Macedonia and Greece (275-146 BCE)

1. Macedonia and Greece(275-146 BCE) March 19th, 2012

2. The Hellenistic World, Ca. 240 BCE Teacher Oz’s Kingdom of History, Ancient Greece Page, http://www.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/static/map09.html, accessed Dec. 1, 2006

3. Conditions in Macedonia after 275 BCE • Macedonia permanently under Antigonid rule until 168 BCE. • 277-239 BCE – Antigonus II Gonatas. • 239-229 BCE – Demetrius II. • 229-222 BCE – Antigonus III Doson. • 222-179 BCE – Philip V. • 179-168 BCE – Perseus. • 168-146 BCE – Macedon divided into four republics nominally under Roman control. • Post 146 BCE – Macedon turned into a Roman province.

4. Macedonian Foreign Policy after 275 BCE • Desire of uniting the kingdom of Alexander abandoned. • Prevention of other kingdoms from gaining power and influence in Greece. • Exercise (indirect) influence in Greece; interference in domestic Greek politics to ensure pro-Macedonian governments. • Desire to secure Macedonian mercantile interests; Peireius, Chalchis, Demetrias (the Fetters of Greece).

5. Affairs in Greece after 275 BCE • Characterized by poleis struggles to maintain autonomia. • Principal strategy = Koinon (i.e. a federated league of states). • Predicated upon earlier models (i.e. the Second Athenian Confederacy, The Synedrion of Corinth etc.). • The Aetolian League, and the Achaean League. • Athens and Sparta attempt independent policies; play off principal powers against one another.

6. The Reign of Antigonus II Gonatas and the Chremonidean War (267-262 BCE) • Reign of Antigonus in Greece seen to be repressive (i.e. garrisons; taxes; harbour dues etc.). • 272-270 BCE - Encroachment on free and independent Greek states (i.e. Argos, Megara, Euboia). • War initiated by free states (esp. Athens and Sparta); fear their freedom in jeopardy. • Encouragement received from Ptolemy II; seeking to frustrate competition from Macedonian shipping.

7. The Chremonides Decree • “Chremonides son of Eteocles of Aethalidae moved: since previously the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, and their respective allies after establishing a common friendship and alliance with each other have fought together many glorious battles against those who sought to enslave the cities, which won them fame and brought freedom to the other Greeks; and now, when similar circumstances have afflicted the whole of Greece because of those who seek to subvert the laws and ancestral constitutions of each city, and King Ptolemy following the policy of his ancestor and of his sister conspicuously shows his zeal for the common freedom of the Greeks; and the people of Athens having made an alliance with him and the other Greeks has passed a decree to invite all to follow the same policy; and likewise the Lacedaemonians, who are friends and allies of King Ptolemy, have voted to make an alliance with the people of Athens…” (Syll. 434-5, IG II2. 687, Staatsv. III. 476. – lines 7-24M.M. Austin, Doc. 49)

8. The Course and Outcome of the Chremonidean War • Anti-Macedonian policy in Athens promoted by Chremonides. • 268 BCE – Persuades the demos to declare war to seek a koinon with Sparta et.al; War declared on Macedonia. • 265 BCE – Antigonus II Gonatas defeats allied forces near Corinth; Spartan king (Areus I) falls in battle. • 262-261 BCE – Athens besieged and starved into submission; Relief fleet of Ptolemy II caught near Cos and defeated. • Athens receives a permanent garrison; Tyrant, Demetrius of Phaleron, appointed to govern Athens. • 255 BCE – Antigonus II Gonatas “Frees Athens” (i.e. removes the tyrant); Remains garrisoned; Democracy restored but limited).

9. Leagues and Federations • The koinon of Athens and Sparta reflective of broader trends in Greek politics. • Federated leagues increasingly common. • Aetolian League and the Achaean League the most significant.

