Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/197

CHAPTER XI EXTENSION OF ROMAN DOMINION AND ITS RESULTS I. CONQUEST OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: NEW PROBLEMS 214. Alexander's Successors conquered by Rome (200- 168 B.C.). While Rome had been making her conquests in the west- ern Mediterranean, and slowly tightening her grip on her great rival Carthage, the successors of Alexander the Great had been struggling among themselves. It had occurred to Hannibal while he was fighting in Italy that he could strengthen himself by inducing the king of Macedonia to form an alliance with him against Rome. The Romans did not overlook this, and after their victory over Hannibal they sent an expedition across to Macedonia and defeated its army in the battle of Cynoscephalae, in 197 B.C. The country was reduced to the position of a vassal of Rome. The Greek cities which had been brought under Macedonian control by Philip and Alexander the Great ( J 53> X S5) were now granted their freedom, but Rome con- tinued to keep a strict eye on them. This war with Macedonia brought the Romans into conflict with Antiochus the Great, the Seleucid king, who held a large part of the vast empire of Persia in Asia. A war with this powerful Asiatic empire was not a matter which the Romans could view without great anxiety. Moreover, Hannibal, a fugitive from Carthage, was now with Antiochus, giving him the benefit of his ability and long experience in fighting the Romans. Nevertheless at Magnesia in Asia Minor the West, led by Rome, overthrew the East, led by Antiochus (190 B. c.), and the lands of western Asia Minor submitted to Roman control.