Perseus: The Last Greek King of Ancient Greece

Tetradrachm coin minted during the reign of Perseus of Macedon (179-168 BC), the past ancient Greek king anterior to the Roman conquest. PHGCOM / Wikipedia. Public Domain

Perseus of Macedon was the past Greek king of past Greece earlier it came nether Roman regularisation pursuing decision successful the Battle of Pydna successful June of 168 BC.

The past king of Macedon, who ruled from 179 to 168 BC, was besides the past of the Antigonid enactment of kings, a dynasty tracing backmost to Alexander the Great. Perseus had resisted the Romans who had already dominated immense parts of Greece.

Perseus’ gallant effort brought him against the Roman service astatine Pydna. The Romans won the conflict and annexed Macedon, the lone remaining portion of the Hellenistic World. The decision marked the final demolition of Alexander’s empire and introduced Roman authorization implicit Greece and the Near East.

The Greek King Born successful Rome

Perseus was calved astir 213 to 212 BC adjacent Rome. He was the elder lad of King Philip V. Philip’s different son, Demetrius, who was ambassador to Rome and pro-Roman. Perseus was jealous of his member and convinced Philip that Demetrius was conspiring to usurp his throne. Philip had Demetrius executed, and, erstwhile helium died a twelvemonth later, Perseus ascended to the throne.

The Romans, however, knew that Perseus was not pro-Roman similar his member and viewed him with suspicion. The caller king was alert of that, and 1 of his archetypal acts was to renew Macedon’s pact with Rome.

Ruins of past Pydna, Greece. Credit: wikimedia commons / Juergen-Olymp CC BY 4.0

Another diplomatic determination Perseus made was to wed Laodice, the girl of Seleucus IV, the king of the Seleucid Empire, successful bid to person an ally. In a further pursuit of alliances, Perseus had his girl wed Prusias II of Bithynia, who was an force of Eumenes II of Pergamon, an state of Rome.

However, astatine the aforesaid time, Abrupolis, the king of the Thracian people of the Sapaei and an state of the Romans, attacked Macedon and precocious arsenic acold arsenic Amphipolis. He overran the golden mines of Mount Pangaeus. Perseus and his service managed to thrust retired the Sapaei. This struggle created tensions with the Romans due to the fact that their state was ousted.

Perseus enlarged his service by creating a caller confederation with Cotys IV, the king of the Odrysian kingdom, the largest authorities successful Thrace. Moreover, helium ambitiously announced helium could transportation retired reforms successful Greece and reconstruct its erstwhile glory. For this purpose, helium sent agents to the Greek city-states seeking support.

Perseus gained the enactment of Greeks who did not privation to beryllium subjected to Roman rules. He resumed power of the Delphic Amphictyony, established fantabulous relations with Rhodes, and encouraged the Aetolians and Thessalians to revolt against Rome. His governmental maneuvers generated bitter disputes betwixt pro-Roman and pro-Perseus factions.

Perseus caused wide alarm successful Greece erstwhile helium visited Delphi with his army. In 172, Eumenes II of Pergamon incited Rome against Perseus’ assertive plans, frankincense precipitating the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC).

The Battle of Pydna

The alliances Perseus made, his amusement of strength, and his sojourn to Delphi with his service alarmed the Romans. At the aforesaid time, pro-Roman Greek oligarchs and aristocrats who did not privation to suffer their privileges sided with Rome against the Macedon king. This is however the warfare started culminating astatine Pydna.

On June 22, 168 BC, the dense hoplites of the Macedonian phalanx attacked the  legionnaires with their long sarissa. The Romans, nether wide Lucius Aemilius Paullus, attempted to conscionable head-on with the Macedonian dense infantry and suffered large losses, being forced to commencement backing down.

Pydna, Greece. Credit: wikimedia commons / Lemur12 CC BY 4.0

The Roman commander, upon realizing that his halfway was astir to collapse, ordered his agile troops to maneuver and gully the phalanx to the unsmooth terrain of adjacent hills successful bid to interruption its cohesion and unfastened gaps successful the Macedonian formation.

Despite their dense losses, the Romans were capable to maneuver successful an orderly mode and interruption the phalanx. The 4 1000 cavalry men of the Macedonian service failed to enactment the flanks arsenic the phalanx broke, and, by evening, Perseus’ service was utterly defeated. From the archetypal forty-four 1000 Macedonians soldiers, twenty-five 1000 men were killed, wounded, oregon captured by the Romans.

Some historians person criticized the half-hearted involution of the celebrated Macedonian cavalry, attributing it to governmental motives. The cavalrymen were the sons of Macedonian aristocratic families which had go displeased with Perseus’ favoring the masses implicit the elite.

The Battle of Pydna marked the extremity of Alexander’s empire and the Hellenistic era. Following his victory, Aemilius Paullus ordered the sacking of seventy Epirus towns adjacent though they were not progressive with Perseus astatine all. He did truthful to acceptable an illustration for the remainder of Greeks who wished to straight face the Roman power.