In his Histories, Polybius wrote extensively about how Hellenistic Greece came under Roman dominion during the 100s BCE. Based on contemporary sources, including Polybius and Timaeus, modern historians agree that Roman involvement in Greece started with no intention toward conquest or empire-building; they were instead attempting to maintain the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean and support their allies and trade partners during a period of unstable and unpredictable alliances and dependencies in the Hellenistic world.
Hellenistic Greece was a loose alliance of independent city-states until it was united by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, in the 300s BCE. After Alexander’s death, his vast empire was split into several warring factions. Foremost among these were Ptolemaic Egypt, the Seleucid Empire (based in modern-day Syria/Anatolia), and the Kingdom of Macedon, while the Greek city-states largely returned to self-rule.
The Romans first entered conflict with Macedonia during the 2nd Punic War, when Philip V of Macedon allied himself with Rome’s foremost rival for domination of the western Mediterranean, Carthage, and its great general Hannibal. Rome sent troops to Greece primarily to prevent the Macedonians from joining their armies to Hannibal’s; the conflict was largely indecisive.
Roman involvement in Greece began in earnest following the succession crisis in Ptolemaic Egypt. As Egypt fell into civil war, Macedon and the Seleucids entered an alliance to divide its territories between them. Fearing this powerful alliance, Roman allies in the Greek city-states of Pergamum and Rhodes sent ambassadors to the Roman Senate requesting intervention. Rome initially intervened diplomatically; when Philip of Macedon ignored the demands, the Romans sent a large army which decisively defeated the Macedonians. Rather than consolidating power in the region, the Romans declared the ‘Freedom of the Greeks’ and withdrew their forces.
With Macedon and Egypt now weakened, the Seleucids were the major power in the eastern Mediterranean and sought to conquer Greece themselves. Once more Rome dispatched the legions to Greece, where they defeated the Seleucid forces decisively, pursuing them across the Aegean and into Anatolia.
The Romans declared war on Macedon once more when Philip’s son Perseus attempted to reassert Macedonian hegemony over Greece. The Roman legions defeated the now-outdated Macedonian phalanx; this time Rome divided Macedon into four client republics, establishing Rome’s first permanent territory in Greece.
Shortly thereafter, a pretender to the Macedonian throne attempting to reinstate the kingdom led to a fourth war in Macedon. This time the Achaean league, an alliance of Greek city-states centered around Corinth, joined the Macedonian side. The Roman legions once again resoundingly defeated the Greek forces, razing Corinth to the ground. This time the Romans decided to remain permanently, dividing the conquered territory into two new provinces: Epirus in the north and Achaea in the south.
Even after the Battle of Corinth and establishment of Roman provinces in Greece, the region remained an alliance of largely independent city-states and kingdoms with varying degrees of independence from Rome. There were several uprisings against Roman hegemony, including one led by Athens that was crushed by the Roman general Sulla. This remained largely the status quo for the next two centuries until the establishment of the Roman Empire, when the region was reorganized into provinces explicitly under Rome’s control.
Followup question:
The Macedonian wars happened right around the same time as the later Punic wars. Why were the Romans so much more focused on erasing Carthage's history/culture than they were the Greek cities?
In a similar vein to this question.
I've read that Rome conquered Greece, but Greeks conquered Rome. A reference perhaps to the Hellenisation of the Roman culture. Did this happen prior to any conquest or after? Or perhaps did the early Greek settlements in Southern Italy evolve to become Roman through the years?
Rome's conquest of Greece was a very slow proces, with Rome gradually getting more and more involved in Greek politics and warfare. After Rome gained de facto control of Greece it still took over a century before Greece was formally incorporated as a province of Rome. I'll try to give a necessarily brief overview of this proces.
