|
|
ChaptersPart I Home
Part II Home
|
Rome’s Expansion into the EastContents
SummaryThis paper focuses on Rome’s expansion into Greece and Asia Minor. It covers the years ~215 to 146 BC. Beginning at 215 BC, Rome experienced the first Macedonian War, which lasts until 206 BC. Here Rome made first contact with the Greeks. From 201 to 197 BC, Rome fought the second Macedonian War. Here, their enemy Philip V, the king of Macedonia, lost all his territory in Greece and had to pay large tribute. The Greek city states became free yet still under the rule of the Romans. From 192 to 189 BC, Rome fought the Syrian War, in which Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, invaded Greece. He was severely defeated by the Romans and fled to Ephesus where he was once again defeated in 189, and had to pay significantly large tribute. From 172 to 168 BC, Rome fought the third Macedonian war in which Rome crushed a rebellion that was headed by Philip V’s son, Perseus. In 146 BC, Rome fought the Achaean war, which was a war against the Achaean league, and took place outside Corinth, which was sacked. All this had a huge impact on the Romans. They expanded their land into an empire, and they became rich and wealthy through taxes and tributes, in this way the Romans got very wealthy.They also gained the Greek culture. Rome became like Greece, a major cultural change that would change them forever, both in good and bad ways. Without the Greek culture and inheritance, Rome would have been very different in their actions henceforth. IntroductionRome became known for its immense empire that stretched over nearly all the ancient world for centuries. Rome did not start off this powerful, since it took over centuries of fighting their neighbors, until they became famous for their might and their great empire. At first, Rome did not pursue an aggressive by policy seizing land, but mainly established protectorates. This paper will show the expansion of the Roman Empire into the east, which took place between the first Macedonian war (215-206 B.C.) and the destruction of Corinth in 146 B.C. SettingThere were three large states, three city-leagues, and several small states at the time the paper is covering. First there was the large empire of Macedonia, ruled by Philip V. (221 – 179 BC), the Macedonian King, “an ambitious and able, but unscrupulous man” (Myers, p. 182) Macedonia was the homeland of Alexander the Great and his empire (---). After his death, Macedonia fell back into its former borders at the time before Alexander built his empire. Secondly, there was Syria, the Seleucid Empire with Antiochus III (223 – 187 BC), king of the Seleucid Empire. His empire represented the Greco-Persian Empire of Alexander (Myers, p. 183), which became a sovereign state after his death, ruled by one of Alexander’s generals, Seleucus Nicator (312 B.C.). The third state was Egypt, ruled by the Ptolemies. They protected several islands in the Aegean Sea and “often intervened in the affairs of cities on the Greek mainland” (Boatwright et al, p. 74).The pharaoh controlling Egypt was Ptolemy V, the boy-king. Egypt’s capital Alexandria was the intellectual center of the Hellenistic east. Besides that, Egypt was one of the “chief corn [grain] producing countries of the east, and the centre […] of great general commercial and trading interests” (Myers, p. 183). Egypt formed an alliance with Rome in 273 B.C., for enhancing the “growth of commercial intercourse between the two countries” (Pelhalm, p. 140) Greece did not form a large state but was instead build upon city alliances and smaller city states such as Pergamum that often fought wars against each other. There were three important city alliances: the Aetolian League, the Achaean League, and the Rhodian League. The Aetolian League was “made up for the most part of the half-civilized, predatory tribes of Central Greece, near Delphi. It was animated by an intense hatred of Macedonia” (Myers p.184). The Achaean (situated south of Aetolia, on Peloponnesus) league was “the most promising of all the attempts ever made among the Greek cities to form a true federal union […]. It was, […] dependent upon Macedonia” (Myers p. 184). The last League was the Rhodes league; “formed by a large number of the Greek islands and coast cities of the Propontis and the Aegean” (Myers, p. 184). The most important city of this league was Rhodes, which, after Alexandria in the south, was the most important center of culture in the Hellenistic world. Rhode’s leadership rested “not so much upon her military or naval strength, as upon her wealth and her wide commercial relations, for she had in her hands achieved part of the carrying trade of the eastern Mediterranean” (Myers, p. 184) Smaller states such as Pergamum, Bithynia, and Pontus, played an important role in the development