The Third Macedonian War started in 171 BC, after a number of acts on the part of King Perseus of Macedon incited Rome to declare war. At first, the Romans won a number of small victories, largely due to Perseus' refusal to consolidate his armies. By the end of the year, the tide changed dramatically and Perseus had gained a success at the Battle of Callinicus and regained most of his losses, including the important religious city of Dion. Perseus then established himself in an unassailable position on the river Elpeus, in northeastern Greece.
The next year, command of the Roman expeditionary force passed to Lucius Aemilius Paullus, an experienced soldier who was one of the consuls for the year. To force Perseus from his position, Paullus sent a small force (8,200 foot and 120 horse) under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum to the coast, a feint to convince Perseus that he was attempting a riverborne flanking maneuver. Instead, that night Scipio took his force south and over the mountains to the west of the Roman and Macedonian armies. They moved as far as Pythion, then swung northeast to attack the Macedonians from the rear.
A Roman deserter, however, made his way to the Macedonian camp and Perseus sent a force of 12,000 under the command of Milo to block the approach road. The encounter that followed sent Milo and his men back in disarray towards the main Macedonian army. After this, Perseus moved his army northwards and took up a position near Katerini, a village south of Pydna. It was a fairly level plain and was very well suited to the phalanx.
Paullus then had Scipio rejoin the main force, while Perseus deployed his forces for what appeared to be an attack from the south by Scipio. The Roman armies were actually to the west, and when they advanced, they found Perseus fully deployed. Instead of joining battle with troops tired from the march, they encamped to the west in the foothills of Mount Olocrus. The night before the battle there was a lunar eclipse, which was perceived by the Macedonians as an ill omen; according to Plutarch, they interpreted it as a sign of their king's demise. Meanwhile, Paullus is said to have understood that eclipses occurred at regular intervals but still believed it was necessary to perform sacrifices and wait for "favourable omens."[4]
The fighting began the afternoon of the next day, June 22. The exact cause of the start of the battle differs; one story is that Paullus waited until late enough in the day for the sun not to be in the eyes of his troops, and then sent an unbridled horse forward to bring about alarm. More likely it was the result of some Roman foragers getting a little too close and being attacked by some Thracians in Perseus' army.[5]
Battle
Troop movements before the battle.
The Romans had at least 28,600 men, up to 37,000, of which 22,000 to 34,000 were infantry: Romans, Italians, and allies from Greece, Numidia, and Liguria,[6] as well as possibly Hispania.[7] The Macedonians had 43,000 soldiers at the start of the war, of which more than 20,000 were phalangites.[8] The cavalry forces were roughly equal, up to 4,000 Macedonians and Thracians against some 3,400 Romans and allies.[9] By the time of the battle, the Macedonian army numbered closer to 30,000 men.[10] For example, prior to the battle Perseus dispatched 8,000 of his Macedonians to guard against the Roman fleet threatening his rear: 2,000 peltasts, 5,000 phalangites, and 1,000 cavalry.[11] The two armies were drawn up in their usual fashion. The Romans had placed the two legions in the middle, with the allied Latin, Italian, and Greek infantry on their flanks. The cavalry was placed on the wings, with the Roman right being supplemented by 22 elephants. The phalanx took up the center of the Macedonian line, with the elite 3,000-strong Guard formed to the left of the phalanx. Lighter peltasts, mercenaries, and Thracian infantry guarded the two flanks of the phalanx, while the Macedonian cavalry was also most probably arrayed on both flanks. The stronger contingent was on the Macedonian right, where Perseus commanded the heavy cavalry (including his elite Sacred Squadron), and the ThracianOdrysian cavalry were deployed. However, other sources state that the cavalry did not participate in the fight, as there was a strike against Perseus by the nobles.
The two centers engaged at about 3pm, with the Macedonians advancing on the Romans a short distance from the Roman camp. Paullus claimed later that the sight of the phalanx filled him with alarm and amazement. The Romans allies tried to beat down the enemy pikes or hack off their points, but with little success. Roman allies' officers began to despair. One 'rent his garments' in impotent fury. Another seized his unit's standard and threw it among the enemy. His men made a desperate charge to recapture it, but were beaten back despite inflicting some casualties. Unable to get under the thick bristle of pikes, the Romans used a planned retreat over the rough ground.