Up until the third century BC, Rome was mostly uninvolved in Greece. Rome was still busy expanding in Italy, which did bring into contact - and conflict - with Greek cities in southern Italy. The Pyrrhic War was the first major war between Rome and a Hellenistic ('Greek') state. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a state in northern Greece just across the Adriatic from Italy, suffered major losses in several battles which he mostly won. He couldn't draw on manpower reserves whereas Rome could, so he was forced to give up the war. This is where the "Pyrrhic victory" has its origin. From this moment, 275 BC, Rome controlled all of southern Italy.
At this point Rome got a bit distracted by Carthage, which controlled most of Sicily. The rest of the third century BC is dominated by the First and Second Punic Wars (264-241 BC and 218-201 BC). Between those wars, Rome was involved in Illyria, the area north of Greece. The first major involvement in Greece itself came however during the Second Punic War itself. It was during this war that Philip V of Macedon allied with the Carthaginians and declared war on the Romans. Rome was a bit preoccupied with defending Italy itself against Hannibal and with striking at the Carthaginian base of operations in Spain and Northern Africa, so they didn't have the manpower to strike against Macedon.
The First Macedonian War began with Macedon trying to gain control of Illyria (the area Rome had started to get involved in just before) and several Greek city states. As Rome didn't have the resources to fight there, they sought the help of Greek city states. They found that help in the form the Aetolian League. In return, Rome gave the cities in the League the status of 'amicus' - 'friend of Rome'. The First Macedonian War ended inconclusively in 205 BC, with neither Macedon nor Rome firmly in control of Illyria, but with Rome now absolutely involved in Greek city-state politics.
After the end of the Second Punic War in 201 BC, Rome turned its attention to Macedon and Greece. In a short war - just 3 years - Rome defeated Philip V and imposed peace terms on Macedon. The most important part of the peace was that Macedon could no longer be involved in Greek city state politics. In Roman propopaganda this was brought as "freedom for the Greeks", though of course in practice it just meant that now it was not Macedon manipulating Greek city states but Rome.
An example of this is Sparta. One of the most important and famous city states of the Greek classical age, by this time it was just another city state. During the First Macedonian War it had become an amicus of Rome, but just after that war Sparta went to war with Messene, another amicus of Rome. Also during the Second Macedonian War, Sparta signed an seperate - and early - peace with Macedon. In 195 BC Rome found an excuse - Sparta's occupation of Argos - and went to war with Sparta. Sparta was crushed in a very brief war, after which Rome forced it to join the Achaean League, which meant Sparta lost some of its independence. Again Roman propaganda brought this as Rome giving Argos their freedom.
By now Rome turned its attention further east, to the (Hellenistic) Seleucid kingdom. Wars were fought in Asia Minor, bringing large armies through Greece and Macedon. Twice more Rome got into a war with Macedon, dividing the country into smaller, but nominally free, parts after the Third Macedonian War and finally in two Roman provinces after the Fourth Macedonian War. That's how in 146 Macedon formally became a part of the Roman empire.
Greek city states meanwhile remained 'free', so long as they did not get into Rome's way. To ensure Greek compliance during the Macedonian wars, Rome took important Greek persons as hostages to Rome. Greek city state politics kept evolving though, with various leagues gaining and losing prominence. The Achaean League, which Sparta had been forced to join, pushed its luck though. Greek city states were nominally free but they were usually wise enough to ask the Roman Senate's opinion on important matters. Several times over the years Spartan ambassadors had asked the Senate to allow them to leave the Achaean League and each time the League had sent its own ambassadors to counter the petition. Rome never gave a clear response though. Finally Sparta decided to leave the League on its own accord, to which the Achaean League responded with force. Since the Greek city states were free, they figured they could do this. At this point (just after the Fourth Macedonian War) Rome sent its armies from Italy and Macedon to Greece and completely crushed the Achaean League.
After this, Rome banned the formation of leagues in Greece, effectively putting an end to a large part of Greek city state politics. Moreover, Rome put cities which had resisted them in the most recent war under direct control of the Roman governer in Macedon. Those cities lost their freedom. The other Greek cities remained 'free', with the understanding that they should do whatever Rome asked of them. This situation would exist for a century or so before Greece became a province of the Roman empire just like Macedon had.
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