of the Roman Empire. First Macedonian WarDuring the second Punic war, a separate war arose between Rome and Philip V. In it, the Romans were busy “meting out punishment to Syracuse and to Capua” (Myers, p. 175), and also fighting Philip V. Philip was looking to expand his kingdom to the north, and since the Romans were busy fighting Carthage, Philip V was seeing his chance to do so. In 214 B.C. Philip, having formed an alliance with Hannibal, Rome’s main enemy in the second Punic war, moved a “small fleet to Illyria to begin feeling out his chances there” (Heaton). The Romans, preoccupied, and with no military force to spare, sent praetor Laevinus with 50 ships to keep watch over Philip. When Philip was campaigning in Illyria, Laevinus came to attack him and the first Macedonian war started in 215 B.C. Philip, outnumbered, burned his fleet as to not let it be captured by the Romans. Since Laevinus only had ships and no land soldiers, Philip went farther north and captured several cities in Illyria. The Romans, not having free soldiers at their disposition needed to get allies to fight on their behalf. In 211 B.C., the Romans found a good enemy of Philip’s: the Aetolian League. An old enemy of Philip, they were keen to exact revenge on him, especially after the great deal they got from the Romans: any land of Philip’s they could capture was theirs to keep. At first, the Aetolians had enough success, at least to keep Philip at bay. In 209 B.C. Attalus of Pergamum joined them in their fight against Philip, and Consul Galba took control over the fleet with his goal being “to maintain the status quo while Rome dealt with Carthage” (Heaton). A year later, Attalus of Pergamum, a Roman ally, pulled out of the war, not having gained a lot. Because of his quitting the war, in 208 B.C. Philip of Macedonia was able to attack the Aetolian league. At this point Rome did not have any soldiers to spare because of the ongoing second Punic war fought south of Rome. The Aetolians were forced to “sue for peace” (Heaton). Since they were so outmatched, a peace treaty was settled on Philip’s terms. Philip continued this attack on the “eastern shore of the Adriatic for another couple of years” while the Romans were finishing off the second Punic war. Scipio who submitted the Iberian Peninsula withdrew his troops from Spain and pulled them into Africa. Carthage sent for Hannibal’s help. At this point the second Punic war was transferred from Italy to Africa. Rome, free of the direct assault of Hannibal was able to deal with Philip V. A year earlier, in 206 B.C., the Aetolian league sued for peace with Philip since the Romans did not send any soldiers or other means to help the cause. Although Rome could gather an army of 11,000 legionaries of Punic war veterans (Boatwright), it preferred to solve the Macedonian war peaceful since it had lost nearly all of the young men of military age, had 300,000 Roman citizens killed and four hundred towns annihilated. (Myers, p. 179). The following peace treaty in 206 B.C. was very favorable to Philip: it allowed him to keep the interior regions of Illyria he was able to overthrow since those regions were of minimal interest for the Romans. He was also granted access to Adriatic Sea. Nevertheless, he was not allowed to keep the defeated Greek cities on the western coast of the Achaean peninsula. The first Macedonian war didn’t have a huge impact on the political map for Rome. Indeed, Rome gave up little of its own properties and territories. This treaty benefited largely the Greek cities and tied those states closer to Rome. Rome’s influence on these cultural centers deepened and vice versa. This close relationship was the basis for a series of several wars to come. The perhaps most important outcome of this war was that Rome realized how unpredictable and dreadful Philip V. was. Not only did he ally with Hannibal and initiated the first Macedonian war but in 205 B.C. he allied with one of the most prominent states at this time, the Syrian (Pelhalm, p. 141) Second Macedonian WarTherefore, diplomatic relations between Philip and Rome were not in the best condition when Philip again stretched his “influence into the south rather than Illyria in the north, which was formerly considered under the protection Rome” (Heaton). In general, Philip V expanded his empire through seizing territories in the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor. Also Antiochus III was seizing territories in Palestine. To be more formidable, the two had “entered into a secret deal to expand their own territories” (Heaton) in 205 B.C. They were contemplating conquering Egypt, the homeland of the Ptolemies. They decided upon Egypt for the “possessions of the Egyptian monarchy, which was embroiled in civil strife and under the rule of the child king Ptolemy V” (Heaton). Philip, in 