But as the phalanx pushed forward, the ground became more uneven as it moved into the foothills, and the line lost its cohesion, being forced over the rough terrain. Paullus now ordered the legions into the gaps, attacking the phalangites on their exposed flanks. At close quarters the longer Roman sword and heavier shield easily prevailed over the Macedonian Kopis and lighter shields of the Macedonians. They were soon joined by the Roman right, which had succeeded in routing the Macedonian left.
Seeing the tide of battle turn, Perseus fled with the cavalry on the Macedonian right. According to Plutarch, Perseus' cavalry had yet to engage, and both the king and his cavalry were accused of cowardice by the surviving infantry. Poseidonius claimed that the king was injured by enemy missiles and was brought to the city of Pydna at the start of the battle. However, the 3,000 strong guard fought to the death, nearly 11,000 Macedonians were captured, and Livy reported that his various sources claimed up to 20,000 Macedonian dead.[12] The battle lasted about an hour, but the bloody pursuit lasted until nightfall. Other reports state that due to confusion of tactical error from the king, a corps of 10,000 Macedonians were cut off and did not participate in the engagement.[13]
There were several heroes among the Romans. Paullus's son Scipio Aemilianus was thought to be lost for a while, but he and some friends had been pursuing the retreating Macedonians. The son of Cato the Elder, Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus distinguished himself in the battle by his personal prowess in a combat in which he first lost and finally recovered his sword.
The battle is often considered to be a victory of the Roman legion's flexibility over the phalanx's inflexibility. Nevertheless, modern conclusions are that the loss was actually due to a failure of command on the part of Perseus, as well as the peculiar stance of the Companion cavalry, who did not engage the enemy.[14] From the case of the 3,000 Agema peltasts, who maintained cohesion far longer than the regular phalanx, it may be concluded that the training levels of the troops involved played an important role in determining both the frontal strength of the pike phalanx and the success of infantry trying to break through the pike wall.
This was not the final conflict between the two rivals, but it broke the back of Macedonian power. The Battle of Pydna and its political aftermath mark the effective end of Macedonian independence, although formal annexation was still some years away.
The political consequences of the lost battle were severe. Perseus later surrendered to Paullus, and was paraded in triumph in Rome in chains. He was then imprisoned. The Senate's settlement included the deportation to Italy of many of the king's friends[15] and the imprisonment (later house arrest) of Perseus at Alba Fucens.[16]
The Macedonian kingdom was dissolved, and its government was replaced with four republics which were heavily restricted from intercourse or trade with one another. In time, these were also dissolved, and Macedonia became a Roman province. In 167 BC, Paullus received orders to attack Epirus, resulting in the enslavement of 150,000 Epirotes and the sacking of 70 cities.[17] This took place because the Molossians, one tribe of the Epirote League, had sent aid to Perseus, but all the Epirotes suffered alike in the Roman attack.
The victory was celebrated in Athens, where an inscribed decree passed by the Council and People in 168 BC honours Calliphanes, an Athenian citizen who had been present with the Roman and Attalid armies at Pydna, for bringing news of the victory to Athens.[18]
Summary
The engagements on the river bed which were initiated by Aemilius to divert the prying eyes of Perseus away from a turning movement.
"The large turning movement executed by Nasica to circumvent the enemy's position."[19]
Paullus aimed to fight in the afternoon when the sun would be facing the enemy and not the Romans.
The ancient ploy, executed by Salvius, of hurling the standard into the enemy was meant to arouse the ferocity of his men. In this instance, it was to no avail.
Perseus' heavy cavalry failed to engage when the Romans began retreating over rough ground.
Gaps developed in the phalanx when it moved onto uneven terrain, and the consul's initiative and response was immediate.
The development of a large gap in the line between the Macedonian phalanx and the mercenaries. This gap was penetrated by the Romans and they attacked the flank of the phalanx.
Approximately 1/4 of the Macedonian army inexplicably did not participate in the battle.
The elephants were ineffective against the mercenaries.[20]
The Battle of Cynoscephalae was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V during the Second Macedonian War. It was a decisive Roman victory and marked the end of the conflict.
Perseus ; c. 212 – 166 BC) was king of the ancient kingdom of Macedon from 179 until 168BC. He is widely regarded as the last king of Macedonia and the last ruler from the Antigonid Dynasty, as his defeat by Rome at the Battle of Pydna effectively ended Macedonia as an independent political entity.
The Battle of Cannae was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and their allies, led by Hannibal, surrounded and practically annihilated a larger Roman and Italian army under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. It is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and one of the worst defeats in Roman history.
