Hellenistic Naval Warfare and Warships 336-30 BC: War at Sea from Alexander to Actium by Michael Pitassi

Author:Michael Pitassi [Michael Pitassi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399097635
Google: A1GjEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2023-04-05T21:00:00+00:00

205 The Macedonian War had been lessening in intensity for some time, the antagonists losing enthusiasm and becoming exhausted and the arrival of a Roman fleet of thirty-five ships, together with 35,000 fresh troops at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo, Durres) in 205, proved to be the catalyst to end it. ²⁸ Fifteen of the Roman ships sailed into the Aegean to join their allies but Philip and the Greeks had all had enough and peace was agreed.

202 The Romans finally defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202, ending the Second Punic War; Hannibal fled and found sanctuary with Antiochus III, the Seleucid King. Rome was now the only naval power west of Greece: its fleet was large, well founded and trained, experienced and victorious and at the peak of its fighting ability.

202 In 204, Ptolemy IV had died, to be succeeded by his five-year-old son, Ptolemy V. The weakness and internal strife consequent upon this ²⁹ disturbed the precarious balance of power in the Hellenistic world. Undeterred as ever by the constant conflict and his previous setbacks, Philip V of Macedon allied himself with the Seleucid King Antiochus III to drive Ptolemy V out of the Aegean and Levant for good. Antiochus advanced upon the Hellespont, invaded Coele Syria and Palestine, while Philip’s new fleet moved into the Hellespont and Propontis (Sea of Marmara). This move, if successful would leave Pergamum and Rhodes, both allies of Rome, virtually at the mercy of the allies and isolated. With her allies under threat, Rome sent a diplomatic mission to warn off Philip and seek a settlement between Antiochos III and Ptolemy’s Egypt. Antiochus III, at first, paid lip-service to Rome but Philip, perhaps still smarting from his ignominious naval defeat in the Adriatic in 214 and now with his powerful new fleet, was not so swayed. He sent his light ships off on a grand raiding cruise, intercepting ships of the Black Sea trade, and throughout the Aegean and made common cause with the pirates of Crete. In the summer of 201, Philip’s Macedonian army advanced into Ionia and attacked Pergamene territory, taking their seaport of Abydos on the Hellespont; his fleet annexed the Cyclades and occupied Samos, capturing ships and defeating a Rhodian fleet off Lade (202). ³⁰

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