Macedonian (323 to 146 BC)

The Macedonians were a Greek people that populated the south central Balkan Peninsula. In 338 BC, King Philip II of Macedonia conquered the Greek city-states. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, conquered nearly every civilization from Egypt to India, building a huge empire in which culture and art flourished. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire went through many years of turmoil as his senior generals and family members vied for control. By 301 BC, Alexander's mother, wife, son, and half brother had all been murdered. Following the battle of Ipsus that year in Asia Minor, the empire was divided into four kingdoms--Macedonia, Thrace, Egypt, and Persia. Although Egypt and Persia both initially claimed Syria, Persia annexed it by 281 BC. In 277 BC, Antigonos Gonatas ( a descendent of Antigonos, one of Alexander's generals) became king of the Greek Kingdom of Macedonia and established the ruling Antigonid dynasty, which reigned until its conquest by the Romans. Together with Syria and Egypt, Macedonia became one of the three great kingdoms of the Hellenistic world. Macedonia's attempt to expand its territories met opposition from Pyrrhus and the confederation of the city-states of central and southern Greece. (Athens bribed its way out of confederation and became a neutral state, but never regained its past prominence.)

During the 3rd century BC, Pyrrhus came to the aid of the Greek colonies in southern Italy and Sicily that were fighting the Romans in Italy. The early victories by Pyrrhus were so costly and had so little effect (thus the expression, "Pyrrhic victories") that the Greeks were forced to withdraw by 275 BC. During the Second Punic War the Greeks actively aided Hannibal against the Romans. In this same period, the Greeks fought the Romans, who had invaded Illyria (northeast Adriatic coast from modern north Albania to Croatia) to put an end to piracy in the Adriactic.

By 202 BC, the kingdom of Macedonia was struggling to maintain control of the city-states of the Greek Peninsula, which were joining together in rebellion. A small Roman army came to their aid and, by 196 BC, defeated the Macedonian army. Macedonia's power revived and the Romans invaded again in 172 BC, defeated the kingdom of Macedonia at the battle of Pydna in 168 BC, and removed the Antigonids from power. The Romans attempted to leave the other Greek city-states on their own, but the kingdom of Macedonia took up arms again. The Romans invaded in 149 BC and made the kingdom of Macedonia a Roman province. Roman patience with the other Greek city-states was exhausted by unrest in Corinth in 147 BC, so they besieged and sacked that city in 146 BC. As a lesson to the other city-states, the citizens of Corinth were sold into slavery, the buildings were torn down, and anything of value was shipped home to Rome.