In late summer the consul 04Sulpicius Galba (fl.211-193 BC), although he would be unable to mount a campaign until after the winter, took his two legions across to Epirus and established a base near Apollonia. Having some ships he sent twenty triremes under his legate 10Claudius Centho round the coast to Athens and found it virtually under siege as a result of Macedonian attacks from Chalcis and Corinth. To relieve the situation Centho, supported by Rhodian and Athenian ships, attacked Chalcis and destroyed much war material.
Galba sent another legate Lucius Apustius with an attachment to the northwest to attack Macedonian border districts, where he captured Antipatrea and Codrion surrendered. Immediately afterwards Pleuratus III of Ardia (r.c.205-181 BC), Amynander of Athamania and Bato of Dardania (r.c.206-176 BC), all arrived at the Roman camp and offered assistance.
Galba himself made a successful push into the interior. His slight success at Ottolobus forced Philip to withdraw deeper into Macedonia and soon the Romans occupied Eordaea. Attalus had corresponding successes in the Aegean, particularly the capture of Oreus on the north coast of Euboea.
Galba’s success though limited was however sufficient to persuade the Aetolians to join Rome, and they immediately together with Amynander rushed out with the army into Thessaly. Philip suddenly attacked and it was only thanks to Amynander that this rash operation did not turn into a disaster.
Sulpicius’ replacement, 01Villius Tappulus, was late arriving and went into winter quarters on Corcyra. In the spring he crossed to Epirus to learn that Philip had marched over Pindus and established his camp near the pass of Antigonea, where it commanded the direct route into Macedonia. Villius decided to fight and brought up his troops, but before he could do battle the new consul Titus 07Quinctius Flamininus (c.55; fl.205-c.174 BC) arrived, earlier than expected, with reinforcements.
Flaminius opened talks with Philip, who offered to give up his conquests, but not his hereditary possessions. Flaminius, however, insisted that Philip should vacate all of Greece including Thessaly which had been part of Macedon since the Battle of Crocus Field in 353/2 BC. Philip broke off the negotiations and the war continued.
Flaminius managed to turn Philip’s position on the Aous and inflicted a tactical defeat upon him, forcing the king to retreat up the valley and into Thessaly. Rome’s allies the Aetolians and Athamanians made inroads from the south. Philip now ravaged Thessalian land to deny the invaders its produce.
Flaminius invaded Macedonia from the south but found himself blocked by Philip’s fortress of Atrax in northeastern Thessaly. After besieging the town unsuccessfully, he moved south into Phocis (northwest of the Isthmus) to secure coastal towns for landing supplies from Corcyra. He occupied Anticyra but failed to capture Elateia. Flaminius’ brother Lucius Quinctius (8) (fl.201-170 BC) sailed around the Peloponnese with a fleet and joined Attalus for an assault on Euboea. Eretria was taken and Carystus surrendered.
Having secured possession of the two principal towns on Euboea, Flaminius sailed south to Cenchreae (southeast of the Isthmus), to attack Corinth. Learning that Achaea (southwest of the Isthmus) had expelled Cycliadas, the leader of the pro-Philip faction, Flaminius sent an envoy 02Calpurnius Piso to the Achaeans and he won their support by a promise to help them recover Corinth. Corinth and its Macedonian garrison resisted the attack and shortly afterwards Argos seceded from Achaea to Philip, but Elateia finally fell to Flaminius.
In November, talks took place on the shore of the Malian Gulf near Nicaea in Epicnemidian Locris. The Romans demanded the evacuation of Corinth, Chalcis (Euboea) and Demetrias (Thessaly), three fortresses known as the ‘Fetters of Greece’, the Greek allies having informed the Romans that as long as the king held these cities he could intimidate people elsewhere in Greece at will. Philip broke off negotiations.
In the winter Philip attempted to bribe Nabis of Sparta (r.207-192 BC) to remain neutral by offering him Argos, but once Nabis gained possession of the city he immediately went over to the Romans. Flaminius then advanced from Elateia and joined Attalus at Thebes to secure an alliance with the Boeotian League at their council meeting in the city. Thus almost all of Philip’s allies, except Acarnania, Chalcis and Corinth, had been brought over to Rome.
In 197 BC Flaminius marched northwards to Thessaly and came into contact with Philip near Pherae. Both armies numbered about twenty-five thousand men including infantry and cavalry, but Flaminius also had elephants. As the ground was not suited to battle, both armies marched westwards on opposite sides of a range of hills named Cynoscephalae. Near Scotussa, detachments from the two armies met unexpectedly and their engagement escalated into a battle.
The hilly terrain did not suit Philip’s phalanx, but he deployed his army on the ridge, while a covering action by Aetolian cavalry gave Flaminius time to draw up his army below. Philip leading his right wing in person drove back the Roman left, but his successful attack created a gap with his other wing. Flaminius attacked with his right and routed the opposing left.
A Roman tribune gathered twenty maniples from the rear of the Roman right wing then wheeled round through the gap to attack the flank and rear of the Macedonian right, whose phalanx formation was too inflexible to enable it to meet the new attack. Philip was crushingly defeated.
After the battle Philip sent envoys to Flaminius at Larissa to negotiate the terms for peace. An Aetolian demand to depose Philip and seize his kingdom was quickly dismissed by Flaminius, who warned that the destruction of Macedonia would allow the Thracians, Illyrians and Gauls to pour through into Greece. Also, he realised that removing the threat of Philip would only create a new threat from the ambitious Aetolians.
Philip then offered the terms that had been demanded of him at Nicaea, that he evacuated the whole of Greece, including the Fetters. Flaminius, after receiving two hundred talents and hostages that included Philip’s son Demetrius (d.180 BC), recommended to the Senate that they accepted these terms.
The Senate appointed a ten-man commission to settle the outstanding questions. They arrived at Tempe in 196 BC with a senatus consultum: all Greeks not subject to or garrisoned by Philip, whether in Europe or Asia, shall be free and live according to their own laws; those subject to Philip and the cities garrisoned by him shall be handed over to the Romans before the Isthmian Games (June/July 196 BC).
Flaminius pleaded with the commission to remove all Roman forces from Greece, but they believed that the danger from Antiochus required them to keep possession of the Fetters for the moment, but promised that there would eventually be a total Roman withdrawal.
The Aetolians complained that with the Romans controlling the Fetters the European Greeks had simply changed masters. Flaminius responded with his famous declaration at the Isthmian Games: that the Greeks were to be free, ungarrisoned, untaxed and subject only to their own ancestral laws.
The Aetolians claimed the return of all their past conquests, but they only got Phocis, east Locris and part of Thessaly; the rest of Thessaly was grouped into four federal states. Euboea became a separate league; the Corinthians joined the Achaean League (280-146 BC); Lychnidus and Parthus were given to Rome’s ally Pleuratus III of Illyria (r.c.205-c.181 BC).
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