201 BC, was at war with the Rhodian league and with Attalus King of the state of Pergamum in Asia Minor (Heaton). The Greek city state, now under Macedonia’s control, and Attalus asked Rome for help. Eventually, their pleas for help were heard and the Senate requested that Philip stop seizing of land in the Aegean Sea. Rome of course had to have a reason for doing this. Rome had suffered and was suffering great loss because of Carthage, and would not help out foreigners without good reason – they had nearly no army left. Philip V. was taking over the control of trade routes and trade centers in the East. Should Philip succeed in doing so, he would gain immense power and together with Antiochus III. He could overthrow Egypt and gain complete control over the food supply of Rome. So it was mainly an economic reason that made Rome engage in a next war with Philip. As Myers says:
Therefore, Rome would have to take action soon against him. It seemed best to stop Philip once and for all, so they tried some diplomacy and demanded he stop. Though ambassadors were sent to Philip, Philip refused to stop. Rome did not like his empire building, and thus was enraged when Philip sent an army to invade Attica and Thracia in 200 BC. Rome declared war and sent Roman Consul Galba with 2 legions against Philip. The formal excuse was “to secure the independence of the Greek cities” (Heaton), but Rome also wanted to “expand Roman influence in the east” (Heaton). This war would become known as the second Macedonian war. Galba and his successor P. Villius Tapulla recruited soldiers from the Aetolian league. They raided Macedonian towns and fought some of Philip’s forces in Illyria. Nothing much happened. In 198 Rome sent Titus Quinctius Flaminius against Philip. Flaminius got the support of the Greek Achaean League to help Rome against Philip. Flaminius fought him at the river of Aous, and opened up a route to Thessaly there. Thessaly was a region of East Greece between the Pindus Mountains and the Aegean Sea. Using this route into Macedonia, the Romans laid siege on several towns of Philip’s dominion. At this time, late in 198, Philip and the Romans tried negotiating. Flaminius, however, eager to continue the war, made sure that peace terms would fail in the Senate. Therefore, at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, Flaminius led two legions with Aetolians against Philip’s force of 25,000 men. Philip lost a great defeat, and the second Macedonian war was over. Philip had to agree on unfavorable terms: he lost all Greek territory, the city-states to the protection of Rome, and had to pay tribute to Rome. Since Rome didn’t have the means to possibly defend the Greek cities after their losses, Flaminius, in 196 BC, declared freedom to many Greek cities at the Isthmian Games (Boatwright et al,). Freedom meant that the Romans would keep “no foreign garrisons, [ask] no tribute, and [make] no change to existing laws; however, [… the Greek cities] could [not] omit to acknowledge the leadership of a larger and more powerful state [Rome].” (Boatwright et al, p. 75). Still, the Greek cities were allowed to govern themselves. These “proclamations of freedom had a long and honored place in Hellenistic diplomacy, and Flaminius’ decree shows how Romans adapted themselves to local practices while maintaining their own leadership” (Boatwright et al, p. 74 - 75). Greece essentially became a client kingdom. Antiochus III, the king of Syria, had in the mean time restored a lot of the power of the Seleucid dynasty. He, by the end of the Second Macedonian War, had restored his control over the eastern kingdoms of Mesopotamia to Syria. He was also extending his power into Asia Minor; specifically he surrounded the small kingdom of Pergamum. Rome then demanded that he stop and not interfere further with Greek cities and Pergamum. Antiochus flatly refused. Syrian WarRome had trouble in Greece: the proclamation of liberty did not have the desired effect. “The failure of the [roman] policy, after all, was due to the impracticability of the Greeks, and the intensity of their civic and tribal feuds.” (Pelhalm, p.145) Flaminius was calling upon the Greeks for troops but the Greeks (especially the Aetolians) were becoming wary of the Romans in that aspect. On the other hand, Eumenes, the new king of Pergamum, an old roman ally, was calling for help against Antiochus, whose power was spreading into his region. The Aeatolian Greeks ceased being loyal to their roman protectors and thus allied with Antiochus. This conflict began the Syrian War, lasting from 192 to 189 BC. Here Antiochus saw an opportunity to conquer the Greek mainland. He claimed to be freeing Greece from the Romans. Antiochus brought with him a small force of 10,000 men, hoping for an easy conquest. However, he was wrong: in 191 BC