How did Rome Expand into Greece and Hispania? - History of the Roman Empire - Part 5

The outbreak of the 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 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 getting 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 Lysos if in groupings larger than two ships at a time. Rome hoped that this would resolve the piracy issue, but the rule would shortly be broken nevertheless. 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 Lysos and attempted to seize more territory, but he was quickly stopped by the Romans who instead captured Demale 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 V 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 solution, 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 III. 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 Quintius 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 Cenocephalae 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 Seleucid's 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 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 four individual states under its own watchful eye. Yet again, in 168 BC, tensions boiled over for a final time when the Romans watched their once-ally and 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 the 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 Supetius Galba had thousands of Lusitanians massacred in cold blood. But, one man by the name of Viriatus 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 towards Rome was as strong as ever. The battles were tough, but Viriatus would continue his resistance until his final breath, which would tragically be taken in 139 BC by three men who 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 wrapping 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 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 raged across the map, and the Romans piece by piece dismantled their enemy's empire, the Republic was concurrently putting a stop to each and every other rival, challenger, and general enemy.