In 147 BCE, Caius Vetilius, the Roman…

Balas, now master of the Seleucid empire, had pacified Palestine by naming Jonathan Maccabeus as Jewish governor, but had alienated the Syrian population by his revelry while feigning interest in politics and Stoic philosophy.

Whatever the truth behind this, the young king has been forced to depend heavily on his Ptolemaic support and has even struck portraits with the characteristic features of king Ptolemy I.

The middle son of King Demetrius, who had fled to Crete after the death of his father, his mother, and his older brother when Balas usurped the Seleucid throne, returns to Syria in the winter of 148-147 with an army of Cretan mercenaries led by the ruthless condottiere Lasthenes.

Ptolemy VI Philometor finds himself in Syria at this time, and when Balas fails in his attempt to have Philometor assassinated, the Egyptian ruler divorces his daughter Cleopatra Thea from Balas, who flees to Cilicia, and remarries her to the new pretender.

Although Ptolemy supports him, the people of Antioch and the Syrian army ask the Egyptian monarch himself to become their ruler.

Having already conquered most of southern Syria for his own interest, he declines, insisted that Demetrius will become king, knowing that Rome would never tolerate a unified Hellenistic state.

The Achaean League's new policy of alliance with Rome has led to the incorporation of nearly the whole Peloponnese into the Achaean League.

The league's success, however, had eventually resulted in friction with both Sparta (which had been drafted into the league in 192) and with expansionist Rome.

With the death of Callicrates, leadership of the Achaean League has passed to Critolaus and Diaeus, outspoken proponents of Greek independence from Rome.

A Roman embassy is sent in 147 to intervene in the affairs of the league by supporting the secession of Sparta and by calling for the detachment of Corinth and Argos from the league.

The embassy provokes a violent reply.

Lucius Mummius, consul of 146 BCE, now takes over the command of the war against the Achaean League, defeating the incapable Diaeus and the remaining Achaean forces, composed largely of untrained slaves, at Leucopetra on the Isthmus of Corinth and capturing Corinth.

All the men of Corinth are put to the sword and the women and children sold into slavery.

The Roman Senate now dissolves the Achaean League and, prompted by the mercantile party, which is eager to be rid of a dangerous commercial rival, orders Mummius to teach a lesson to the Greeks: the venerable city is sacked, its treasures taken to Rome, and its buildings burned to the ground.

However, at least two ancient authors give accounts that suggest Corinth was not completely destroyed (Cicero in Tusc. 3.53, and Dio Cassius 21).

Mummius' indifference to works of art and ignorance of their value is shown by his well-known remark to those who contracted for the shipment of the treasures of Corinth to Rome, that “if they lost or damaged them, they would have to replace them.”

In the subsequent settlement of affairs, Mummius exhibits considerable administrative powers and a high degree of justice and integrity, which gain him the respect of the inhabitants.

He especially abstains from offending their religious susceptibilities.

The destruction of Corinth brings Sicyon an acquisition of territory and the presidency over the Isthmian games.

Rome, when Critolaus blocks further negotiations, declares war on the Achaeans in 146 BCE, citing as reason the ill treatment of their embassy.

Metellus, a brilliant general, having delayed with his army, marches against Critolaus and defeats him in Locris.

Macedonia, made a Roman province in 146 BCE, is to be governed and taxed by a Roman proconsul, who also watches over the Greek cities to the south, where the Achaean and Aetolian leagues have been disbanded.

A smaller league, however, is set up soon afterward (and will continue into the Roman imperial age.)

Macedonia is in fact the first province of Rome’s nascent empire.

Throughout the rest of Greece, the leagues have been dissolved, democracies abolished, and power placed with the rich.

Intercity peace has been established and left to the governor of Macedonia to enforce.

The ironic result is that this external agency, Rome, has given the city-states a degree of autonomy and peace they had previously lacked.

Thessaly becomes part of the province of Macedonia, for which Salonika serves as the provincial capital.

Viriathus leads the Lusitanians in 146 in defeating the Roman forces of Caius Plancius and taking the city of Segobriga; his troops next defeat the Roman forces of Claudius Unimanus, governor of Hispania Citerior.

Metellus, having secured the annexation of Macedonia as a Roman province, earns the agnomen Macedonicus for his victory; Andriscus figures in figured in his Triumph.

Aemilianus, on his return to Rome in this year, celebrates a splendid Triumph also.

Having established a personal claim to the adoptive agnomen of Africanus, he now becomes known as Scipio Africanus Minor.

Scipio Aemilianus, though a subordinate officer, had distinguished himself repeatedly in the early operations of the Third Punic War, which had gone altogether against the Romans.

He had garnered great popularity as a military tribune in 149-148 BCE, and in 147 BCE had been elected consul, while yet under the legal age, in order that he might hold the supreme command.

After a year of desperate fighting and splendid heroism on the part of the defenders, Aemilianus breaches the walls in 146 and captures the citadel following a week of fierce house-to-house combat in which nine-tenths of the Carthaginians die.

Eighteen-year-old Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, eldest son of the plebeian Roman diplomat of the same name, serves at Carthage with Aemilianus at Carthage, who is still in the company of the historian Polybius.

The Romans sell the surviving Carthaginians into slavery, then, under the supervision of Aemilianus,  raze the city completely, even salting the fields.

Ptolemy VI Philometor is in 145 BCE drawn into a battle in which Demetrius' son defeats Balas in his last desperate attempt to regain his throne.

During the battle, Ptolemy had fallen from his horse and fractured his skull, dying a few days later.

The Egyptian troops march home, leaderless and disillusioned.

Balas had meanwhile fled for refuge to a Nabataean prince, who murders him and sends his head to Ptolemy's court.

The Seleucid prince takes the throne as Demetrius II Nicator (Greek “Victor”).

New troubles soon arise, however.

The pillaging of the Cretan soldiers under Lasthenes cause the Antiochenians to rise in rebellion, and only after terrible massacres can order be restored.

In opposition, Diodotus Tryphon, or Trypho, a general of the Syrian army, promotes the claims of Balas' young son by Cleopatra Thea, Antiochus VI Epiphanes Dionysius.

Demetrius proves unable to retake the capital, instead …