio, brother of Africanus, in pursuit of Antiochus. (Africanus, having served as consul in 194, was ineligible for another seven years but nonetheless joined his brother's staff.) After defeating Antiochus' navy at Myonessus, the Romans offered Antiochus the terms for peace; he did not like the terms, but the Roman and allied victory over him at Magnesia in 190 forced him to seek peace. According to the terms of the treaty Antiochus was to stay out of Europe, withdraw from Asia, and hand over Hannibal. He complied with the first two demands, but let Hannibal escape to Prusias, king of Bithynia. (Hannibal later commited suicide when the Romans demanded that Prusias hand him over.)

The Romans were not quite finished in Asia Minor, however. They also waged war against the Galatians in central Asia Minor. As the name implies, the Galatians were Gauls; they had been marauding over central Europe and had crossed into Asia, where they settled down. They had given help to Antiochus during his war with Rome, and the Romans wanted revenge. They understood that the Gauls threatened the peace and security of their allies in Asia: Antiochus and the Galatians could cause great trouble for Pergamum and Egypt if they were not taken care of. Defeated in two battles, the Galatians sued for peace.

The Third Macedonian War

After Cynoscephelae, Philip of Macedon had fulfilled most of the obligations of his treaty with the Romans, even helping them against Antiochus. Yet he was bitter about how the Romans treated him. The Romans took the side of Pergamum during the boundary disputes between Pergamum and Macedon. Philip started

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planning for another war with Rome, and accordingly consolidated his kingdom, storing up huge reserves of money, supplies, and soldiersgrain for thirty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry for ten years, cash on hand for ten thousand mercenaries, and weapons for armies three times as large. Small but frequent expeditions against Thrace and other enemies kept his soldiers experienced and well trained, but did not deplete their numbers. During those expeditions, Philip conquered Thrace, and now had its supply of soldiers to draw from as well.

Philip died before he could carry out his plans. He is said to have died of a broken heart after having murdered his innocent son. Philip had two sons, Demetrius and Perseus. Perseus was older, but illegitimate, supposedly born of a slave woman. Demetrius, five years younger and born of a noble Macedonian woman, was popular with the Romans, for during the three years that he had spent as a hostage in Rome (to ensure his father's good behavior after Cynoscephelae), he and the Romans had come to understand and appreciate each other. The Romans were hoping that Demetrius would succeed Philip as king of Macedon.

Consequently, as Philip became increasingly resentful of the Romans, he began to dislike and distrust Demetrius, who seemed pro-Roman. At the same time his affection increased for Perseus, who played upon his father's hatred of the Romans; Philip's feelings are clear from his choice of the name Perseis for a city that he founded in 183
B.C.
Perseus then played upon his father's fears and his distrust of Demetrius, alleging that with the help of the Romans Demetrius was trying to take over the kingdom. He offered proof of the conspiracy with a forged letter to himself from Flamininus; thus in 181
B.C.
he convinced his father to have Demetrius killed as a traitor. With Demetrius dead, Perseus' position was secure.

Eventually Philip was informed of Perseus' deception, and was devastated to learn that he had ordered the death of his innocent son. He wanted to have another mananyone but Perseussucceed him as king, but Perseus was too strong for him. When Philip died in 179, Perseus became king.

Perseus inherited the stores of weapons, grain, cash, and veteran soldiers from his father, along with his hatred of Rome. He now had everything he needed for waging a successful war; the extent

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of his preparations induced many northern and southern Greeks to revolt from Rome, and his charisma won many to his side. The Romans were alarmed by his preparations and aggression, and incensed by his attempts at assassination: Perseus had planned to assassinate Eumenes, the ruler of Pergamum, and had tried to get an Italian friend to poison Roman officials. The Romans declared war on Perseus in 171 and sent an army to Macedonia. When Perseus heard that the Romans had arrived in Macedonia, in a frenzy of worry and fear he jumped out of his bathtub and ran away, shouting that he had been conquered without even a battle. Shortly after that, he ordered his friends to throw the treasury from one of his cities into the sea, so the Romans could not seize it. Later, when he calmed down, he had divers recover the money, and then, fearing that they would tell everyone of his foolishness, he had them killed.

Perseus' panic was unnecessary. The Romans were slow in their preparations for the war; one consul even granted a truce to Perseus, on the pretext of allowing further negotiations for peace, when, in fact, the consul knew that his troops were all new recruits and no match for the well-trained and experienced Macedonians. The older Romans decried the way the younger generation had let the Roman army deteriorate so that Rome now granted truces out of lack of preparation, whereas in the past Roman commanders had had so strong a sense of honor that they agreed with the enemy upon a day of battle, just to prove without a doubt who was the superior soldier. When the Roman army crossed into Macedonia in 171, the Roman consuls feared risking a battle with new recruits on unfavorable ground against the experienced Macedonians who held the strategic hills and mountain passes. The war dragged on, with little fighting and no progress.

