Perseus of Macedon

Perseus was the last king of Macedon and walked in a Roman triumph. Born around 212 BC, the elder son of Philip V, he commanded troops in his teens and succeeded in 179 BC. He reached the throne partly by destroying his brother. Demetrius had spent years as a hostage in Rome and was popular there, and a pro-Roman faction favoured him; Perseus persuaded their father that Demetrius was plotting, and Philip had him executed in 180 BC, learning afterwards that the evidence was fabricated. Perseus set out to restore Macedonian influence in Greece without provoking Rome. He renewed the alliance formally, cancelled debts and recalled exiles inside Macedon, married a Seleucid princess and married his sister to the king of Bithynia, and cultivated the Greek states — where his popularity among the poorer classes was precisely what alarmed Rome and its aristocratic clients. Eumenes of Pergamum went to Rome in 172 BC and accused him of preparing war. The Third Macedonian War began the following year. He fought competently for three years, beat a Roman force at Callinicus, and negotiated repeatedly for peace without result. Lucius Aemilius Paullus arrived in 168 BC and forced a battle at Pydna in June. The phalanx pushed the legions back on level ground and then broke into gaps as it crossed uneven terrain; Roman maniples entered the gaps and destroyed it in about an hour. Some twenty thousand Macedonians died. Perseus surrendered, was displayed in the triumph with his children, and was imprisoned at Alba Fucens, where he died around 166 BC. The kingdom was abolished.

• Lived: 212 BCE – 166 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: king