10. The Aetolian League (ca. 200 BCE) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macedonia_and_the_Aegean_World_c.200.png

11. The Aetolian League • Attested as early as 367 BCE. • Joined the rebel cause in the Lamian War (323-321 BCE). • Evolved into principal opponent against Macedonian encroachment in Greece. • Affairs run by a common council (Boule); each state sent a number of reps. Proportionate to pop. • Council elected a common strategos (general). • All adult males are citizens of their own polis and members of the Aetolian League. • Played a major role in repelling the Gauls. • Ca. 278 BCE – Aetolians expanded their territory to include Delphi; controlled the Delphic Amphictionic Council. • Reputation as semi-barbarous herdsmen and farmers; pirates and brigands; image principally from Polybius.

12. Chios Receives Isopoliteia with the Aetolian League • “…Since the [Aetolian] League, because of the ancestral kinship and [friendship] which exists between [our] people and the Aetolians, voted previously to grant us citizenship [and] forbade all to plunder the property of [the Chians] from whatever starting-base [on] pain of being liable to prosecution before the [councilors] on a charge of harming the common interests of the Aetolians; for this the people graciously [accepted] their good will and voted that the [Aetolians] should be citizens and share in all the rights the Chians share in, and decided that they should have priority of [access] to the council and the assembly…” (Moretti II. 78, Syll3. 443. M.M. Austin, Doc. 52. lines 3-11).

13. The Achaean League (ca. 200 BCE) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macedonia_and_the_Aegean_World_c.200.png

14. The Achaean League • Originated ca. early 4th century BCE. • Comprised of ca. 12 small poleis in north-central Peloponnese. • 323-ca. 280 BCE – In a state of disarray; garrisoned by Macedon; pro-Macedonian tyrants est. in a number of cities. • 280 BCE – Tyrants expelled. • 251 BCE – Aratus of Sikyon ( a non-Achaean polis) expelled the pro-Macedonian tyrant Nikokles; joined the Achaean league and assumed nominal leadership; money and support received from Ptolemy II. • Initially anti-Macedonian; later would become pro-Macedonian force.

15. Polybius on the Origins of the Achaean League • “Subsequently in the periods down to the reigns of Philip and Alexander their fortunes varied according to circumstances, but they sought, as I have mentioned, to preserve democracy in the institutions of the League. The League consisted of twelve cities…They are: Patrae, Dyme, Pharae, Tritaea, Leontium, Aegium, Aegira, Pellene, Bura, Cerynea. In the period after Alexander, before the 124th Olympiad (284-280 BCE), they fell into such a state of disunity and disarray, particularly because of the kings of Macedon, that all the cities became divided from each other and acted against their common interest. As a result some had garrisons imposed on them by Demetrius and Cassander and later by Antigonus Gonatas, while others fell under the rule of tyrants; for no one set up so many tyrannies in Greece as did Antigonus Gonatas. In the 124th Olympiad, as I had mentioned above, they had a change of heart and began to work towards unity….For the first twenty-five years the cities I have mentioned constituted the League, electing in rotation a federal secretary and two generals. Thereafter they decided to appoint one general only to whom they entrusted supreme command.” (Polybius 2.39. 42-43. M.M. Austin, Doc. 53)

16. The Political Organization of the Achaean League • Comprised 12 Achaean cities; other non-Achaean cities join after 251 BCE. • A common Boule comprising mainly the propertied elite from member states. • Boule elected a common strategos. • 10 Damiourgoi (lit. “people-workers”); probably judicial magistrates of sorts. • The objective of the League = to protect the freedom of Greek cities in the Peloponnese

