The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome

Abstract This book is a history and reassessment of the last three Antigonid kings of Macedonia: Philip V (r. 221–179), his son Perseus (r. 179–168), and the pretender Andriscus or Philip VI (r. 149–148). They are not as immediately known as their predecessors Philip II (r. 359–336) and Alexander the Great (r. 336–323), who established a Macedonian empire that extended as far as India. By the time Philip V became king, Macedonia was no longer an imperial power and Rome was fast growing its dominance over the Mediterranean. Hostile ancient writers denounced the last kings for self-serving ambitions, flawed policies, and questionable personal qualities. They are condemned for defeats by Rome that saw both the end of the Antigonid monarchy and the fall of the formidable Macedonian phalanx before the Roman legion. They are viewed as postscripts to the kingdom’s heyday and even subsumed within Rome’s expansion in the east. All these views are untrue, as this book shows—the first full-scale treatment of Philip V in eighty years and the first in English of Perseus and Andriscus in fifty. In bringing them together within one set of covers, this volume argues that this period was far from a postscript to Macedonia’s Classical greatness or that the last Antigonid kings were merely collateral damage in Rome’s ascendancy in the east. Despite Roman manpower and resources always putting them at a disadvantage Philip and Perseus often had the upper hand in their wars against Rome and won victories over Roman troops. They deserve to be rated highly for striving to preserve their kingdom’s independence no matter the odds.