Late Roman Republic, Pompeius Magnus (= Pompey; fl.82-48 BC): Macedonia (97-62 BC)

In 97 BC the Dardani and the Maedi were defeated by Macedonia’s Roman army. In 92 BC the Maedi defeated Gaius Sentius, governor of Macedonia from 93 to 87 BC; Sentius had difficulties with the Thracians under a king named Sothinus in 89 BC, but he ultimately prevailed. The wars with Mithridates disrupted Roman control over most of the province, and despite the efforts of Sulla and his legate Hortensius (2) in 86/5 BC, stability did not return to Macedonia for some time.

It was probably in 86 BC as a diversion in the rear of Sulla that a major invasion by the Scordisci, Maedi and the Dardanians reached the sanctuary of Delphi in Greece, which was plundered and burnt. Not much later ³⁶Cornelius Scipio (cos.83 BC) overcame them and drove them across the Danube. After this, the power of the Scordisci declined rapidly.

²⁰Claudius Pulcher (c.63; fl.88-76 BC), the governor of Macedonia from 78 to 76 BC, tackled the Maedi and the Dardani with some success. In 76 BC the consul Scribonius Curio, who arrived with five legions, managed to compel the Dardani into submission and became the first Roman commander to take his forces all the way to the Danube. In 73 BC the consul ⁰⁴Terentius Varro continued the offensive against the Bessi and other Thracians and marched through Moesian territory to the Black Sea, taking the cities of the coast as far north as the mouth of the Danube. In 64 BC ¹⁵Manlius Torquatus (cos.65 BC) was sent to Macedonia, and in 62 BC he was replaced by ⁰⁴Antonius Hybrida (cos.63 BC).