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 was king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 179 until 168 BC. 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 during the Third Macedonian War 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, and it cemented Hannibal's reputation as one of antiquity's greatest tacticians.
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. In 172 BC, a Roman commission visited Perseus and required of him concessions which meant the extinction of his independence. Upon his refusal to comply with the demands they returned home and Rome declared war.
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, they incurred severe losses.
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.
The sarissa or sarisa was a long spear or pike about 5 to 7 meters in length. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and was used in his Macedonian phalanxes as a replacement for the earlier dory, which was considerably shorter. These longer spears improved the strength of the phalanx by extending the rows of overlapping weapons projecting towards the enemy. After the conquests of Alexander the Great, the sarissa was a mainstay during the Hellenistic era by the Hellenistic armies of the diadochi Greek successor states of Alexander's empire, as well as some of their rivals.
The phalanx was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. 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 Kingdom of Macedon possessed one of the greatest armies in the ancient world. It is reputed for the speed and efficiency with which it emerged from Greece to conquer large swathes of territory stretching from Egypt in the west to India in the east. Initially of little account in the Greek world, it was widely regarded as a second-rate power before being made formidable by Philip II, whose son and successor Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire in just over a decade's time.
The Battle of Pydna was 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 Panium was fought in 200 BC near Paneas between Seleucid and Ptolemaic forces as part of the Fifth Syrian War. The Seleucids were led by Antiochus III the Great, while the Ptolemaic army was led by Scopas of Aetolia. The Seleucids achieved a complete victory, annihilating the Ptolemaic army and conquering the province of Coele-Syria. The Ptolemaic Kingdom never recovered from its defeat at Panium and ceased to be an independent great power. Antiochus secured his southern flank and began to concentrate on the looming conflict with the Roman Republic.
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.
The Hellenistic armies is a term that refers to the various armies of the successor kingdoms to the Hellenistic period, emerging soon after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, when the Macedonian empire was split between his successors, known as the Diadochi.
The Leukaspides were a group in the Antigonid Macedonian army. Scholars suggest two main possibilities for what precisely they were. The first is that they were equipped in the style of the Macedonian phalanx and were a counterpart to the Chalkaspides, a group uncontroversially known to be sarissa-wielding hoplites with bronze shields. In this possibility, they were probably only mustered when the Macedonians needed more manpower as a supplemental corps. The second possibility is that the Leukaspides referred to ethnically non-Macedonian troops hired as auxiliaries or mercenaries who fought using thyreos shields, which were wooden, oval-shaped, and covered with hide or felt. Ancient sources refer to a "phalanx" of Leukaspides several times, but in the second possibility, it is assumed that the word "phalanx" is meant in the broad sense of any organized military troop, rather than the specific sense of Greek-style spear phalanxes. Auxiliaries probably fought using whatever their locally trained weaponry was—swords, slings, battle axes, and so on.
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.