the Roman Consul Manius Acilius Glabrio was sent to fight him with two legions. He defeated Antiochus in Thermopylae together with the fleet of the Roman allies Pergamum and Rhodes easily since he had far more soldiers. Antiochus fled to Ephesus in Asia Minor and abandoned his Greek allies to their fate. This was a great victory for the Romans. They now had control over Greece and Asia Minor. In 190 B.C. Rome sent a brother of the famous Scipio Africanus, Lucius Cornelius Scipio to in order to defeat Antiochus. He gathered an army of 30,000 Romans to fight Antiochus’ “large, but poor quality army” (Heaton), which consisted of 70,000 Syrians and mercenaries. The Romans easily beat Antiochus’ army at the battle of Magnesia in 189 B.C. and forced Antiochus surrender most of his ships, to withdraw “all the way to the Taurus Mountains, pay 15,000 talents, hand-over Hannibal to the Romans, and pay restitution to Eumenes of Pergamum” (Heaton). This was an “exceptionally large indemnity” (p. 75, Boatwright et al,). This was the end of the Syrian war, and as a result, Rome’s ally “Eumenes of Pergamum [...] became the most powerful King in Asia” (Heaton) and Rome divided up Antiochus’ territory. Third Macedonian WarHowever, this situation was not stable. Perseus, the successor and son of Philip, stirred up riots in Greece against the Romans. Also, Perseus was married to the daughter of Seleucus IV., Antiochus’ successor. The Romans were eager to hear complaints brought by Eumenides against Perseus. The third Macedonian war (172 – 168 BC), resulted. This war would end the Macedonian monarchy. In 168 B.C., the Roman consul “Aemilius Paulus crushed the Macedonian power forever upon the memorable field of Pydna” (Myers, p. 188). Since then, the role of the Romans became a different one. Rome looted the defeated cities, and imposed heavy taxes on them. They had to pay tributes to Rome, and Macedonia was organized in 146 B.C. as a Roman province. The battle of Pydna constituted not only the end of Macedonia as an independent state, but it was also the beginning of the Roman Empire in the East. The Roman senate was seen “by the whole civilized world as the source and fountain of supreme political wisdom and authority” (Myers, p. 189). Achaean WarOne of the city leagues, the Achaean League, was not openly sympathizing with Rome during the third Macedonian war. After Rome won this war, Rome took thousands of the chief citizens as prisoners of war to Italy. The historian Polybius was one of those in exile. After 17 years of captivity, the Roman senate set them free and they returned to their cities. There they started to stir up feelings against Rome. Corinth was particularly openly hostile to Rome. The Achean League went so far as to make war on Sparta in spite of Rome’s protest. The result as a war between Rome and the Achean League: the Achean War, which took place outside the walls of Corinth. Consul Mummius destroyed Corinth completely. “Men were killed, and women and children sold into slavery” (Myers, p. 191). The reason why Corinth was completely destroyed can be seen as
Though this may not be the only reason as to why it was destroyed, it does show how the upper classes got lots of control in the senate. Another possible reason might be that they did not want the city to flourish again like Carthage. Influence of GreeceMeanwhile, Rome was becoming influenced greatly by Greek culture. Because “the culture was, in many respects, vastly superior to their own” (Myers, p. 194), the Romans were so greatly impressed that many “Romans seemed to have conceived a sudden contempt for everything Roman, as something provincial an old-fashioned, and as suddenly to have become infatuated with everything Greek” (Myers, p. 194). In fact, it became such that “there ceased to be such a thing in the world as a pure Latin civilization. We […] speak of the civilization of the later Roman Empire as Greco-Roman” (Myers, p 195). However, this was not always a good thing, as “Greece and the Orient had become degenerate and corrupt” (Myers, p.195), and Rome’s cultural “simplicity and frugality” (Myers, p. 195), became replaced with “oriental extravagance, luxury, and dissoluteness” (Myers, p. 195).
|
ImagesClick thumbnail to enlarge.
PIC
|
BibliographyBoatwright, Mary T, Daniel J Gargola, and Richard J Talbert. “The Beginnings of a Mediterranean Empire.” A Brief History of the Romans. New York: Oxford University Presss, 2006. 72 - 77. Heaton, Chris. UNRV History. 2007. 29 Dec. 2007 <http://www.unrv.com>. Path: First Macedonian War, Second Macedonian War, Third Macedonian War. Myers, Philip. Rome: It’s Rise and Fall. Boston, U.S.A: Ginn & Company, Publishers, 1900. Pelhalm, H. F. “Rome and the East.” Outlines of Roman History. 1893. New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1907. 140-157.
|
||
