Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh

“ These troubles led to constant and wearisome appeals to the Roman Senate, and eventually the renewal of war with Macedonia put an end to the farce of Greek independence, with its endless bickerings. This war had become inevitable. King Philip was extending his power in Thrace, sometimes by acts of great cruelty, thus coming into collision with the King of Pergamus, who governed the Thracian Chersonese; he was interfering in the affairs of the Illyrian princes, and was endeavouring once more to make a party for himself in Greece. ”

“ The disorders in the Greek world were regarded as a danger to their commerce in the Mediterranean, and a kind of Philhellenism became the fashion at Rome, never standing in the way of active measures of suppression or extension, yet never quite insincere. A free Egypt, as a free Greece, seemed now of supreme importance, and the Roman government promptly answered to the appeal from Alexandria for help against Antiochus, and from the Greek states for aid against Philip. War was resolved upon against the king of Macedonia early in B.C. 200. ”

“ The details of the next two years of fighting (B.C. 207–6) are obscure. We find the sea-powers, Rhodes, Byzantium and Chios, more than once vainly attempting to intervene and make peace, in which they were sometimes joined with Egypt. These offered mediations are an indication of how annoying and ruinous to peaceful trade the disturbed state of Greece was—kept up by the fears of the Achaean League (now managed chiefly by Philopoemen) of attacks by the tyrants of Sparta or the hostile Ætolians, and cunningly fomented by Philip of Macedonia. ”

“ Antigonus was succeeded in B.C. 220, by Philip V. (of whom he had been rightfully only guardian) a young man who soon showed that his ambition was not to be satisfied by anything less than complete ascendency in Greece, and whose policy was the direct cause of the advent of the Romans. The districts of Greece which had, during the Cleomenic war, formed some kind of alliance, were Achaia, Epirus, Phocis, Boeotia, Acarnania, Thessaly—under the hegemony, that is, of Macedonia. It was, indeed, not a measure of Greek unity, but of Macedonian influence. ”

“ Certain towns attained or recovered some prosperity from being places of call in journeys between Italy and the East, such as Dyrrachium and Apollonia in Epirus, Patrae in the Peloponnese, Athens itself, and some of the islands, as Corcyra and Samos. Artistically Greece suffered much from the Roman conquests. An immense amount of the finest works of art were transferred to Rome either by conquering generals or private collectors. ”

“ In one quarter—once the least considered in Greece—freedom had never been lost. The Ætolians—a rugged people living in open villages in a mountainous country—had repelled invasions of Athenians during the Peloponnesian war and of the Macedonians both in the time of Philip and Alexander, and in that of his successors. They had taken the chief part in the repulse of the Celts, and were gradually forming a league of cities outside their own borders, in the Peloponnese, Thessaly, and the Islands. ”

“ Wherever the Roman power extended there was on the whole peace and a reign of law. Administration of law involves the art of oratory, and accordingly we find both in European and Asiatic Greek this art still cultivated and in high repute, especially at Rhodes and in some cities in Asia Minor. Both Caesar and Cicero visited Rhodes to study in the rhetorical schools, and Cicero went to Asia Minor for the same purpose. ”

“ Elsewhere in Greece there were also many signs of restlessness. In Thessaly Philip's hold on certain cities, connived at by Rome, was being resisted. In Boeotia, as in Sparta, there were disputes about the recall of exiles and signs that the Boeotian League preferred Macedonia to Rome. In the East the Lycians resented being subjects, when they believed that they were meant by the Roman award to be allies, of Rhodes, and were more than once in armed rebellion. ”

“ The active and energetic men in the various cities adopted the profession of arms and served in the armies of the various sovereigns in Europe, Asia or Egypt. Those who remained at home devoted themselves either to country life, or, if in cities, to letters and philosophy of a kind. The most active gave themselves up to training for the games, a pursuit, however, which had been spoiled for ordinary people by professionalism, the athletes forming a well-defined class to which it required special aptitude and most elaborate training to aspire. ”

“ These proceedings were jealously watched in Rome, and the king was irritated by frequent commissioners that visited Macedonia or parts of Greece and Thrace, where he was believed to be intriguing. His younger son Demetrius, who had visited Rome as his father's agent, was so ostentatiously patronised by them that Perseus was able, by false representations, so to inflame his father's suspicions that he at last consented to his death. The unhappy man never held up his head again ”

