ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the early phases of Roman imperialism in the Greek east. It begins by assessing the literary relationship between Greece and Rome, and what this meant for Rome’s perception of its place in the Mediterranean. It then follows a chronological scheme to examine Rome’s interference in Greece after the Hannibalic War, principally involving Macedonia and Philip V, the Aetolian League, and the Achaean League, which led to the Second Macedonian War. Roman interference in the Macedonia–Syria–Egypt Hellenistic axis involved Antiochus III ‘the Great’, beaten at Magnesia by Lucius Scipio, and then a war with Perseus of Macedonia. The nature of early Roman imperialism is discussed, stressing its non-acquisitive but rather rapacious/predatory nature, and contemporary witnesses to Rome’s actions are discussed. Hannibal, who fled to the court of Antiochus, was run to ground and committed suicide, and in 146 bc, Corinth and Carthage were sacked and Macedonia became a Roma province, as did Achaea and Africa. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the nature and morality of Roman behaviour.
