Philip V of Macedon

Philip V ruled Macedon from 221 to 179 BC and lost it to Rome. Born in 238 BC, he came to the throne at seventeen and was immediately regarded as exceptionally able — Polybius, who disliked what he became, calls him the darling of Greece in his early years. He fought the Social War against the Aetolian League successfully, and then made the decision that shaped everything after it. Following Hannibal's victory at Cannae in 216 BC he judged Rome finished and made an alliance with Carthage in 215 BC, intending to take the Roman possessions across the Adriatic. Rome could not spare an army but could spare diplomacy, and it set the Aetolians, Sparta, Elis and Pergamum on him. The First Macedonian War ended inconclusively in 205 BC, and Rome did not forget it. He then attacked Ptolemaic possessions in the Aegean in concert with Antiochus III, alarming Rhodes and Pergamum, who appealed to Rome. The Second Macedonian War began in 200 BC. At Cynoscephalae in Thessaly in 197 BC his phalanx, caught by broken ground before it could complete its deployment, was taken in the rear by Roman maniples and destroyed. He kept his throne, paid an indemnity, surrendered his fleet and withdrew from Greece. He spent his last twenty years rebuilding the kingdom's finances, mines and manpower with considerable success, while remaining formally Rome's ally. He had his younger son Demetrius executed in 180 BC on a charge of treason engineered by his elder son Perseus, and appears to have regretted it. He died in 179 BC.

• Lived: 238 BCE – 179 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: king, general