Author Description

*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit" ("Conquered Greece captured her uncouth conqueror and brought her arts to Latium") - Horace Graeco-Roman relations in the ancient world are normally assumed to date, essentially, from 146 B.C., when Rome organized its supervision of Greece through its Governors in Macedonia. In fact, the first direct interactions of any note between the two come about during the first Illyrian War in 229 B.C, although, of course there had been contacts of numerous kinds even prior to this date. Phillip V of Macedon had allied himself with Hannibal and that, in itself, guaranteed, at some point, that the Romans would turn their full attention to the eastern Mediterranean area, if for no other reason than to settle that outstanding score once and for all. Phillip was defeated in 197 B.C. at the Battle of Cynoscephalae and his son Perseus, at Pydna in 168 B.C. Following these defeats, Macedonia was divided into four republics under Roman governorship, but the rest of Greece was left relatively free from direct Roman rule. In due course, opposition to Rome's increasing domination of the region led to the establishment of the Achaean League, comprising a number of city states, headed by Corinth, to oppose the Romans. As this suggests, in the early years of the Principate despite growing Philhellenism in the Empire, the vast majority of Greeks, with the notable exception of Sparta, were very unwilling subjects of Rome. There was unrest in the Augustan period (27 B.C. - AD 14), particularly in Athens, and the imperial cult made little or no headway until the time of Nero (AD54 - 68), who, along with Hadrian much later (AD117 - 138), took a special interest in Greece and all things Greek. Nero, for example began the work on the Corinth canal, using slave labour, of course, and Hadrian completed a number of projects that are dealt with later in some detail. The