According to justinshoes, the defeat of Thermopylae, which forced Antiochus, weakly helped by the allies, to fall back to Asia (191), left the Aetolians alone in the face of Roman excessive power. Philip took advantage of it to try to regain part of what he had lost in Thessaly and the surrounding regions, and the Achaeans to definitively unify the Peloponnese, adding to their league those Peloponnesian states that had sympathized with Aetolia: Sparta, Messenia and Elis. The Romans, at first, waged the war in Greece with mediocre energy, caring above all to win Antiochus in Asia. But, having assured their supremacy in the Aegean with the battles of Corico and Mionneso and forced Antiochus to peace with the decisive battle of Magnesia (190-89), they turned their attention to Greece, where Fulvio Nobiliore besieged the most important city of the Aetolian league, Ambracia (189), without being able to free it to the Aetolians, despite its heroic resistance. So the Aetolians had to make peace shortly after, recognizing the Roman supremacy, accepting territorial losses, renouncing the primacy in the Delphic amphitionary, which they had held for nearly a century. And again the Romans left Greece, apparently free as before, without imposing presidencies on it and without demanding anything other than a moderate war indemnity from the belligerents. But now the demonstration that the Romans had given of their absolute military superiority, the growing contempt for the impotence and the quarrels of the Greeks and at the same time the distrust in them, the intention to deprive them of the possibility of any rebellion made that protection became heavier and more alert. They waited to limit the increases that Philip believed he had earned with the faithful alliance against Antiochus and the Aetolians, and to favor disintegrating tendencies within the Achaean league. Of these tendencies, Philopoemen, the most distinguished man in the league, fell victim. Messene rebelled, counting on the sympathies of the Romans and particularly of Flaminino, Philopoemen, who rushed to quell the rebellion, was taken prisoner and put to death by an unfortunate accident (183). But the Achaeans took advantage of this accident; under the impression of horror and indignation it aroused, the stratego Licorta managed to re-establish the wavering authority of the league throughout the Peloponnese. Not so lucky was Philip, who was forced to sell most of his new purchases. From this he had been induced to resume, after the brief interlude, the anti-Roman policy which he had followed all his life, preparing his revenge with indefatigable ardor. Dying (179-78) he left his son Perseus wonderfully reorganized Macedonia, reinvigorated by friendships and alliances with neighboring barbarian tribes, equipped with a large, fierce and well-equipped army. It was evident to the Romans that, if they were to maintain their supremacy in the Balkan Peninsula, they had to weaken Macedonian military might. Therefore, with little pretexts, they declared war on Perseus (171), and by holding him at bay with negotiations they prevented him from that vigorous offensive in Greece which could have raised the despondent spirits of the Greeks and called them to the defense of the national cause. Thus Perseus was left alone or almost alone and his lack of genius even prevented him from effectively using the marvelous instrument of war that was the Macedonian army reorganized by Philip V. what more to the lack of capacity and energy of the Roman commanders, they ensured that isolated insurrections against Rome took place and that ambitions of rebellion were shown everywhere, in Aetolia no less than in Achaia. Mere ambitions: because, as the economic turmoil and the inequality between classes worsened, Greece was increasingly troubled by social disputes in the midst of which the possessing classes in their great majority relied confidently on Rome, which guaranteed them the stability of conditions and of possessions. It was enough that the consul Marcio Filippo succeeded in crossing the Olympus passes and invading Pieria (169) for those ambitions to begin to become memos. The decisive victory of Pydna, won by the consul Emilio Paolo (168), overthrew the Macedonian monarchy; Perseus was taken prisoner, Macedonia divided into four tributary republics of Rome. The rebellion of Epirus was terribly punished with the devastation of the Molossian country and the enslavement of that entire population. Fierce repressions in Aetolia and elsewhere punished the ambitions of rebellion; a thousand Achaeans suspected of having favored Perseus were deported to Italy. In southern Illyria the Romans destroyed the kingdom of the Ardiei, and took King Gentius, who had allied himself with Perseus, prisoner. Then Emilio Paolo returned to Rome to triumph there and again no Roman garrison remained in the Greek peninsula. But by now the Greeks no longer deluded themselves about the value of a freedom dependent on foreign consent. Hatred fermented among the Greek popular classes, but it was impotent hatred, and on the other hand the Romans worked tirelessly to make it more impotent, continuing to foment everywhere, and particularly in the Achaean league, the disintegrating tendencies. What was the state of minds was seen when Andriscus, a young man who claimed to be the son of Perseus, the one to whom historians gave the name of Pseudofilippo, showed up at the Macedonian border.