17. From Anti-Macedonian to Pro-Macedonian Policy • 245 BCE – Aratus of Sikyon elected strategos; war declared on Aetolian League for fomenting stasis in Sikyon and Aetolian attempts to bring over towns in the western Peloponnese. • 243 BCE – Aratus attempts (unsuccessfully) to induce Athens and Sparta to join. • Threat posed by Macedonia gradually superceded by a growing threat from Sparta in the reigns of Agis IV (244-241 BCE) and Cleomones III (235-222 BCE). • Agis IV and Cleomones III both social reformers; addressed growing civil unrest by debt-relief measures; attempt to revive a modified version of the Lycurgan constitution. • Ca. 235-234 BCE – Achaean League putting pressure on Cleomenes to join; Cleomenes refused and pursued its own hegemonic agenda; aligned Sparta with the Aetolian League; Cleomenes believed to be spreading social revolution throughout the Peloponnese. • 227 BCE – Aratus of Sikyon convinces Achaean League to declare war on Sparta; assistance sought from Macedon (Antigonus III Doson). • 224 BCE – Antigonus III Doson invades the Peloponnese; Cleomenes defeated at b. of Sellasia (222 BCE); flees to Ptolemy III Euergetes; Antigonus “restores” Sparta’s constitution. • Alliance between Macedonia and the Achaean League.

18. The Revolutionary Proposals of Agis IV (243 BCE) • “However, Agis secured the appointment of Lysander as ephor, and straight away introduced through him a law before the elders, the chief provisions of which were the abolition of debts and the redistribution of land. The region between the ravines of Pellene and Taygetus, Malea and Sellasia was to be divided into 4,500 lots, and the rest of the country into 15,000; the latter was to be shared out to those of the perioikoi who were capable of bearing arms, while the central region would go to the Spartiates themselves, whose numbers were to be filled up from all those perioikoi and foreigners who had received a liberal education, were sound in body and in their prime. The Spartiates would be organized into fifteen public messes of 400 or 200 men, and their style of living would be that of their ancestors.” (Plutarch, Agis 7.8. M.M. Austin, Doc. 55b)

19. Aratus of Sicyon Turns to Antigonus III Doson (227-224 BCE) • “The ruined affairs of Greece, which was still able to recover somehow from its present situation and escape from the insolence and rapacity of the Macedonians. Whether it was through distrust and fear of Cleomenes, or because he envied his unexpected success and believed it would be a terrible thing, after holding the front rank for 33 years, to see an upstart interloper destroy his glory and power at once and take over the control of the position he had built up and preserved for so long, Aratus at first sought to apply compulsion and prevent the Achaeans from (from yielding to the leadership of Cleomenes). But they did not listen to him, amazed as they were at the audacity of Cleomenes and believing even that the pretensions of the Spartans to bring the Peloponnese back to the ancestral order was justified. And so Aratus turned to a course of action unworthy of any Greek and most disgraceful for him, and in complete contradistinction of his previous actions and policies: he invited Antigonus Doson into Greece and filled the Peloponnese with Macedonians, whom he himself as a young man had expelled from the Peloponnese after liberating Acrocorinth; he had been himself suspect to all the kings and their enemy, and had heaped abuse on this same Antigonus in the memoirs he left.” (Plutarch, Cleomenes 16. M.M. Austin, Doc. 57)

20. Formation of the Hellenic League • Balance of powers in Macedonia and Greece after b. of Sellasia (222 BCE) = Macedonia & Achaean League vs. Aetolian League & nominal support from Ptolemies. • Antigonus III Doson forms the Hellenic League (224 BCE). • Antigonus league president (not hegemon). • Decisions of the league not binding on member states. • Comprised not only of individual poleis but other leagues (i.e. Boeotian League, Achaean League etc.). • The neutrality of Athens. • 221 BCE – Antigonus III Doson is dead; succeeded by Philip V. • 220 BCE – Philip V mobilized the Hellenic League against the Aetolian League (The Second Social War, 220-217 BCE). • The war a stalemate; Developments in the West increased the pressure for peace and unity in Greece.