“ Things seemed promising for the king at first, his son Seleucus carried all before him in Aeolis, and he himself, at the head of a large army, occupied the territory of Pergamus. But a Roman army was on its way, commanded by L. Scipio, assisted by his famous brother Africanus; and whilst waiting to fight this army the king's fortune at sea went from bad to worse. Hannibal, with a Phoenician fleet, was defeated by the Rhodians; his own fleet was beaten with great loss in the bay of Teos; Phocaea was captured by the Roman ships ”

“ Ten Commissioners visited the Peloponnese, now often called Achaia, and drew up a lex or charter for each city, assisted by Polybius the historian and son of Lycortas, who was commissioned to explain to each city the terms granted to it. So in other parts of Greece—as in Attica and the islands. Greece was in effect not one but many provinces, and Cicero enumerates among the "provinces" of the Roman people, Achaia, Thessalia, Boeotia, Lacedaemonii, Athenienses. Some cities were in a better position than others—such as Athens, Sparta, Sicyon—which did not pay tribute. ”

“ A more practical punishment was inflicted on Rhodes, its dependencies in Caria and Lycia being declared free, while its finances were injured by the recognition of Delos as a free port. This diverted the passage of ships between Greece and Asia, and at once seriously diminished the harbour dues, on which the revenue of the Rhodians had greatly depended. ”

“ In Greece proper, though no Roman province was created, yet the whole country was made to feel its subordination. Epirus, as having openly favoured Perseus suffered worst. Not only was the League government dissolved, but all its cities were stripped of their wealth and fortifications.
COIN OF PERSES, KING OF MACEDONIA, B.C. 179–168.
More than 150,000 persons are said to have been sold into slavery, and whole districts were left desolate and uncultivated. The Boeotian League was also dissolved, and some of the most disaffected cities practically demolished. ”

“ According to one story, Aratus supplied the money which was paid to Diogenes; and Athens, though it did not join the Achaean League, took no part against it in the social war. But in the troubles that followed Athens looked to Attalus of Pergamus as offering the most profitable alliance, and therefore—though not displaying much activity—she is found among those states opposed to Achaia and Macedonia, which looked for protection to Rome. ”

“ There was an aftermath of literature and art, and at no period was the credit of philosophers higher or the influence of their teaching more marked. But whatever freedom the Greeks possessed it was not generally political. ”

“ Those parts of Asia Minor which had belonged to Antiochus in full sovereignty were to belong to Eumenes of Pergamus, except Lycia and Caria south of the Maeander, which were to belong to Rhodes. (2) Of Greek cities such as had formerly paid tribute to the king of Pergamus and had been wrested from him were to pay their tribute as before; those that had been originally independent but had been subjected by Antiochus were to recover their independence, and such as had been independent of either king throughout were to continue independent. ”

“ However, when it came to be a question of siding with Macedonia or Rome, as it did in B.C. 211, when the Ætolians made a treaty of alliance with the Romans, the Achaean League stood by Macedonia, and were followed by the Boeotians, Phocians, Locrians, and Euboeans, and by the Western peoples of Epirus and Acarnania, and certain Illyrian princes. So in the East, Prusias of Bithynia stood by his relative, Philip, while Attalus of Pergamus joined the Roman alliance (B.C. 211) . ”

“ These exiles were always clamouring for restitution; and at least four classes of them appeared by their representatives in Rome in B.C. 184. Philopoemen was murdered in B.C. 183, and Lycortas, the father of Polybius, became the most influential man in the League. His policy was to maintain independence by strictly adhering to the terms of their treaty with Rome, and thus to avoid the interference of Roman commissioners. But this implied internal union and loyalty and the observance of the rule—laid down in the treaty—that only legates from the Central League government were to go to Rome ”

“ And though these districts were nominally independent, they were fettered by so many conditions and prohibitions, as, for instance, in regard to working mines or felling timber for ships, that they were in effect in a worse position than any province. They were subjects without a subject's privileges.
But the effects of this war with Perseus on the Greek world were scarcely less disastrous. In the first year Perseus had gained some substantial successes in cavalry skirmishes on the Peneus. ”