The outbreak of three Punic Wars marked an attention-grabbing period of Roman history
that at times even overshadowed the contemporary events outside of the Carthaginian-Roman conflict.
Another pesky rival of the Romans came in the form of the Illyrians,
though they were not a competition for Rome in the same way as Carthage.
Instead, the Illyrians posed a threat through piracy in the Adriatic, which eventually became
an annoyance for the Romans...
The first time these tensions boiled over was in 229 BC when these people were mostly
united under Queen Teuta, who had started to turn a blind eye, to say the least, to
increasing piracy throughout the Adriatic.
Rome at first ignored this as well, but once it began to impact Roman trade, the Senate
opted to intervene through diplomacy.
When this led to a Roman envoy being killed on the order of the queen, war became inevitable…
The short Roman campaign of revenge saw a victory by the co-consuls and their troops
in Illyricum, and Teuta eventually being cornered into signing a peace treaty that handed over
some of her territories to Rome while Illyrian fleets were forced to remain north of Lissus
if in groupings larger than 2 ships at a time.
Rome hoped that this would resolve the piracy issue, but the rule would shortly be broken
nevertheless.
Around the time of the First Illyrian War, however, the Romans had additionally been
fighting with the Gallic tribes of Northern Italy, some of which had actually seized and
sacked Rome itself back in 390 BC.
By now, in 225 BC, the Gauls of Northern Italy and their Gallic allies across the Alps hoped
to end a long-running back and forth with Rome by repeating the successes of 390 BC.
Instead, the Romans had been heavily prepared and routed the aggressors at the Battle of
Telamon and the following campaigns that suppressed any remaining resistance -
By 220 BC, the Illyrian ruler Demetrius of Pharos, who had previously cooperated with
the Romans, wanted to begin expanding his own power in spite of the prior peace agreement.
Demetrius thus led a fleet of 90 ships south of Lissus and attempted to seize more territory,
but he was quickly stopped by the Romans who instead captured Dimale and crushed the resistance
at Pharos.
Demetrius eventually gave up and sought refuge in Macedon, ending the Second Illyrian War,
but only causing a break in hostilities - not an end.
As if the Romans had not been preoccupied with enough wars already, they would simultaneously
end up fighting a series of wars with Macedon.
The first of these clashes began during the Second Punic War after Philip The Fifth of
Macedon decided to officially align with Carthage under the command of the renowned Hannibal.
Hoping only to keep the former busy so they wouldn’t intervene on behalf of Carthage,
Rome sent some troops to clash with the Macedonians along the Adriatic until the Punic War was
coming to an end.
The truce was, predictably, only a temporary resolution, but to be fair, this time, it
was the Greeks who asked Rome to come back.
There was a looming threat from the Macedonians and Seleucids, who had recently formed an
unexpected alliance, and Rome’s friends in Greece were uneasy about the potential
ambitions of Philip V and Antiochus The Third.
At first, the Romans had aimed to dissuade Philip in particular from interfering with
their Greek allies, but the ultimatums given went wholly ignored.
Furious at this response, or lack thereof, the Romans sent consul Titus Quinctius Flaminius
to enforce Rome’s demands with the help of a Roman-Greek coalition.
Despite Philip’s earlier confidence in his ability to stand up to the Romans, he, in
fact, could not…
The Macedonians were utterly vanquished at the Battle of Cynoscephalae
in 197 BC and their ruler was put back in his place by Rome.
This, however, only addressed one-half of the newly formed alliance.
The Seleucids were still a looming threat, and now, maybe even more so without Macedonia
to balance them out…
After the Second Macedonian War, the Romans had pulled entirely out of Greece, having
no more interest in staying nor remaining intertwined in Greek affairs.
But this left the Seleucid Empire as the dominant entity in the region, and Antiochus was by
no means as uninterested as the Romans.
Instead, he was looking to do what Philip had failed to.
With Hannibal as the Seleucids’ top military advisor, there was now not only a threat to
Greece but even to Rome.
As a result, the Roman-Greek alliance pumped out another coalition force, this time commanded
by Scipio Africanus, and the war began on Rome’s terms.
It would end with the 191 BC Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Magnesia and a Roman triumph.
The end of this war also marked the start of the Seleucid Empire’s demise, but, the
Macedonians were almost ready to give war with Rome another shot…
Just as they had erroneously done after the Second Macedonian War, after the Seleucid
War, the Romans pulled out of Greece with the assumption that there would now be peace
in the region.
Right on cue, mirroring the Seleucids, now the Macedonians attempted to expand as Philip
had tried to do before his death and the succession of his son, Perseus, who was now in charge.
Nevertheless, even the new Macedonian king stood no chance against the Romans in the
end, and by 168 BC, the Battle of Pydna brought an end to it all.
This time, knowing they couldn’t leave without destabilizing the region, Rome broke Macedon
up into 4 individual states under its own watchful eye.
This was because, yet again, in 168 BC tensions boiled over for a final time when the Romans
watched their once-ally in Illyrian King Gentius switch sides to align with the Macedonians.
Once more though, this was a short-lived clash and by the end of 167 BC, Rome was victorious
and finally able to move on…
Although a Fourth Macedonian War and subsequent Achaean War would follow, both of these were
short-lived and Rome remained unwavering and victorious in its Greek endeavors…
And yet, the Roman Republic would be faced with yet another war aside from those with
Carthage, Macedon, the Seleucids, Gauls, and the Illyrians.
This time, Rome was forced to address growing resistance surrounding their Iberian territorial
holdings, particularly from the Lusitanian tribes in Hispania Ulterior.
The Lusitanians had been clashing with the Romans for some decades as they maintained
their autonomy in spite of Rome’s expansion.
But in 155 BC, the rebellions were becoming greater and more intense, and in 150 BC, the
Romans lit an even bigger fire underneath them.
After feigning a will for negotiation, the Roman praetor Servius Sulpicius Galba had
thousands of the Lusitanians massacred in cold blood...
But, one man by the name of Viriathus managed to escape the tragedy and would be elected
to lead the tribes only a few years later.
He quickly became a heroic icon for the tribes and his bitterness toward Rome was as strong
as ever.
The battles were tough, but Viriathus would continue his resistance until his final breath,
which would tragically be taken in 139 BC by three men who’d betrayed the ruler on
behalf of the Romans, killing him in his sleep.
And so, it was at this time that the Third Punic War had been wrapped up, and so was
all that had occurred alongside it.
Though war was not all that occupied Rome over the decades and centuries, it was surely
a common part of the republic’s history.
Nevertheless, back home, feats of architecture, politics, and arts were also being birthed,
though regularly overshadowed by the conflicts that both challenged and solidified Rome’s
overwhelming dominance in Greece, Iberia, and surrounding areas.
Still, it may have been the Punic Wars that truly surpassed the notability of all of the
other conflicts, as Rome and Carthage duked it out for who would be the most powerful
influence from Italy all the way to North Africa.
As these wars were waged across the map and the Romans piece by piece dismantled their
enemies' empires, the republic was concurrently putting a stop to each and every other rival,
challenger, and general enemy.