ABSTRACT
Between 222 and 188 BC a dozen peace treaties were negotiated between the several major powers around the Mediterranean; since such activity is clearly one of the major functions of diplomacy it is worth considering how it was done. The Roman Republic was involved in half of them, and the others involved most of the other powers of the Greco-Macedonian world. Rome made peace with a long series of (former and future) enemies, and it was in part by these treaties that the city gained the commanding position of imperial power which was the effective foundation for its future empire. From 188 no rival state was able to block Roman expansion whenever the republic felt like it.
