Middle Roman Republic, Eastern Mediterranean (204-146 BC): Hellenistic East 

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC his generals fought over his empire, which stretched from Greece to the Indus River. After the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC the situation stabilised into three major kingdoms: the Antigonids in Macedon and Central Greece; the Seleucids in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and northern Syria based at Antioch on the Orontes; the Ptolemies in Egypt and southern Syria based at Alexandria; together with some lesser kingdoms in Asia Minor, i.e. Armenia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Pergamum, Pontus. 

In 204 BC the balance of the three great powers was upset by the death of Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt (40; r.221-204 BC) and the accession of his son Ptolemy V Epiphanes (28, r.204-181 BC), a five-year-old child. 

In 203/2 BC Philip V of Macedon (59; r.221-179 BC) and Antiochus III of Syria (c.54; r.223-187 BC) formed an alliance to share Egypt’s possessions in Europe and Asia. The plan left each monarch free to pursue his own aggressive interests: Philip in the Aegean, Antiochus in Syria and Phoenicia. 

Philip, having burnt his ships in 214 BC to prevent their capture by the Romans, decided to build a larger and more powerful fleet. To raise the money for this he: persuaded an Aetolian adventurer Dicaearchus (fl.205-196 BC) to embark on a piratical raid around the Aegean (205 BC); paid Cretan pirates to attack the Cyclades and the Rhodians (204 BC); used his fleet to capture Thasos and raid the Hellespont (203 BC); and campaigned against the Egyptian possessions in the Aegean (202 BC). Rhodes and Pergamum then declared war on Philip.

 In 201 BC Philip captured Ptolemy’s naval base at Samos, defeated the Rhodian fleet at Lade and ravaged Pergamum, but Chios, Pergamum, Byzantium and Rhodes decisively defeated Philip in a naval battle off Chios and blockaded him at Bargylia. While he was thus immobilised, envoys from Rome and Pergamum hurried to Rome to denounce his activities. 

By the spring Philip had broken through the blockade and was back in Europe where he got himself involved in a war between Athens and Acarnania. Attalus-I of Pergamum (72; r.241-197 BC) was invited to Athens and, knowing that a Roman delegation had lately arrived at the city, he accepted. On receiving assurances from Rome as well as from Rhodes and Pergamum, the Athenians declared war on Macedonia.

Philip sent his general Nicanor to ravage Attica. The Romans sent an ultimatum to Philip, who responded by launching an assault on Athens, led by Philocles, his commander in Euboea, while he himself led an attack on Hellespont. He was besieging Abydos when ¹⁰Aemilius Lepidus (c.78; fl.216-175 BC) arrived with Rome’s final ultimatum. Undeterred, Philip continued his attack and so brought on the war.