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The battle of Cynoscephalae was one of the most important victories during the early expansion of the Roman Empire outside Italy, and a sign that the balance of power in Greece and the Hellenistic world was about to change.
In the aftermath of the death of Alexander the Great, his former commanders and their descendents battled to control his empire. They eventually formed three major powers – Ptolomeic Egypt, the Seleucid Empire and Antigonid Macedonia. For most of this period the Roman Republic was a largely Italian power, but thirty years before Cynoscephalae the Republic had intervened east of the Adriatic for the first time. This First Illyrian War had been triggered by Illyrian attacks on Italian merchant ships and saw the Romans establish a protectorate along the Illyrian coast. This made them a player in the affairs of Greece, if only a minor one for the moment.
The book traces how that minor involvement eventually led to a full scale war between Rome and Macedon. Key to this was the Second Punic War. When Rome’s power was at its lowest ebb, Philip V of Macedon decided to form an alliance with Hannibal, triggering the First Macedonian War. The Romans were understandably distracted by Hannibal’s campaigns in Italy, and their main effort in Greece was naval. This was ended in 205 BC, by which point the Romans were in the accendancy over Hannibal. 202 BC saw the final defeat of Hannibal at Zama in North Africa and 201 BC the official end of the Second Punic War.
While Rome was defeating Carthage, Philip was busy campaigning himself, getting involved in wars with Rhodes, Pergamon, Athens and in Thrace as well as attacking Ptolemaic possessions in Greece and the Aegean. Rhodes and Pergamon asked Rome for help, and in 200 BC, on the second attempt the Roman popular assembly voted in favour of war. This time the Romans were ready to commit their armies to the campaign.
After this introduction we move on to a look at the commanders. This was the period of the high republic, so on the Roman side the land commander at the start of the war was Publius Sulpicius Galba, one of the two consuls for 200 BC, and assigned the Macedonian theatre by the drawing of lots. The commander was meant to change each year. The consul for 199 played a minor part in the war, leaving the final victory to Titus Quinctius Flamininus, consul for 198 BC. Both Galba and Flamininus had well documented careers. Roman also had the aid of a number of Greek allies, including Attalus I of Pergamon and Amynander of Athamania.
On the Macedonian side most of this section focuses on Philip V himself. He was descended from Antigonus Monophthalmus, the one of Alexander’s generals who had come closest to reuniting his empire before being killed in battle at Ipsus. His grandfather Antigonus II Gonatas had established the family’s rule over Macedonia. His father Demetrius II had died while Phil;ip was only nine, so his uncle Antigonus III became Regent and then King. Philip inherited the throne aged 17 after the death of his uncle. He proved to be a capable military leader, but less succesful as a political leader. Most of his subordinates are known by name, but little else.
Next comes a look at the opposing armies. For Rome this was the standard Consular army of the Republican era – two Roman legions, about 10,000 men in total, and a similar number of Italian allies. During the three campaigning seasons that followed plenty of reinforcements followed, so the Romans were probably at full strength for the final battle. These were manipular legions, a well studied topic, so we only get a brief outline here. This was the classic legion – gladius, large shield, pila, split into three lines – hastate, principes and triarii as heavy infantry, velites as skirmishers. The Italian allies were armed and armoured in a similar way, but organised into larger cohorts instead of the maniples. Cynoscephalae was also the first time the Romans used war elephants, probably ones taken from Carthage.
We then move onto the Macedonian army. This was made up of four main compenents. Most famous was the pike phalanx, which had been at the core of Alexander the Great’s armies. They were armed with a long pike, the sarissa, and had been very effective for two centuries. They were supported by peltasts (lighter troops), cavalry and mercenaries.
Although this war is most famous for the final battle, it was a complex three year conflict. The first year saw a war on two fronts – Illyria, where the main Roman army had landed, and a second front around Athens and Euboea. We get a good account of the overall war. There were earlier chances for a major battle – towards the end of his time in command Galba led his army east towards Macedon, but although the the two sides skirmished severael times, Philip refused to risk a large scale battle and the Romans were eventually forced to withdraw back to Illyria when supplies ran short.
We get a good account of Flamininus’s campaign, which started with a victory over Philip in the Aous gorge, where the Macedonians were forced out of a strong defensive position when the Romans found a way to outflank them. The Romans were then able to head east across Greece to Thessaly, to directly threaten Macedon. He then moved to Phocis, on the Gulf of Corinth, securing his supply lines. Peace talks failed, and when the campaign resumed the Romans quickly forced the Boeotian League to abandon Philip. The resulting campaign saw the Romans advance into Thessaly, and the two armies both head towards Pherae and a key gap in the Mavrovounion hills. After a brief standoff at Pherae the two armies both headed west, on either side of the hills.
After all of this careful campaigning, the battle itself began with a chance encounter in the mist. More and more troops were committed to the battle. Philip got half of his phalanx onto the ridge at the top of the hills, with the Romans advancing towards him uphill. At this point we see the first major clash between the Macedonian phalanx and the Roman legions, with the legions being forced back by the steady advance of the phalanx. This part of the battle showed that in a formal face-to-face fight the phalanx could more than hold its own. However on the other flank the Macedonian left was still coming up the hill and was out of formation. The Roman right attacked, and the Macedonian left was routed – out of formation the pike armed troops couldn’t cope with the sword armed Romans. The Romans were able to hit the succesful Macedonian right from the rear, and the battle was soon over.
The aftermath is interesting. Philip realised he had lost and sued for peace. Rome insisted on him giving up all of Greece south of Mount Olympus, effectively restricting him to Macedon, abandon most of his fleet and his possessions in Asia, but they left the core of his kingdom intact. Philip reigned for another 18 years, and actually improved the strength of his army. His son Perseus was able to field a bigger army than his father.
On the Roman side they were surprisingly content to win influence rather than formal Empire, and in 196 declared the ‘freedom of Greece’, before in 194 withdrawing the army back to Italy. However the Greeks were expected to behave peacefully, something that the various Greek powers always seemed unable to manage. The Romans would soon be back to try and maintain the peace they thought they had achieved in 197 BC.
This book is better seen as a history of the main land campaigns of the war than just of Cynoscephalae, although we do get a good account of the battle, and a look at what lessons it had for the clash between phalanx and legion.
Chapters
Opposing Commanders
Opposing Forces
Opposing Plans
The Campaign
- Opening Moves
- Sulpicius’ assault on Western Macedonia
- The Battle for the Aous gorge
- The Cynoscephalae campaign
Author: Mark van der Enden
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2025