Scerdilaidas - First Macedonian War

First Macedonian War

Scerilaidas soon entered into an alliance with Rome. Influenced by Demetrius, Philip's first target was the Illyrian coast. In 216 BC he had built a fleet of one hundred light warships, using Illyrian shipwrights. He led his fleet around the Peloponnese into the Adriatic, gambling that Rome, deep in the Hannibal crisis, would not intervene. Scerdilaidas appealed for help and the Romans sent ten heavy quinqueremes from Sicily. Philip fled and the invasion of Illyria was avoided for the moment. Twice thwarted in attempts at invasion of Illyria by sea, and now constrained by Laevinus' fleet in the Adriatic, Philip spent the next two years 213–212 BC making advances in Illyria by land. Keeping clear of the coast, he took the inland towns of Atintania, and Dimale, and subdued the tribe of the Dassaretae and the Illyrian Parthini and the southern part of the Ardiaean State.

Scerdilaidas with his son Pleuratus III, Longarus of the Dardanian State and Epirus, together with the Aetolian League allied with each other in accordance to Rome's response. During the conflict, Scerdilaidas fought to recover the lands lost during First Illyrian War but the Treaty of Phoenice in 205 BC formally acknowledged the favorable position of Macedonia, including the capture of the southern Illyrian communities.

He died sometime before the treaty in 205 BC as only his son Pleuratus III is listed among those present at Phoenice.