Military campaigns of the Roman Republic
In the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, Hellenistic states were formed in the eastern Mediterranean. The most important of these were Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid kingdom. By the end of the 3rd century BC, the Hellenistic states had lost their former power due to external and internal upheavals, as well as their mutual rivalry. These circumstances contributed to the intervention of Rome in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Gallic Wars and earlier campaigns against Gauls connect Republican military history with the Celts of Italy and western Europe.
The Roman Republic in 44 BCRoman intervention in the eastern Mediterranean began in the third century BCE, including the Illyrian Wars and First Macedonian War. In 197 BCE Titus Quinctius Flamininus defeated Philip V at Cynoscephalae. His proclamation of Greek freedom in 196 did not end Roman political influence.
The war with Antiochus III culminated in the Seleucid defeat at Magnesia in 190 BCE. Under the Treaty of Apamea in 188, the king relinquished territories west of the Taurus and agreed to an indemnity.
In the Third Macedonian War of 171–168 BCE, victory at Pydna ended Perseus’ kingdom. Macedonia was divided into four regions; after a subsequent revolt and Roman victory in 148 it became a province. Corinth was destroyed and the Achaean League dissolved in 146. A separate province of Achaea was not created until Augustus’ settlement of 27 BCE.
Attalus III bequeathed Pergamum to Rome in 133 BCE. Organising the province of Asia involved war against Aristonicus, not an immediate peaceful transfer of every territory. In the Third Punic War of 149–146, Scipio Aemilianus destroyed Carthage and part of its holdings became the province of Africa.
Conquests strengthened Roman predominance and brought booty and enslaved people, but required new systems of administration and generated further conflicts.
Military campaigns in the Roman Republic: - The First Punic War - Second Punic War - The Third Punic War - Rome's War with Macedonia - Slave Revolt in Sicily - The Rise of Spartacus
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