Battle of Pydna (168 BC): Rome Ends the Kingdom of Macedon

The Battle of Pydna, fought on 22 June 168 BC near the town of Pydna in northern Greece, ended the Third Macedonian War and the kingdom of Macedon. The Roman consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus routed the army of King Perseus in about an hour, after the famous Macedonian phalanx broke up on uneven ground. The victory left Rome the dominant power in the Greek world and is often seen as the clearest demonstration of the Roman legion’s advantage over the Hellenistic phalanx.

Background: Rome and Macedon

Macedon had been the leading power in Greece since the days of Philip II and Alexander the Great. In the 3rd century BC it was ruled by the Antigonid dynasty. King Philip V clashed with Rome in two wars and was decisively beaten at the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, after which he lost his influence in southern Greece and paid a large indemnity.

Philip spent his last years rebuilding Macedon’s strength. His son Perseus succeeded him in 179 BC and continued to build up the army and treasury. He also gained popularity among Greek cities and married a Seleucid princess, which alarmed Rome’s allies.

In 172 BC King Eumenes II of Pergamon travelled to Rome to accuse Perseus of preparing for war. On his way home he was injured by a rockfall, or an ambush, at Delphi, which the Romans blamed on Perseus. Rome declared war in 171 BC.

The early war, 171–169 BC

The first Roman commanders made little progress. In 171 BC Perseus defeated a Roman force in a cavalry battle at Callinicus in Thessaly, but he then offered peace instead of pressing his advantage. Roman armies spent the next two years struggling to break into Macedon through the mountain passes, while complaints of incompetence and harsh treatment of Greek allies grew.

Aemilius Paullus takes command

In 168 BC the Romans elected Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consul for the second time. He was about 60 years old, an experienced general and the son of the consul killed by Hannibal at Cannae. He restored discipline in the army in Greece.

Perseus held a strong defensive line along the Elpeus river near Mount Olympus. Paullus sent a detachment under Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica on a march through the mountain passes to outflank it. Threatened from behind, Perseus withdrew north to a plain near Pydna, where he chose to fight.

On the night before the battle, a lunar eclipse took place. Livy says the officer Gaius Sulpicius Gallus had warned the troops in advance and explained it as a natural event, so the Romans were not alarmed. Astronomers date this eclipse to 21 June 168 BC.

The battle

The two armies were roughly similar in size. Modern estimates put each at around 40,000 men, though the sources do not give full figures. Perseus’ main strength was his phalanx, ranks of infantry armed with the sarissa, a pike about 6 metres long.

According to Plutarch, fighting began in the afternoon of 22 June after a skirmish over a horse that had escaped near a stream between the armies. The Macedonian phalanx then advanced and drove back the Roman front line. Plutarch reports that Paullus later admitted he had never seen a more frightening sight.

As the phalanx pushed forward over broken and rising ground, gaps opened in its ranks. Paullus ordered his units to push into these openings and attack the pikemen from the sides, where their long weapons were useless. Once broken up, the phalanx was cut down. On one wing, Roman war elephants and allied troops also routed the Macedonian left. Perseus’ cavalry left the field largely intact, which later led to accusations that he had fled too soon.

Legion versus phalanx

Ancient writers saw Pydna as a test between two military systems. Polybius, who knew many veterans of the war, compared them in a famous passage written about the earlier battle of Cynoscephalae. He argued that on open, level ground no enemy could withstand the phalanx from the front, since each soldier in the front rank faced several pike points at once.

The weakness, Polybius explained, was flexibility. The phalanx needed flat, unbroken ground, and it could not easily turn or reform once its ranks were disturbed. The Roman legion was organised in smaller units, the maniples, which could act independently, fill gaps and exploit openings. Each legionary, armed with a large shield and a short sword, could fight effectively on almost any terrain.

At Pydna both points were demonstrated. The phalanx was formidable when it first struck, but once rough ground broke its line, the legionaries’ close-quarter fighting proved decisive. Modern historians add that leadership, cavalry and morale also mattered, and that the Macedonian army was not simply outdated.

Casualties

These figures come from Livy and Plutarch, both writing from the Roman side. The Macedonian losses were clearly very heavy, but the very low Roman total is probably understated.

Aftermath

Perseus fled with his treasury to the island of Samothrace and surrendered soon after. In 167 BC Paullus celebrated a magnificent three-day triumph in Rome, displaying enormous quantities of Macedonian gold and silver, with Perseus and his children walking before his chariot. So much treasure reached Rome that Roman citizens stopped paying the direct property tax, the tributum, from 167 BC. Perseus died in captivity at Alba Fucens in central Italy a few years later. According to Plutarch, the only part of the royal spoils Paullus kept for his family was Perseus’ library, which he let his sons take.

At Delphi, Paullus took over a tall pillar that had been prepared for a statue of Perseus and placed his own statue on it, decorated with a sculpted frieze of the battle. Its inscribed base and parts of the frieze survive at the site.

Rome abolished the Macedonian monarchy and split the country into four separate republics, forbidden to trade or intermarry with each other. In 167 BC Roman troops sacked Epirus, which had supported Perseus; Polybius, via Livy, records that 150,000 people were enslaved. About 1,000 leading Achaeans, including the historian Polybius, were taken to Italy as hostages.

After a revolt led by Andriscus, who claimed to be Perseus’ son, Rome made Macedonia a province in 146 BC, the same year it destroyed Corinth.

Key people

Lucius Aemilius Paullus (c. 229–160 BC) became a model of the stern Roman commander. Two of his sons died around the time of his triumph; another, adopted into the Scipio family, became Scipio Aemilianus, who destroyed Carthage in 146 BC.

Perseus (c. 212–c. 166 BC) was the last king of Macedon. Ancient writers blamed his caution and reluctance to spend his treasure for the defeat.

Timeline

• 197 BC: Philip V is defeated at Cynoscephalae.
• 179 BC: Perseus becomes king of Macedon.
• 171 BC: The Third Macedonian War begins; Perseus wins at Callinicus.
• 168 BC, 21 June: Lunar eclipse on the eve of battle.
• 168 BC, 22 June: Battle of Pydna.
• 167 BC: Triumph of Aemilius Paullus; Macedonia divided into four republics.
• 146 BC: Macedonia becomes a Roman province.

Why it matters

Pydna ended the kingdom created by Philip II and Alexander the Great and confirmed that no Hellenistic state could stand against Rome. Within a generation, Rome would rule Greece directly, beginning centuries of Roman control over the eastern Mediterranean.