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus was a two-time consul of the Roman Republic and general, who conquered Macedon in the Third Macedonian War.
The Third Macedonian War was a war fought between the Roman Republic and King Perseus of Macedon. In 179 BC, King Philip V of Macedon died and was succeeded by his ambitious son Perseus. He was anti-Roman and stirred anti-Roman feelings around Macedonia. Tensions escalated and Rome declared war on Macedon.
The Battle of Magnesia took place in either December 190 or January 189 BC. It was fought as part of the Roman–Seleucid War, pitting forces of the Roman Republic led by the consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus and the allied Kingdom of Pergamon under Eumenes II against a Seleucid army of Antiochus III the Great. The two armies initially camped northeast of Magnesia ad Sipylum in Asia Minor, attempting to provoke each other into a battle on favorable terrain for several days.
The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of consul Publius Valerius Laevinus, and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Although the battle was a victory for the Greeks and their casualties were lower than the Romans, they had lost many veteran soldiers that would be hard to replace on foreign soil.
A peltast was a type of light infantry originating in Thrace and Paeonia and named after the kind of shield he carried. Thucydides mentions the Thracian peltasts, while Xenophon in the Anabasis distinguishes the Thracian and Greek peltast troops.
A hypaspist is a squire, man at arms, or "shield carrier". In Homer, Deiphobos advances "ὑπασπίδια" or under cover of his shield. By the time of Herodotus (426 BC), the word had come to mean a high status soldier as is strongly suggested by Herodotus in one of the earliest known uses:
Now the horse which Artybius rode was trained to fight with infantrymen by rearing up. Hearing this, Onesilus said to his hypaspist, a Carian of great renown in war and a valiant man ...
The phalanx was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly used to describe the use of this formation in ancient Greek warfare, although the ancient Greek writers used it to also describe any massed infantry formation, regardless of its equipment. Arrian uses the term in his Array against the Alans when he refers to his legions. In Greek texts, the phalanx may be deployed for battle, on the march, or even camped, thus describing the mass of infantry or cavalry that would deploy in line during battle. They marched forward as one entity.
The army of the Kingdom of Macedon was among the greatest military forces of the ancient world. It was created and made formidable by King Philip II of Macedon; previously the army of Macedon had been of little account in the politics of the Greek world, and Macedonia had been regarded as a second-rate power.
The Battle of Pydna was a battle fought in 148 BC between Rome and the forces of the Macedonian leader Andriscus. The Roman force was led by Quintus Caecilius Metellus, and was victorious. The battle played an important role in deciding the outcome of the Fourth Macedonian War, and saw the annihilation of the last military-political force of Macedon.
The Battle of Callinicus was fought in 171 BC between Macedonia and the Roman Republic near a hill called Callinicus, close to the Roman camp at Tripolis Larisaia, five kilometres north of Larissa, the capital of Thessaly. It was fought during the first year of the Third Macedonian War. The Macedonians were led by their king, Perseus of Macedon, while the Roman force was led by the consul Publius Licinius Crassus. The Macedonians were supported by Cotys IV, the king of the Odrysian kingdom and his forces, Cretan mercenaries, and auxiliaries of mixed nationalities. The Romans had their Italian allies with them and were supported by soldiers provided by Eumenes II of Pergamon, as well as a force of Thessalian cavalry and Greek allies. The battle saw the deployment of troops with cavalry intermixed with light infantry. Although the battle was actually inconclusive because Perseus withdrew before it came to a conclusion, it was considered a Macedonian victory because the Romans suffered heavy casualties.
Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum was a politician of the Roman Republic. Born into the illustrious family of the Cornelii Scipiones, he was one of the most important Roman statesmen of the second century BC, being consul two times in 162 and 155 BC, censor in 159 BC, pontifex maximus in 150 BC, and finally princeps senatus in 147 BC.
The Hellenistic armies is the term applied to the armies of the successor kingdoms of the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic armies emerged after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, when his empire was split between his successors, also known as the Diadochi. During the Wars of the Diadochi, the Macedonian army under Philip II and Alexander gradually adopted new units and tactics, further developing Macedonian warfare and improving on the tactics used in the Classical era. The armies of the Diadochi bear few differences from those of Alexander, but during the era of the Epigonoi, the differences were obvious, favoring numbers over quality and weight over maneuverability. The limited availability of Greek conscripts in the east led to an increasing dependence on mercenary forces, whereas in the west, Hellenistic armies were continuously involved in wars, which soon exhausted local manpower, paving the way for Roman supremacy. The major Hellenistic states were the Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt and Macedonia during the Antigonid kingdom. Smaller states included Attalid Pergamum, Pontus, Epirus, the Achaean League, the Aetolian League, Syracuse, and other nations such as Athens, Sparta, etc.
