Battle of Scarpheia | |||||||
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Part of the Achaean War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Roman Republic | Achaean League | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus | Critolaos of Megalopolis † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2 legions and allies | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Light | Heavy |
The Battle of Scarpheia took place in 146 BC between forces of the Roman Republic, led by the praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, and an Achaean League force led by Critolaos of Megalopolis. The battle was a resounding Roman victory, surprising and destroying the main Achaean force at the outbreak of war and allowing the Romans to bring the conflict to a swift end not long after.
Rome and Achaea had been longtime allies for nearly half a century. However, tensions between the two polities had been building up in the last few decades, due to the growth of Roman power in the region, which had led to Roman desires to check Achaean ambitions and Achaean resentment at being reduced to a lesser position to their once-equal alliance. These tensions peaked in 149/148 BC, when Achaea desired to fully assimilate Sparta into the league, which Rome opposed. The Romans sent two consecutive embassies to the Achaean capital of Corinth. The first embassy, sent in the summer of 147 BC, adopted a belligerent tone, trying to announce the forced reduction of Achaea to its original, narrow grouping and sternly rebuking the League. [1] This embassy was almost mobbed, leading to a second, more considerate embassy being sent, which was much more conciliatory and simply sought to achieve a peaceful settlement. [2] It was better received, but there seems to have been a failure of diplomacy, which eventually led the Roman senate to decide on war against the League. It is debated as to whether the Achaean leaders deliberately provoked the Romans into war, or simply miscalculated the Senate's patience. [3] [4]
The war was to be led by one of the consuls for the year, Lucius Mummius, but while he prepared to sail from Italy to Greece, the Senate allowed praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, who had recently been victorious in the Fourth Macedonian War and was stationed in Macedonia, to act against the League.
Back in Achaea, the league's strategos of 147/6, Critolaos, prepared the League for a war against Sparta, unaware of Roman intentions, when the town of Heraclea in Trachis, in the north of the League, revolted. [5] He reacted swiftly, marching to the town and putting it under siege; it was then that he learned that Metellus' forces were marching from Macedonia to fight him. [6]
Metellus' advance seems to have caught the strategos completely off-guard; he hastily fled with his forces to the town of Scarphe, where Metellus caught up with him. The sources do not describe a set-piece battle but instead a wild and chaotic rout, with the League's forces fleeing or getting killed or captured by the Romans. [7] John Frost, in his 1831 History of Ancient and Modern Greece noted that after their defeat, some of the Greeks "slew themselves, others fled wildly from their dwellings, without knowing or thinking whither to bend their steps. Some seized their fellows and delivered them to the Romans; some acted as sycophants and false accusers." [8] Critolaos himself disappeared forever, leaving only rumour and speculation about his fate. [5]
The battle saw the League's main force destroyed at barely the outbreak of war; it ensured that the Romans would have an easy and swift campaign. The Romans advanced through Boeotia, had their peace offers rebuffed by the Achaeans, and proceeded to defeat a hastily-assembled League army at Corinth, after which they sacked the city, dissolved the League and subjugated all of mainland Greece, establishing a permanent presence in the region.
Andriscus, also often referenced as Pseudo-Philip, was a Greek pretender who became the last independent king of Macedon in 149 BC as Philip VI, based on his claim of being Philip, a now-obscure son of the last legitimate Macedonian king, Perseus. His reign lasted just one year and was toppled by the Roman Republic during the Fourth Macedonian War.
Year 146 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Achaicus. The denomination 146 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
This article concerns the period 149 BC – 140 BC.
Lucius Mummius was a Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus.
The Fourth Macedonian War was fought between Macedon, led by the pretender Andriscus, and the Roman Republic. It was the last of the Macedonian Wars, and was the last war to seriously threaten Roman control of Greece until the First Mithridatic War sixty years later.
