To protect their Adriatic trade-routes, the Romans fought three wars (229; 219; 168 BC) against Illyria (≈Albania) whose queen, Teuta (r.c.231-227 BC), had supported piratical raids by her people. This Roman intervention across the Adriatic was seen by Philip V of Macedon (59; r.221-179 BC) as a potential threat to Greece. When Philip attempted to aid Hannibal (248-283/2 BC) against Rome in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), the Aetolian League (290-190 BC), a military alliance of states in western Greece, joined the Romans and fought with them against Philip in the First Macedonian War (214-205 BC). During the Second Macedonian War (200-196 BC) Rome, now allied with Pergamum and Rhodes, defeated Philip at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC. The Aetolian League, dissatisfied with the meagre awards it had received for their support, declared war on Rome and asked Antiochus III to lead them. Antiochus landed at Demetrias in 192 BC. He was defeated at Thermopylae in 191 BC and retreated to Anatolia.
It was thus in pursuit of Antiochus that Roman soldiers first set foot in Asia in 190 BC. A Roman army led by Cornelius Scipio (consul 190 BC) with his brother the famed Scipio Africanus (consul 205; 194 BC), crossed the Dardanelles and assisted by Eumenes II of Pergamum (r.197-160 BC), defeated Antiochus at Magnesia. By the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC, Pergamum was granted all the Seleucid lands north of the Taurus, and Rhodes gained control over Caria and Lycia.
After Vulso’s campaign against the Galatians in 189 BC, Rome seems to have been content to leave the control of Asia Minor in the hands of her allies. This approach did not change even after the unexpected bequest by Attalus III of his kingdom to Rome in 133 BC – after the suppression of the revolt by the pretender Aristonicus in 129 BC, much of the Pergamene kingdom was given to Pontus and Cappadocia. Except for a command led by the praetor Marcus Antonius (d.87 BC) was sent to subdue the pirates operating out of Cilicia in 102 BC, Roman legions did not enter Asia Minor until Mithridates VI’s defeat in the First Mithridatic War (88-66 BC),
At the death in 74 BC Nicomedes IV of Bithynia bequeathed his kingdom to Rome and the Roman senate quickly voted it as a new province. In 66 BC Pompey drove Mithridates back to the Cimmerian Bosporus and made Armenia a client kingdom. In 63 BC in his settlement for the east Pompey created the new provinces of Bithynia-Pontus and Cilicia. When Amyntas of Galatia died in 25 BC, Augustus made a province of his kingdom. In AD 17 Tiberius reduced Cappadocia to a province and annexed Commagene to the province of Syria.
The Parthians claimed Mesopotamia as far north as Osroene, which placed them in direct opposition to Rome. In 96 BC the Euphrates was accepted as the frontier between the two powers, but the status of Armenia was not defined. In 63-66 it was agreed that Parthia named its kings but Armenia remained under Roman suzerainty. In 113-117 Trajan annexed Armenia and invaded Mesopotamia. His successor Hadrian retreated from Mesopotamia but Armenia remained under Roman influence. In 161 Vologases IV of Parthia (r.147-191) occupied Armenia and Syria. 1n 163 Armenia was recaptured and the Parthians driven out of Syria. In 166 a peace treaty was concluded. In 217 Caracalla (29; r.211-217) tried to capture Armenia, but his successor Macrinus (c.53; r.217-218) chose to recognise Tiridates II (r.217-252) as the king of Armenia.
During the middle of the third century Anatolia was threatened by the Goths. These German-speaking invaders apparently migrated from what is now Poland to appear along the north coast of the Black Sea. When the Goths gained control of the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus they captured a navy and the sailors to man it. In 256/257 they attacked the Roman cities on the southern coast of the Black Sea, opening the way for the destruction of the inland cities of Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea and Prusa. In 276/277 the Goths invaded the provinces of Pontus, Cilicia and Galatia. Why the Gothic naval attacks ceased after this is not known.
In 224 the Sassanids overthrew the Parthians. In 252 the Persians invaded Armenia. In 260 Valerian (c.60; r.253-260) tried to strike back and was taken prisoner. In 270 Aurelian (c.60; r.270-275) drove the Persians back from the eastern front. In 287 Tiridates III (c.80; r.287-298) entered Armenia and drove his enemies out. In 298 Galerius (c.51; r.305-311) marched into Armenia and crushed Narseh’s army. In 299 the Persians agreed to a treaty that recognized Armenia and its northern neighbour Iberia as Roman clients. In 301 Tiridates and his people converted to Christianity, the first nation to do so, under the influence of the monk Gregory the Illuminator (c.257-c.331).
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