The Seleucid army was the army of the Seleucid Empire, one of the numerous Hellenistic states that emerged after the death of Alexander the Great.
The Antigonid Macedonian army was the army that evolved from the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia in the period when it was ruled by the Antigonid dynasty from 276 BC to 168 BC. It was seen as one of the principal Hellenistic fighting forces until its ultimate defeat at Roman hands at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC. However, there was a brief resurgence in 150-148 during the revolt of Andriscus, a supposed heir to Perseus.
The Monument of Aemilius Paullus was erected in the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi shortly after 167 BCE in order to commemorate the Roman victory over King Perseus of Macedon at the Battle of Pydna. The incomplete pillar was intended as a base for a portrait of King Perseus. It was originally created to establish the Macedonian presence in Delphi, and to remind the Delphians of the tradition of friendship existing between them and the royal family. However, the monument was taken over by Aemilius Paullus to celebrate himself and Rome's victory noting that, "it was only proper that the conquered should give way to the victors." The Monument of Aemilius Paullus stood in front of the Temple of Apollo along with two other commemorative pillars to Eumenes II of Pergamon and Prusias II of Bithynia. However, this pillar dominates over the other two. The completed monument had a bronze equestrian statue that sat on top of a rectangular pillar over 9 meters high. Although the bronze statue that originally sat atop the pillar no longer remains, the cuttings in the plinth show that the horse would have been in a rearing position. An inscription at the base of the pillar survived, L(ucius) Aimilius L(uci) f(ilius) inperator de rege Perse / Macedonibusque cepet, which translated, reads, "Lucius Aemelius, son of Lucius, Imperator, took it from King Perseus and the Macedonians."
The first government of ancient Macedonia was established by the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings during the Archaic period. The early history of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia is obscure because of shortcomings in the historical record; little is known of governmental institutions before the reign of Philip II during the late Classical period. These bureaucratic organizations evolved in complexity under his successor Alexander the Great and the subsequent Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties of Hellenistic Greece. Following the Roman victory in the Third Macedonian War over Perseus of Macedon in 168 BC, the Macedonian monarchy was abolished and replaced by four client state republics. After a brief revival of the monarchy in 150–148 BC, the Fourth Macedonian War resulted in another Roman victory and the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia.
The Macedonian phalanx was an infantry formation developed by Philip II from the classical Greek phalanx, of which the main innovation was the use of the sarissa, a 6-metre pike. It was famously commanded by Philip's son Alexander the Great during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire between 334 and 323 BC. The Macedonian phalanx model then spread throughout the Hellenistic world, where it became the standard battle formation for pitched battles. During the Macedonian Wars against the Roman Republic, the phalanx appeared obsolete against the more manoeuvrable Roman legions.
↑ Paul K. Davis, 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World’s Major Battles and How They Shaped History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 51.
↑ Livy scribes that the start of the battle erupted due an escaped mule that ran across the river, which was then captured by Thracians who were killed by pursuing Romans, this angered the Thracian guard on the bank what started a skirmish leading to the battle commencing.
↑ Fernando Quesada Sanz, Not so different: individual fighting techniques and small unit tactics of Roman and Iberian armies within the framework of warfare in the Hellenistic Age. Pallas 70 (2006), pp. 245–263.
↑ Montagu, John Drogo (2006). Greek & Roman Warfare: Battles, Tactics, and Trickery. London: Greenhill Books. p.227.
↑ Montagu, John Drogo (2006). Greek & Roman Warfare: Battles, Tactics, and Trickery. London: Greenhill Books. p.227.
Bibliography
Angelides, Alekos, A History of Macedonia[ISBNmissing]
Paul K. Davis, 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World’s Major Battles and How They Shaped History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN1576070751OCLC42579288
J.F.C. Fuller. A Military History of the Western World: From The Earliest Times To The Battle of Lepanto. Da Capo Press, Inc., New York. ISBN0306803046 (v. 1). pp.151–69.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Roman Republic 
Macedon 