In 168, however, the new consul was Lucius Aemilius Paullus. One of his first acts as consul was to convene a meeting of the citizens, who, seeing the lack of progress in the war, accused the generals of incompetence. He told the assembled citizens, "If there is anyone who trusts that he can give me advice in the war that I am about to wage, let him not deprive the republic of his services, but let him come along with me to Macedonia. I will take care of his passage, horse, tent, and traveling money. If that person, how-

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ever, does not find that a very inviting proposal, and prefers the leisure of the city to the toils of being a soldier, he shouldn't command our armies in Macedonia while he is safe at home in Rome" (Livy XLIIII.22). We can assume that none of the armchair generals took him up on his offer. With that done, Paullus crossed over to Macedon. He immediately made some changes in the operation of the army, which brought about an improvement in the soldiers' discipline, confidence, and morale. The soldiers now felt confident and courageous, ready to take on the Macedonian phalanx (the Macedonians' particularly deep and strong formation of foot soldiers, each armed with a
sarissa
, a pike nearly 4 meters long).

In fewer than three months Paullus accomplished what the previous generals had failed to do in three years. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168
B.C.
, the Roman army destroyed Perseus' army. The victory was so overwhelming that within a few daysjust long enough for the report to have gotten outmost of the cities of Macedon surrendered to Paullus. For a while Paullus refused to respond to Perseus' letters proposing peace, as Perseus was still calling himself king. He was captured shortly after, with his wife and son.

When Paullus first saw before him in tears a man who had been a rich and powerful king but was now a helpless suppliant destined to march in Paullus' triumph in Rome, he said to his soldiers, "You see here before you an excellent example of the change in human affairs. I'm talking especially to you young men: during good times it is right to make no arrogant or impetuous decision against someone or to put too much stock in the luck of the moment, since you never know what will happen later. He, then, is a true man, whose character is not changed by prosperity or adversity" (Livy XLV.8).

The terms of the treaty broke Macedon into four independent republics, so that it could not cause trouble for Rome again. The Macedonians retained their basic freedom and self-government, but now had to pay Rome one-half the taxes that they had paid to Philip and Perseus. Paullus made a walking tour of Greece, to inspect the country and make treaties with different Greek cities, according to their degree of support of the Romans during the war with Perseus. Greece was fairly calm, for a while.

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While assessing the help that the Greeks had contributed to the Romans during the war against Perseus, the Romans were dissatisfied with the Achaean League, a confederacy of cities in southern Greece. The Romans deported to Rome a thousand prominent Achaeans as hostages, for investigation. One of the Achaean hostages, named Polybius, became the good friend of leading Romans (including Scipio Aemilianus, the grandson of Scipio Africanus, by adoption) during his years there and came to admire Roman government and character. He then wrote a history that explained Rome's rise to empire. Polybius' writings give us much valuable information about Mediterranean history in the third and second centuries
B.C.
, including the Punic Wars, the Macedonian Wars, and the war with Antiochus, as well as the nature of Roman government.

The Fourth Macedonian War

Despite the partition of Macedon, the Romans were not yet finished with this enemy, for a man named Andriscus, pretending to be the long-lost son of Perseus, started a rebellion against the Romans in Macedon. He made many raids on Macedon's neighbors, who appealed to Rome for help. Rome conquered Macedon again in 148 and this time annexed it as a province, installing a governor who had sway over affairs in Greece. Perhaps inspired by the uprising in Macedonia, the Achaean League also rebelled. The Romans conquered its forces in 146 and, under the leadership of L. Mummius, sacked and destroyed the city of Corinth in 146, dissolving the Achaean League.

Another War with Carthage: "Carthago Delenda Est"

The Carthaginians had recovered much of their city's previous prosperity since Zama in 202
B.C.
(see chapter 14) and had aided the Romans in their wars against Philip and Antiochus. They had also lived according to the terms of the treaty and had caused the Romans no trouble. Masinissa of Numidia, a neighbor of Carthage and an ally of Rome, took advantage of Carthage's inability to

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defend itself by encroaching upon its territory and capturing more than seventy towns. The Carthaginians frequently complained to Rome about Masinissa's acts, but he was able to create sufficient doubt about the Carthaginians that the Romans always sided with him. The Carthaginians were finally forced to declare war on Masinissa in 150, and were beaten.

In declaring war on Masinissa, the Carthaginians technically broke one of the terms of the treaty, which specified that Carthage could not wage war without Rome's permission. This gave the hardliners in the Senate the opportunity they had been looking for. One of these hardliners was M. Porcius Cato, who ended all of his speeches in the Senate with the phrase "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed). Other senators, however, noticing that the newfound wealth of empire was corrupting conservative Roman mores, thought that Carthage should be spared, so its continued existence would present a constant threat to Rome that would keep the Romans vigilant and strong.

In 149 the Senate delivered its ultimatum: The Carthaginians must vacate their city and move further inland. Since Carthage was a commercial and trading power, moving away from the sea would destroy its prosperity; the Carthaginians decided to fight instead. Being a wealthy, well-fortified city, Carthage endured a siege of four years before the consul P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus stormed the city in 146, sold the surviving Carthaginians into slavery, and sowed the land with salt, so Carthage would never again pose a problem for Rome. The area, roughly modem Tunisia, became the Roman province called Africa.

Another Antiochus

In 168 the Romans had an incident with Antiochus Ephiphanes (Antiochus God Manifest), the son of Antiochus the Great and king of the Seleucid Empire. When Ptolemy VIII drove his elder brother and co-ruler Ptolemy VI from the kingdom of Egypt, Antiochus Epiphanes invaded, supposedly to secure the throne for the ousted Ptolemy, but in reality to do so for himself. He had already taken over much of the country except for Alexandria, when Roman envoys came to him. One of the envoys was G. Popilius Laenas.

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