Philopoemen was a skilled Greek general and statesman, who was Achaean strategos on eight occasions.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus was a statesman and general of the Roman Republic during the second century BC. He was praetor in 148 BC, consul in 143 BC, the Proconsul of Hispania Citerior in 142 BC and censor in 131 BC. He got his agnomen, Macedonicus, for his victory over the Macedonians in the Fourth Macedonian War.
The Battle of Corinth of 146 BC, also known as the Battle of Leucapetra or the Battle of Lefkopetra, was a decisive engagement fought between the Roman Republic and the Greek city-state of Corinth and its allies in the Achaean League. The battle marked the end of the Achaean War and the beginning of the period of Roman domination in Greek history, and is also notable for the complete and total destruction of Corinth by the Romans in its aftermath.
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 Cleomenean War was fought between Sparta and the Achaean League for the control of the Peloponnese. Under the leadership of king Cleomenes III, Sparta initially had the upper hand, which forced the Achaean League to call for help the Macedonian king Antigonos Doson, who decisively defeated Cleomenes in the battle of Sellasia in 222.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus was a pontiff in 216 BC, aedile of the plebeians in 209 BC, curule aedile in 208 BC, magister equitum in 207 BC, consul in 206 BC, dictator in 205 BC, proconsul of Bruttium in 204 BC, and an ambassador at the court of Philip V of Macedon in 185 BC.
Lucius Caecilius Metellus was a Roman aristocrat. He was praetor in 71 BC. He succeeded Gaius Verres as governor of Sicily in 70 BC. He died in office as consul in 68 BC. His co-consul was Quintus Marcius Rex.
Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius was a consul of the Roman Republic in 113 BC with Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. He served under Scipio Aemilianus in Numantia around 133 BC. He was praetor in 117 BC. His proconsulship in Thrace in 112–111 BC earned him a triumph. He was censor in 102 BC with his cousin, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus was a politically active member of the Roman upper class. He was praetor in 74 BC and pontifex from 73 BC until his death. He was consul in 69 BC along with Quintus Hortensius Hortalus.
Quintus Marcius Philippus, also Quintus Marcius L. f. Q. n. Philippus, was a Roman consul in 186 BC and again in 169 BC.
Cycliadas was an ancient Greek statesman and general. He was the son of Damaretos of Pharae in Achaea. Elected as strategos of the Achaean League in 208 BC, he joined Philip V of Macedon at Dyme with the Achaean forces, and aided him in his invasion of Elis. In 200 BC, Cycliadas being made strategos instead of Philopoemen, the Spartan king Nabis took advantage of the change to make war on the Achaeans. Philip offered to help them, and to carry the war into the enemy's country, if they would give him a sufficient number of their soldiers to garrison Chalcis, Oreus and Corinth in the meantime. The Achaeans, however, mistrusted Philip and suspected that it was a ploy to obtain hostages from them and so to force them into a war with the Romans. Cycliadas therefore answered, that their laws precluded them from discussing any proposal except that for which the assembly was summoned. In 199/8 BC, Cycliadas was expelled as a result of his position as leader of the pro-Macedonian party. In 198 BC he was an exile at the court of Philip, whom he attended in that year at his conference with Flamininus at Nicaea in Locris.
The gens Caecilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in history as early as the fifth century BC, but the first of the Caecilii who obtained the consulship was Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter, in 284 BC. The Caecilii Metelli were one of the most powerful families of the late Republic, from the decades before the First Punic War down to the time of Augustus.
The Achaean War of 146 BC was fought between the Roman Republic and the Greek Achaean League, an alliance of Achaean and other Peloponnesian states in ancient Greece. It was the final stage of Rome's conquest of mainland Greece, taking place just after the Fourth Macedonian War.
Gaius Fannius was a Roman republican politician who was elected consul in 122 BC, and was one of the principal opponents of Gaius Gracchus. He was a member of the Scipionic Circle.
Pseudo-Alexander was a Greek pretender who attempted to claim the throne of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia as Alexander VI after the defeat of the previous claimant, Andriscus against the Roman Republic during the Fourth Macedonian War. Like Andriscus, Alexander also claimed to be a son of the last legitimate Macedonian king Perseus.