Macedon had lost some of its lustre since the days of Alexander the Great, but it still wielded considerable power. Could it stand up to a flourishing Rome?
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Pretty much everyone knows something about Ancient Rome, whether it’s Julius Caesar or gladiators, legions invading Britain or the majesty of the Colosseum. The same can be said of Ancient Greece, from the Olympic Games to the Battle of Thermopylae, and literary treasures such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Given our relative familiarity with these two civilisations, it’s odd that the pivotal moment in their combined history – when the Roman Republic invaded Greece – is almost unknown today.
Before launching into the details of that three-year war, it’s useful to lay out the political landscape of the Mediterranean at that time. When the Second Punic War started in 218 BC, the Roman Republic was one of the smallest of five major powers around the Mediterranean. Half a century later, the situation had changed beyond recognition. Just two factions remained: weak and unstable Ptolemaic Egypt, and the ascendant Roman Republic.