Charops of Epirus

Last updated March 19, 2019

Charops or Charopus is the name of two statesmen in 2nd century BC of the Epirote League, grandfather and grandson; both of them had the patronymic Machatas.

The Epirote League was an ancient Greek coalition, or koinon, of Epirote tribes.

The grandfather sided with the Romans in their war with Philip V of Macedon, and, by sending a shepherd to guide a portion of the Roman army over the heights above the position of the Macedonians, enabled Flamininus to dislodge Philip from the defile which he had occupied in Epirus in 198 BC. In 192 BC, Charops was sent by his countrymen on an embassy to Antiochus the Great, who was wintering at Chalcis in Euboea. He represented to the king that the Epirotes were more exposed to the attacks of the Romans than any of the inhabitants of the rest of Greece, and begged him therefore to excuse them from siding with him unless he felt himself strong enough to protect them. He continued to the end of his life to cultivate the friendship of the Romans, and sent his grandson Charops to Rome for education after his son Machatas died.

Philip V was king (Basileus) of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia from 221 to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of the Roman Republic. He would lead Macedon against Rome in the First and Second Macedonian Wars, losing both but allying with Rome in the Roman-Seleucid War towards the end of his reign.

Chalcis or Chalkida is the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός, though there is no trace of any mines in the area. In the late Middle Ages, it was known as Negropont(e), an Italian name that has also been applied to the entire island of Euboea.

The grandson received his education at Rome, and after his return to his own country adhered to the Roman cause; but here ends all resemblance between himself and his grandfather. It was this younger Charops by whose calumnies Antinous and Caphalus were driven in self-defence to take the side of Perseus; and he was again one of those who flocked from the several states of Greece to Aemilius Paullus at Amphipolis, in 167 BC, to congratulate him on the decisive victory at Pydna in the preceding year, and who seized the opportunity to rid themselves of the most formidable of their political opponents by pointing them out as friends of Macedonia, and so causing them to be apprehended and sent to Rome. The power thus obtained Charops in particular so barbarously abused, that Polybius has recorded his belief that there never had been before and never would be again a greater monster of cruelty. But even his cruelty did not surpass his rapacity and extortion, in which he was fully aided and seconded by his mother, Philotis (or Philota). His proceedings, however, were discountenanced at Rome, and when he went thither to obtain the senate's confirmation of his iniquity, he not only received from them an unfavourable and threatening answer, but the chiefmen of the state, and Aemilius Paullus among the number, refused to receive him into their houses. Yet on his return to Epirus he had the audacity to falsify the senate's sentence. The year 157 BC is commemorated by Polybius as one in which Greece was purged of many of her plagues : as an instance of this, he mentions the death of Charops at Brundisium.

Antinous was a chief among the Molossians in Epirus, who became involved, against his own will, in the Third Macedonian War of Perseus of Macedon against the Romans.

Alkemachos, son of the elder Charops, was a winner in diaulos (~400-metre race) in Panathenaics 190/189 BC. Demetrius, son of Machatas and brother of Charops the elder was in the service of Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The family belonged to the tribe of Thesprotians.

Diaulos was a double-stadion race, c. 400 metres , introduced in the 14th Olympiad of the ancient Olympic Games.

Ptolemy V Epiphanes ; 210–181 BC), son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty from 204 to 181 BC. He inherited the throne at the age of five, and under a series of regents, the kingdom was paralyzed. The Rosetta Stone was produced during his reign as an adult.

The Thesprotians were an ancient Greek tribe and kingdom of Thesprotis, Epirus, akin to the Molossians. The poet Homer frequently mentions Thesprotia which had friendly relations with Ithaca and Doulichi. On their northeast frontier they had the Chaonians and to the north the kingdom of the Molossians. The Thesprotians originally controlled the Dodona oracle, the oldest in Greece. Later, they were part of the Epirus until they were annexed into the Roman Empire.

Related Research Articles

This article concerns the period 169 BC – 160 BC.

Year 216 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Varro and Paullus. The denomination 216 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.

Perseus was the last king (Basileus) of the Antigonid dynasty, who ruled the successor state in Macedon created upon the death of Alexander the Great. He also has the distinction of being the last of the line, after losing the Battle of Pydna on 22 June 168 BC; subsequently Macedon came under Roman rule.

The Battle of Pydna took place in 168 BC between Rome and Macedon during the Third Macedonian War. The battle saw the further ascendancy of Rome in the Hellenistic world and the end of the Antigonid line of kings, whose power traced back to Alexander the Great. The battle is also considered to be a victory of the Roman legion's flexibility over the Macedonian phalanx's rigidity.

Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus was a two-time consul of the Roman Republic and a noted general who conquered Macedon, putting an end to the Antigonid dynasty in the Third Macedonian War.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus, primarily known as Scipio Aemilianus, or also Scipio Africanus Minor, or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was an important politician and general of the Roman Republic, who served as consul twice, in 147 and 134 BC. He was the natural son of Aemilius Paullus, but was adopted into the Cornelii Scipii—the most prominent family at the time—by a son of Scipio Africanus.

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.

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a twice Roman consul, Pontifex Maximus, Censor and Princeps Senatus. A scion of the ancient Patrician gens Aemilia, he was most likely the son of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, with his brothers being Lucius and Quintus.

Antigonus III Doson was king of Macedon from 229 BC to 221 BC. He was a member of the Antigonid dynasty.

The Illyrian Wars were a set of wars fought in the period 229–168 BC between the Roman Republic and the Ardiaei kingdom. In the First Illyrian War, which lasted from 229 BC to 228 BC, Rome's concern was that the trade across the Adriatic Sea increased after the First Punic War at a time when Ardiaei power increased under queen Teuta. Attacks on trading vessels of Rome's Italic allies by Illyrian pirates and the death of a Roman envoy named Coruncanius on Teuta's orders, prompted the Roman senate to dispatch a Roman army under the command of the consuls Lucius Postumius Albinus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus. Rome expelled Illyrian garrisons from a number of Greek cities including Epidamnus, Apollonia, Corcyra, Pharos and established a protectorate over these Greek towns. The Romans also set up Demetrius of Pharos as a power in Illyria to counterbalance the power of Teuta.

Scerdilaidas or Skerdilaid was an Illyrian king of the Ardiaean Kingdom. Before taking the throne Scerdilaidas was commander of the Illyrian armies and played a major role in the Illyrian Wars against the Romans.

The Chaonians were an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region of Epirus located in the north-west of modern Greece and southern Albania. On their southern frontier lay another Epirote kingdom, that of the Molossians, to their southwest stood the kingdom of the Thesprotians, and to their north lived the Illyrian tribes. According to Virgil, Chaon was the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians. By the 5th century BC, they had conquered and combined to a large degree with the neighboring Thesprotians and Molossians. The Chaonians were part of the Epirote League until 170 BC when their territory was annexed by the Roman Republic.

Antigonea, also transliterated as Antigonia and Antigoneia, was an ancient Greek city in Chaonia, Epirus, and the chief inland city of the ancient Chaonians. It was founded in the 3rd century BC by Pyrrhus of Epirus, who named it after one of his wives, Antigone, daughter of Berenice I and step-daughter of Ptolemy I of Egypt.

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. Apart from his family network, he owed his success to his military skills, as he played a decisive role during the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC, and later won a triumph over the Dalmatae in 155 BC. Corculum was remembered as a staunch conservative, defender of the ancestral Roman customs against political and cultural innovations, notably Hellenism. In spite of his political influence, he could not prevent his rival Cato the Elder from gathering enough support in the Senate to declare the final war on Carthage in 149 BC. At this occasion, Corculum also clashed with his famous cousin Scipio Aemilianus, who destroyed Carthage in 146 BC.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemilianus was a Roman statesman and consul.

Epirus was an ancient Greek state, located in the geographical region of Epirus in the western Balkans. The homeland of the ancient Epirotes was bordered by the Aetolian League to the south, Thessaly and Macedonia to the east, and Illyrian tribes to the north. For a brief period, the Epirote king Pyrrhus managed to make Epirus the most powerful state in the Greek world, and his armies marched against Rome during an unsuccessful campaign in Italy.

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.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, also known as Scipio Africanus-Major, Scipio Africanus the Elder and Scipio the Great, was a Roman general and later consul who is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders and strategists of all time. His main achievements were during the Second Punic War where he is best known for defeating Hannibal at the final battle of the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, one of the feats that earned him the agnomen Africanus.

Sextus Julius Caesar Sex. f. L. n. was a Roman statesman, and the first member of the Julii Caesares to hold the consulship, which he attained in 157 BC.

References

The Hellenistic monarchies By Christian Habicht, Peregrine Stevenson Pages 85–90 ISBN 0-472-11109-4

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Smith, William, ed. (1870). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology .

The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.

Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. He also made advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools.

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 pages. It is a classic work of 19th-century lexicography. The work is a companion to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.

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.