First Macedonian War — Philip V Allies with Hannibal
Philip V of Macedon allied with Hannibal in 215 BC, and Rome fought him with almost no troops for a decade. The alliance was made after Cannae, when Rome had lost three armies in twenty months and looked finished. Philip's interest was Illyria on the Adriatic coast, where Rome had established protectorates that blocked Macedonian access to the sea. The treaty was captured at sea with its envoys, which is why the text survives. Rome could spare nothing for Greece. Its answer was to find someone else to do the fighting: it allied with the Aetolian League in 211 BC, and with Sparta, Elis, Messenia and Pergamum, on terms that gave Rome any moveable plunder and the Aetolians any territory taken. A single Roman fleet and a small force under Marcus Valerius Laevinus did the rest. The war was therefore fought in Greece by Greeks, and it achieved exactly what Rome needed — Philip was kept occupied and never crossed to Italy. The Aetolians made a separate peace in 206 BC when they had had enough of being used, and Rome concluded the Peace of Phoenice in 205, conceding most of the Illyrian points at issue. It was, on paper, an inconclusive war that Rome did not win. What it produced was a permanent Roman interest in Greek affairs and a set of Greek clients who would appeal to Rome against Macedon. Rome came back in 200 BC and destroyed Philip's army at Cynoscephalae. Rome had learned that Greece could be managed by supporting whoever objected to whoever was strongest, and used that method for the next fifty years.
- Year: 215 BCE
- Category: Military
