Part 2 – Roman Occupation

Part 2 – Roman Occupation

In the beginning, having lived free for centuries, Macedonians found life very oppressive under Roman occupation. The last battle for the Macedonians to fight as free men was on June 22nd, 168 BC at a city called Pydna near present day Solun where the Roman forces lead by Paullus fought the Macedonians lead by King Perseus. In the style of his predecessors, Perseus struck first by unleashing the full might of the Macedonian phalanx. This was not the usual phalanx. It was reinforced with spears all round like a hedgehog, especially at the flanks. “Paullus, a veteran commander, declared afterwards that this advance was the most terrifying thing he had ever witnessed.” (Page 430, Peter Green, Alexander to Actium The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age) The Macedonians did their best and fought bravely to the last soldier but the disciplined Roman military machine and its fighting style proved to be superior and the battle was lost. It was the end of Macedonia and Macedonian independence. Perseus was taken to Rome as a prisoner of war, or as Peter Green puts it, “to adorn Paullus’s treasure rich triumph”. The Macedonian monarchy was abolished and Macedonia was demilitarized and partitioned into cantons so that it would never again be able to fight back. As further insurance of its passivity, Macedonian leaders were rounded up and taken to Rome. The real horror of the Macedonian defeat was not Pydna but what the Roman army did afterwards. Before leaving Macedonia, the Roman army was unleashed on the civilian population and allowed to loot, pillage and rape uncontrollably. It has been said that an unimaginable amount of treasure, including gold, jewels and art, was carried off to Rome. A large segment of the population was taken into slavery. Severe restrictions were placed on trading commodities including lumber, and most of the state taxes were now diverted to Rome. According to Livy, Macedonia was divided into four regions, each with its own Roman council, and was forced to pay half the tribute to Rome. This would have otherwise been paid to the Macedonian king. If that was not enough, Paullus lent the Aetolians five hundred soldiers so that they too could exact their own brand of revenge on the Macedonians. What happened next is a tragedy of great proportion that not even the ancient authors dare describe. The Romans indeed proved themselves to be ruthless, the “true barbarians” that they were, but this was only the beginning. Dissatisfaction with Roman authority forced many Macedonians to flee north, outside of Roman domain. The troublemakers that were caught were exiled and isolated at the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Some say that those shipped to the far reaches such as Scotland and Ireland refused to be assimilated and to maintain their identity and identify with one another, they placed the word “Mac” before their names. Could the “Macs” of Scotland and Ireland be related to the ancient Macedonians? Only through further investigation and DNA studies this can be proved or disproved. As for now it will remain a mystery. Those still living in Macedonia found it increasingly difficult to cope with being oppressed and about twenty years after the occupation, under the leadership of Andriscus the pretender, they initiated the first of many uprisings. Andriscus claimed to be Philip VI, son of Perseus by Laodice, Seleucus IV’s daughter who was also Demetrius I’s sister. In 153 BC, with Demetrius I’s help, Andriscus went to Rome to plead his case for the Macedonian people but the Senate was not interested in a hearing. Frustrated, Andriscus returned and sought help from the Macedonian people who gave him what he needed including royal robes, a diadem, recognition and troops. He received recognition from Byzantium and troops from various Thracian chieftains. Given the circumstances in Macedonia, rule by a pretender was preferable to being divided and ruled by Romans. When he was ready Andriscus advanced on Macedonia from Thrace and, after two battles in 149 BC, took control of Macedonia.

