The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome

Reviews / Votes

The Macedonian king Philip V is usually remembered as the man whose alliance with Hannibal triggered the Roman expansion in the East. Drawing upon epigraphic discoveries of the last decades that document Philip's military and administrative reforms and responses to crises and correct the hostile account of the historian Polybius, Ian Worthington has composed a nuanced and up-to-date narrative of a life that started with ambitions and triumphs, and ended with defeats and tragedies. Philip's actions generated a process that Polybius calls symploke: the entanglement of political developments in Europe, Africa, and Asia. With this book, he now takes the place that he deserves among the greatest protagonists of the Hellenistic Age. * Angelos Chaniotis, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton * A brilliant and much-needed volume on the last kings of ancient Macedonia. Worthington duly gives Philip V, Perseus, and Andriscus (Philip VI) the attention they deserve, challenging the view that they are mere 'postscripts' to Macedonia's Classical past and losers in the fight for supremacy in the second century BC Mediterranean. This updated history will undoubtedly foster interest in the last Antigonid kings and revise our understanding of the conflict between Macedonia and Rome. * Emma Nicholson, University of Exeter * [The book] may be enjoyed by a general audience, but also profitably read by undergraduates as a scholarly introduction and graduate students as a brisk refresher to one of the most important, if doomed, dynasties of the Hellenistic world. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * W.'s book is a valuable and indispensable narrative of the last Antigonids that offers a lens through which we are better able to understand that turbulent period of the Hellenistic era. It also sheds light on some of the political dynamics that shaped Rome's fateful entrance and continuing presence in Greek affairs, by delving into all the subtleties and intricacies of the conflicts involving the last eight decades or so of the Macedonian kingdom. * Elizabeth Kosmetatou, Classical Review * Perfectly accessible, this relevant and welcome synthesis for researchers and students alike will find, as such, and for a long time to come, a deserved place in the bibliography of Macedonian studies. * Pierre Bourrieau, Kentron *