21. The Peace of Naupactus (217 BCE) • “To begin with, the king (Philip V) sent out all the representatives of the allies with instructions to put to the Aetolians as conditions for peace that each side should keep what they had at present. The Aetolians readily agreed to this, and there then began a continuous interchange of messages to settle points of detail…I shall record the advice given by Agelaus of Naupactus…Above all the Greeks should never go to war against each other…And if this was altogether impossible, they ought for the present to agree and be on their guard when they considered the size of the armies and the magnitude of the war which was being fought in the west. Even now it was clear to anybody that with even a slight interest in politics, that whether the Carthaginians defeated the Romans in the war or the Romans the Carthaginians, there was no likelihood that the victors would be satisfied with the empire of Italy and Sicily, but would go further and extend their operations and their forces beyond the proper limit.” (Polybius, 5.103.7-104. M.M. Austin, Doc. 59)

22. Rome and the Hellenistic Greeks • 338-280 BCE – Rome slowly expanding through peninsular Italy. • 280s – Subduing Magna Graecia. • 280 BCE – Tarentum invites Pyrrhus of Epirus to Italy to defend against Roman encroachment. • 280-275 BCE – Pyrrhus vs. the Romans; a Pyrrhic victory. • 230 BCE – Roman merchants murdered by Illyrian pirates (1st Illyrian War – 230-228 BCE) – Protectorate est. over some Adriatic Greek cities. • 219 BCE – Demetrius of Pharos attacks cities protected by Rome (2nd Illyrian War) – defeated, he flees to Philip V, king of Macedon. • 218-202 BCE – Rome engaged in the Second Punic War

23. Philip V and Rome:The First Macedonian War (215-205 BCE) • 215 BCE – Philip V makes an alliance with Hannibal against Rome (First Macedonian War 214-205 BCE). • 211 BCE - Rome makes an alliance with the Aetolian League and Attalus I of Pergamum. • 205 BCE – The Peace of Phoenice.

24. Rome’s Treaty with the Aetolians(211 BCE) • “And so terms were drawn up to admit them to the friendship and alliance of the Roman people; and clauses were added (1) that should they wish the Eleans, Spartans, Attalus, Pleuratus and Scerdilaedus would be included in the same treaty of friendship…(2) that the Aetolians should immediately wage war against Philip by land and the Romans should assist them with a fleet of not less than 25 quinqueremes; (3) that of the towns from Aetolia as far as Corcyra, the soil, roofs, walls, and territory should belong to the Aetolians, and everything else should be the spoils of the Roman people…(4) that should the Aetolians make peace with Philip, they would specify in the treaty that the peace would only be valid if Philip refrained from attacking the Romans, their allies and those under their rule….” (Livy XXVI 24.7-15. M.M. Austin, Doc. 62a)

25. Roman Objectives in the Peace of Phoenice • “These were the terms written down and sealed, and a truce was made for two months, to give time to send envoys to Rome to ask the people to ratify the peace on these terms; all the tribes agreed to them, as now that the war was moving to Africa they wished to be free from all other wars for the time being…” (Livy XXIX 12.16. M.M. Austin, Doc. 64)

26. Philip V and Rome:The Second Macedonian War (200-196 BCE) • 205-200 BCE – Philip V gradually encroaching on cities in Illyria and Greece; under Roman protection. • Rhodes and Pergamum appeal to Rome; Rome issues an ultimatum (200 BCE). • 200 BCE – Philip V seizes Abydus; Rome declares war. • 197 BCE – B. of Cynocephalae. • 196 BCE - T. Quinctius Flamininus proclaims “the freedom of the Greeks.”; Romans evacuate Greece; Rome the guarantor of Greek freedom and autonomy. • Joy in Greece except among the Aetolians.

27. Rome Frees the Greeks • “When this decree was made public, all the Greeks were filled with confidence and joy, and only the Aetolians, disappointed at not getting what they had hoped, sought to disparage the decree…And when the herald came forward to the middle and silenced the clamour trhough his trumpeter, and then repeated the same proclamation in the same words as before, the applause was such that those who hear of it today would find it difficult to imagine…Indeed after the competition they were so overjoyed that they nearly killed Flamininus in their display of grattitude.” (Polybius XVIII.45-46. M.M. Austin, Doc. 68). • N.B. Aetolian irritated that the new treaty superseded all previous treaties.

