Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece"Is there anyone on earth who is so narrow-minded or uninquisitive that he could fail to want to know how and thanks to what kind of political system almost the entire known world was conquered and brought under a single empire in less than fifty-three years?" --Polybius, Histories The 53-year period Polybius had in mind stretched from the start of the Second Punic War in 219 BCE until 167, when Rome overthrew the Macedonian monarchy and divided the country into four independent republics. This was the crucial half-century of Rome's spectacular rise to imperial status, but Roman interest in its eastern neighbors began a little earlier, with the First Illyrian War of 229, and climaxed later with the infamous destruction of Corinth in 146. Taken at the Flood chronicles this momentous move by Rome into the Greek east. Until now, this period of history has been overshadowed by the threat of Carthage in the west, but events in the east were no less important in themselves, and Robin Waterfield's account reveals the peculiar nature of Rome's eastern policy. For over seventy years, the Romans avoided annexation so that they could commit their military and financial resources to the fight against Carthage and elsewhere. Though ultimately a failure, this policy of indirect rule, punctuated by periodic brutal military interventions and intense diplomacy, worked well for several decades, until the Senate finally settled on more direct forms of control. Waterfield's fast-paced narrative focuses mainly on military and diplomatic maneuvers, but throughout he interweaves other topics and themes, such as the influence of Greek culture on Rome, the Roman aristocratic ethos, and the clash between the two best fighting machines the ancient world ever produced: the Macedonian phalanx and Roman legion. The result is an absorbing account of a critical chapter in Rome's mastery of the Mediterranean. |
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User Review - Shrike58 - LibraryThingI had never read a systematic account of how Rome overthrew Macedonian hegemony in Greece so this book really filled a gap for me, particularly since Waterfield is more concerned (justly) with high ... Read full review
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User Review - Garp83 - LibraryThingAt the Isthmian Games in 196 BCE, Roman Consul Titus Quinctius Flaminius famously issued a “Declaration of Freedom for the Greeks,” subsequent to the defeat of Philip V of Macedon at the Battle of ... Read full review
Contents
Clouds in the West | 1 |
1 Rome Turns East | 4 |
2 THE ILLYRIAN WARS | 21 |
3 BARBARIANS GO HOME | 41 |
4 KING PHILIP OF MACEDON | 62 |
5 THE FREEDOM OF THE GREEKS | 80 |
6 THE ROAD TO THERMOPYLAE | 104 |
7 THE PERIPHERY EXPANDS | 123 |
10 THE END OF MACEDON | 181 |
11 IMPERIUM ROMANUM | 198 |
12 THE GREEK WORLD AFTER PYDNA | 214 |
Key Dates | 237 |
GLOSSARY | 243 |
Notes | 247 |
| 263 | |
| 279 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Acarnanians Achaean League Adriatic Aegean Aemilius Aetolians Africanus alliance allies Ambracia Amynander anti-Roman Antiochus Antiochus III Antiochus’s Apollonia Appian Asia Minor Athens Attalus battle became Boeotian campaign Carthaginians Cato Chalcis coast consul Corcyra Corinth culture Cynoscephalae Dardanians defeat Delphi Demetrius Demetrius of Pharos Diodorus of Sicily diplomatic east empire enemy envoys Epirote Epirus Eumenes Flamininus Flamininus’s fleet force freedom friends Fulvius further gained Galba garrisons Genthius Glabrio Greece Greek Greek cities Greek world Gruen Hannibal Hannibal’s Hellenistic Illyrian Illyris inscription island Italy king Laevinus land legates Lissus Livy Lucius Macedon Macedonian Marcius Mediterranean military Nabis Oricum Paullus peace Peloponnese Pergamene Pergamum Perseus phalanx Pharos Philip Philopoemen plunder Plutarch political Polybius pro-Roman Prusias Ptolemy Punic Pydna RDGE returned Rhodes Rhodians Romans Rome Rome’s Scerdilaidas Scipio Senate Senate’s sent Sherk siege southern Illyris Sparta Syria Teuta Thessaly Thrace threat took town treaty triumph troops victory wars Waterfield
Bibliographic information
| Title | Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece Ancient warfare and civilization |
| Author | Robin Waterfield |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2014 |
| ISBN | 0199916896, 9780199916894 |
| Length | 287 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Ancient / Greece History / Ancient / Rome History / Military / Ancient |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |