Battle of Cynoscephalae

The First Macedonian War (started due to an alliance between Macedon and Carthage against the Romans during the Second Punic War in 215 BC) had ended in a stalemate; between the Roman alliance with Aetolia and the destruction of the Macedonian fleet early in the war, the Macedonians were unable to support Carthage and were forced into a defensive stance. A truce was signed between Macedonia and Rome in 205 BC leading to an uneasy peace. The Second Punic War would end not long after in 201 BC. Although Macedonia had limited effect in the Second Punic War, its alliance with Carthage would earn the ire of the Romans. In 202 BC, the Fifth Syrian War would break out, with the Macedonians allying with the Seleucids in a pact to carve up Asia Minor. Philip's moves towards the city states in Thrace, around the Dardanelles and later actions towards Rhodes and the Kingdom of Pergamum greatly disconcerted the two states. Although Rhodes and the Kingdom of Pergamum would later gain the upper hand against Philip, with a crushing defeat of his navy at the Battle of Chios, they were still concerned enough about Macedon to send envoys to Rome to try and convince them to join the war. Rome in turn sent envoys to Greece to form an anti-Macedonian coalition, which Philip took as a sign of weakness from Rome due to the fact the Second Punic War had only just ended. When Philip failed to give up on further conquests in the region, the Roman Senate and Assembly declared war, beginning the Second Macedonian War. On 15 March 198 BC, new consuls took office, with command in Macedonia being handed to Titus Quinctius Flamininus. After arriving in Greece, Flamininus went to have a meeting with Philip to discuss the terms of peace, demanding nothing less than the complete withdrawal of Macedonian forces from all of Greece outside of the Macedonian homeland. Philip stormed out of the meeting, after which Flamininus began his campaign. In the spring of that year, Flamininus brought his army to Thessaly, with Philip marching his army south to meet him. The two initially camped near the city of Pherae, holding skirmishes there. However, Philip's army was in need of food and level ground in order to deploy his phalanx (something the terrain was unsuitable for at Pherae), so he began marching his army westward towards the small town of Scotussa for its grain stores. They marched on the northern side of the slopes while the Romans followed on the southern side, these slopes being the Cynoscephalae Hills. == Armies ==

Romans Flamininus had about 26,000 men, consisting of two full legions with the support of 6,000 infantry and 400 cavalry from the Aetolian League and an additional 1,200 men under Amynander of Athamania. Reinforcements from Italy brought Flamininus an additional 6,000 infantry, 300 cavalry and 3,000 marines. Macedonians Philip had about 25,500 men of which 16,000 were phalangites levied from across the kingdom consisting of wildly varying ages from young boys to aged veterans, due primarily to the perpetual wars creating a lack of manpower. Alongside this, there were 2,000 peltasts (light infantry) with an additional 4,000 men from the Thracians and Trallians, 1,500 mercenaries and 2,000 cavalry. The Thessalian cavalry was led by Heracleides of Gyrton and the Macedonian cavalry by Leon. The mercenaries (except the Thracians) were commanded by Athenagoras of Macedon and the second infantry corps by Nicanor the Elephant. == Battle ==

During the march there was a heavy rainstorm, and the morning after there was a fog over the hills and fields separating both camps. Despite fearing an ambush, Philip's force was in desperate need of supplies; thus Philip resumed his march, however his troops soon became confused and disoriented due to the heavy fog. For this reason, Philip decided to instead pitch camp but did still send out half his heavy infantry to search for food. To offset the inherent risk, Philip also sent his light infantry and half of his cavalry in order to take the Cynoscephalae Hills and locate the Roman force. Flamininus, likewise unaware of Philip's location, sent 1,000 light infantry and 300 cavalry to try to locate their forces, resulting in an engagement with Philip's troops on the hills. While this was going on, the Macedonian left led by Nicanor was arriving piecemeal at the top of the ridge. Seeing Nicanor's disorganised troops, Flamininus rode to his right wing and ordered them to attack; his elephants led the force which included their Italian allies and 4,000 Greek infantry. Still in a column march, with others struggling to get up the hills, the war elephants smashed into the disorganised Macedonian left, scattering them and sending them back down the hill with the Romans in pursuit. As this pursuit was ongoing, an unnamed tribune, upon realising their position at the exposed rear of the Macedonian right wing, detached 20 maniples (approximately 2,500 infantry) and sent them into the rear of the Macedonian phalanx. Being quickly cut down due to the inflexibility of the formation, the Macedonian phalanx disintegrated. Some were simply killed where they stood, others pointed their sarissas directly upwards in a sign of surrender that the Romans either ignored or failed to understand. Thus, the slaughter continued, being stopped only due to the intervention of Flamininus. Phillip, along with a small number of cavalry, had pulled back to the summit for a better look at the battle, only to see the collapse of his right wing and the rout of his left. It was then that he fled the battle with his escort, returning to Macedonian territory. Plutarch would later say: == Aftermath ==

According to Polybius and Livy, 8,000 Macedonians had been killed. Livy mentions that other sources claim 32,000 Macedonians were killed and even one writer who due to "boundless exaggeration" claims 40,000 but concludes that Polybius is the trustworthy source on this matter. Flamininus also took 5,000 prisoners. The Romans only lost between 700 and 750 men in the battle. • Relinquish his earlier conquests and return to the borders of the Macedonian homeland • Remove all of his garrisons outside of Macedonia (in order to make those nations free and autonomous, to be done before the Isthmian Games of 196 BC) • Pay an indemnity of 1,000 talents of silver to Rome (half of which was to be paid immediately, the other in 10 annual instalments of 50 talents) • Give up all but 5-10 of his decked ships • Only hold an army of 5,000 soldiers (which could contain no elephants) • Not conduct war beyond the borders of Macedonia without the permission of the Roman Senate Plutarch also stated that they took one of Philip's sons, Demetrius, as a hostage: However, 5 years later he was released to Philip due to the assistance given by Macedonia to Rome during the war against the Seleucids: At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flamininus would announce that all Greek states previously controlled by Philip were now free and independent of his rule. == Notes ==