How the Romans Conquered Greece

By the end of the 3rd century BC, Roman expansion reached Greece. By this time, three coalitions of city-states had formed there. The northernmost was the alliance of Macedonia with Epirus — the homeland of King Pyrrhus, who had tried to conquer Rome in 279 BC. In central Greece was the Aetolian League, and in the south was the Achaean League. The city-states were forced to unite to defend themselves against their neighbors. For this reason, none of the alliances harbored goodwill towards the others.

Political Map of Greece in the 2nd century BC

Initially, the Romans did not come to the Greeks as conquerors. Quite the opposite. In 229 BC, the Roman fleet cleared the local coasts of Illyrian pirates. The Greeks, who suffered greatly from the pirates, welcomed the Roman sailors as their saviors. Soon after, the Second Punic War began. The ruler of Macedonia, Philip V, took advantage of the situation and allied with Carthage. He did not plan to participate in the destruction of Rome; his goals were much more modest — to seize territories from other Greek alliances and neighboring regions. The Romans were deeply aggrieved by this “betrayal” by the Greek ruler.

Profile of Philip V on a Macedonian Coin. 2nd century BC.

Philip V built a fleet of small ships (he lacked the funds for larger ones) and…