Rome Seeks Allies in Greece
Desiring to prevent Philip from aiding Carthage in Italy and elsewhere, Rome sought out land allies in Greece.
Laevinus had begun exploring the possibility of an alliance with the Aetolian League, as early as 212 BC. The Aetolians, war weary, had made peace with Philip at Naupactus in 217 BC. However five years later the pendulum had swung in the other direction, the war faction was on the ascendency, and the Aetolians were once again ready to consider taking up arms against their traditional enemy of Macedon.
In 211 BC an Aetolian assembly was convened for discussions with Rome. Laevinus pointed out the recent capture of Syracuse and Capua in the war against Carthage as evidence of Rome's rising fortunes, and offered to ally with them against the Macedonians. A treaty was signed. The Aetolians would conduct operations on land, the Romans at sea. Rome would keep any slaves and other booty taken and Aetolia would receive control of any territory acquired. Another provision of the treaty allowed for the inclusion of certain allies of the League: Elis, Sparta, Messenia and Attalus I of Pergamon, as well as two Roman clients, the Illyrians Pleuratus and Scerdilaidas.
Read more about this topic: First Macedonian War
Famous quotes containing the words seeks, allies and/or greece:
“He runs face forward. He is a pursuer.
He seeks a seeker who in his turn seeks
Another still, lost far into the distance.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Ireland still remains the Holy Isle whose aspirations must on no account be mixed with the profane class-struggles of the rest of the sinful world ... the Irish peasant must not on any account know that the Socialist workers are his sole allies in Europe.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome—not by favor of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)