Co-existing with the Hellenistic world were the increasingly powerful Romans, who by the middle of the third century B. C.E. controlled most of Italy. When Philip V (r. 221-179 B. C.E.) of Macedon tried to expand his territory into Ionia around 200 B. C.E., leaders in Pergamum, Athens, and Rhodes asked Rome to help them turn him back. Rome provided successful help, and granted the cities it aided their independence. But it was now obvious that a new power had emerged in the Mediterranean. By the middle of the second century B. C.E. Rome had conquered Macedon and most of Greece. When Corinth attempted to rebel in 146 b. c.e., it was destroyed by Rome.
Rome’s power would last longer than that of Athens or the other Greek city-states, for a variety of reasons. Rome had united the other cities of Italy-something the Greek city-states had never been able to accomplish in Greece. Rome was also generous in granting civic rights to foreigners, and from this broad base of manpower could form an army large enough to conquer the Hellenistic world. And Hellenistic warfare had grown clumsy, while the Romans improved it by simplifying tactics.
Hellenistic soldiers now fought with even longer pikes, up to 20 feet long, and the once-effective tactic of using cavalry to burst through enemy lines was little used. Roman soldiers carried smaller spears that they threw at their enemy, and then moved in for close combat using the glad-ius, a double-edged steel sword (from which we get the word gladiator) that was much easier to handle than the long Greek spear, and which inflicted much damage. In 30 B. C.E., the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms-Egypt under Queen Cleopatra-was defeated by the Roman Empire.
World History