28. The Third Macedonia War • 191 BCE – Alliance between the Aetolian League and Antiochus III (Seleucid king of Syria) to “Free the Greeks.” • 191-189 BCE – First Syrian War/Romans defeat Antiochus at Thermopylae and Magnesia – Romans leave Greece; Macedon remains loyal to Rome. • 179 BCE – Philip V dead; succeeded by his son Perseus. • 179-171 BCE – Perseus marries Laodike (daughter of Seleucus IV); expands his military; secures alliances in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus; Starts to interfere in internal affairs of Greek poleis. • Eumenes II of Pergamum alert the Romans to Perseus’ violation of the treaty. • 171-167 BCE – Third Macedonian War – Rome (L. Aemillius Paulus) defeats Perseus of Macedon (b. of Pydna, 168 BCE) – Antigonids deposed & Macedon divided into 4 republics – Polybius taken hostage to Rome

29. The Fate of Macedonia in 167 BCE • “A herald proclaimed silence and Paulus read out in Latin what had been decided by the Senate and by himself in consultation with his council. Cn. Octavius the Praetor, who was also present, translated the terms into Greek and repeated them. They were as follows: first of all the Macedonians were to be free, keep possession of their cities and lands, use their own laws, and appoint annual magistrates; they were to pay the Roman people half of the tribute they had paid the kings. The Macedon was divided into four regions.” (Livy, XLV.29.3. M.M. Austin, Doc. 79)

30. The End of Macedonia and Greece • Ca. 150 BCE - Andriscus claimed to be a son of Perseus; raised an army and attempted to re-unite Macedon; destroyed a small Roman detachment. • 150-148 BCE – The Fourth Macedonian War; Andriscus defeated by Q. Caecilius Metelleus; Macedon absorbed as a Roman province; garrisoned and governed directly. • Discontent in Greece over: 1. The forced incorporation of Sparta into the Achaean League. 2. Forced repatriation of exiles from the Third Macedonian War. • Roman envoys beaten up in Corinth; The Achaean War (148-146 BCE); Lucius Mummius annihilates Corinth; all Greece turned into a Roman province (Achaea).

31. Lucius Mummius and the End of Greek Freedom (146 BCE) • “The Achaeans who had taken refuge in Corinth after the battle escaped from the city as soon as night fell, together with the majority of the Corinthians. Although the gates were opened, Mummius first hesitated to enter Corinth, as he suspected some ambush lying within the walls; two days after the battle he stormed and burned Corinth. The Romans put to death the majority of the people found in the city, while Mummius sold the women and children into slavery; he also sold all the slaves who had received their freedom and fought on the side of the Achaeans and had not been killed at once in the war. Mummius carried off most of the votive offerings and other works of art, and gave the less interesting ones to Philopoenon, the general sent by Attalus II; even in my time there were spoils from Corinth at Pergamum. All the cities which had fought against the Romans had their walls razed and were deprived of their arms by Mummius even before the sending of the senatorial commission of advisers from Rome. When they arrived, Mummius overthrew the democracies and set up constitutions based on wealth; tribute was imposed in Greece and men of wealth were forbidden to acquire property abroad. All the federal councils, in Achaea, in Phocis, in Boeotia, and everywhere else in Greece, were likewise dissolved. A few years later the Romans were moved to pity for Greece, and restored to all their ancient federal councils and the right to acquire property abroad, and they cancelled the fines imposed by Mummius…And so the Greeks obtained remission of these from the Romans, but a governor has continued to be sent to Greece up to my time…” (Pausanias VII. 16.7-17.1. M.M. Austin, Doc. 80)

32. Conditions in Greece and Macedonia Post 146 BCE • Neither Macedonia nor any Greek polis possess autonomia in foreign policy. • Allowed control over local/internal matters; subject to Rome in international matters. • Roman senate cultivated personal ties of loyalty (patron-client relations) with the established elite of Greece and Macedonia. • The nature of Roman citizenship.