- The Expansion Of Rome
(By Elizabeth Rawson)The Conquests of Rome
Polybius thought that no one could be so worthless or indolent as not to wish to know how, and under
what sort of government, the Romans had succeeded in less than fifty-three years in subjecting almost
the whole inhabited world to their rule (below, pp. 639 ff.). We are now to consider Rome's expansion
abroad from the beginning of the Punic Wars: but we will carry on the story after Polybius' death to the
end of the Republic.
In 264 B.C. Rome controlled the whole of the Italian peninsula, except the Po valley ('Cisalpine Gaul'),
and her defeat of Pyrrhus (above, p. 405) had attracted Greek interest. In that year a Roman army
crossed to Sicily, partly to prevent the Carthaginians taking Messana and dominating the straits, and
after twenty years' fighting, during which Rome turned herself into a naval power, she expelled the
Carthaginians from the island. Part of it was left to friendly Syracuse and other Greek cities; for part
Rome seems to have taken responsibility. In 237 she seized (on a poor excuse, but the islands were
strategically vital now that Rome and Carthage were foes) Sardinia and Corsica, previously controlled
by Carthage. In 227 two new magistrates were elected, for the jobs', prouinciae, of Sicily and Sardinia.
Rome had also just intervened against the newly expansive and piratical Illyrians across the Adriatic,
where a protectorate, including some Greek states, was established along the coast. When another and
desperate clash with Carthage occurred (the Second Punic War) and Hannibal invaded Italy in 218,
Roman forces were sent against his base in Spain, which they were not to leave again, though the
peninsula was not wholly pacified till Augustus' day. Finally Hannibal was penned into the toe of Italy,
and Scipio, who had fought with success in Spain and won over many tribes, moved the war to Africa
itself, to which Hannibal was recalled only to be defeated at Zama in 202. Carthage lost territory to
Roman allies in Africa and became another client state. On the other hand, the whole of Sicily became a
province, for Syracuse had proved disloyal.
Hannibal's alliance with Philip V of Macedon had also led to Roman troops being deployed across the
Adriatic, and finally to the Second Macedonian War, in which the King was defeated by T. Flamininus,
though the kingdom was allowed to survive, and Greece proper was declared 'free' in 196; Roman
influence in the whole area was, however, now paramount. Thus integrated into the world of the great
Hellenistic powers, Rome involved herself in a victorious struggle, led by Scipio and his brother, against
Antiochus III of Syria; again, though Rome annexed no territory, she cut down the power of Syria and
arranged the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean as she pleased, to the advantage of her friends, the
kingdom of Pergamum and the island republic of Rhodes.
The Romans after a time accused King Perseus, Philip's son, of disloyalty; he was crushed in 167 by
Aemilius Paullus at the battle of Pydna, and Macedon was split into four tributary republics ('First',