Unfortunately, Macedonia’s freedom was short lived. Two Roman legions, under the leadership of Quintus Macedonicus, were dispatched and ironically ended Andriscus’s career at Pydna in 148 BC. After this unsuccessful revolt, Macedonia lost its independence entirely and became a Roman province. The first century BC brought profound change in the political structure of power from northern India to Egypt. It also brought the extinction of the centuries old Macedonian ruling dynasties. The end of Macedonian rule did not facilitate the end of Macedonian culture in these regions. Far from it, once established the Macedonians continued to live on among the native populations, permanently naturalizing their customs and culture. In India at least, a great deal of the original political and administrative structure, established during ancient times, was adopted by the Indians and some remain unchanged to this day. If I may also add, it was the early Macedonians right after Alexander’s time who introduced the Indians to their present day calendar, including the division of the week into seven days, one named after the sun and one after the moon. The Macedonian civilization exercised immense prestige not only in Asia and India but in Rome as well. Rome itself was very much infatuated with Macedonian art, architecture, sculpture, etc. that in time it too developed a Macedonian culture. Despite popular belief to the contrary Macedonian culture was never extinguished during the Roman period. As mentioned earlier, after Perseus’s defeat at Pydna in 168 BC Macedonia was partitioned into four regions and became Roman territory. It was particularly during this period that Macedonia was robbed of its cultural treasures including the many monuments of art located in Solun, Pella and other culturally rich cities. Macedonia’s treasures were transferred to Rome and paraded as trophies of Roman victories on Roman streets during triumph festivals. After 148 BC the four regions of Macedonia were united again but made into a Roman province with Solun as its capital. Solun was the most important city in Macedonia not only because of its prosperous economy due to its busy harbour and its close proximity to “via Egnatia”, but also because of its great cultural and intellectual growth. Solun was an industrial city that profited immensely from its marine trade and from its close proximity to the military highway, via Egnatia, which facilitated much of the goods destined to Europe. Besides being of economic and intellectual importance, Solun, because of its surrounding wall, was also a great military fortress. The Macedonian King Cassander chose its location well and fortified the city for good reason. Solun was about the only city in Macedonia to withstand and repel the barbarian invasions of the 50s and 60s BC. Even Roman dissidents like the orator Cicero fled to Solun for safety during darker times. Solun had the elements of success and was destined to become a powerful city. During the Roman Civil War of 49 to 31 BC, Macedonia was again turned into a battleground. At the time Solun backed the Imperial Army of Antony and Octavian turning the tide on the Republicans. After the Imperial victory at Philippi in 42 BC, the Macedonians of Solun erected a triumphant arch at the west gate of Vardar in honour of the victors. This show of loyalty not only saved Solun, but also allowed its citizens to earn their freedom and Solun to earn the status of a free city. A free city at the time enjoyed special privileges including the right to govern itself, hold free public meetings and to protect itself. This new found freedom allowed the city to grow and prosper, but more importantly, it attracted famous scholars, writers, philosophers, poets and teachers who made Solun their home and added to the city’s intellectual wealth. By the turn of the new millennium, Solun was becoming an ethnically diverse cultural center that was beginning to rival Alexandria and Antioch. There are some who believe that the period between 27 BC and 180 AD was a period of wasted opportunity.

It was a period of spending rather than of creating, an age of architecture and trade in which the rich grew richer and the poor poorer. It was an age when man’s soul and spirit decayed. There were thousands of well built cities supplied by great aqueducts, connected to each other by splendid highways and each equipped with temples, theaters, amphitheaters and markets. The citizens of these great cities were well refined in attitude and mannerism, indicative of a civilized society. All this unfortunately was achieved on the backs of slaves who came from the vastness of the empire, including Macedonia. The slaves provided the manpower to build the cities, aqueducts, roads, temples and theaters. The slaves provided the labour to cultivate the soil and feed the masses. They also provided the bodies that fuelled the blood sport that entertained the Roman citizenry so much. It is unknown how many slaves suffered cruel deaths to civilize the glorious Roman Empire, the pride of the west, but I am certain the numbers were horrendous. It is often asked, “Who were the Roman gladiators, who were the Christians fed to the lions, and who were the slaves that gave their lives to build the Roman Empire and entertain the Roman citizen?” Although history provides us with no answers, all we need to do is look at the aftermath of every Roman victory and count the numbers enslaved. Macedonia was the last nation in Europe to fall into Roman hands but the first en masse to fall into Roman slavery. While the middle class Macedonian, among others, supplied the Roman Empire with enlightenment, the Macedonian slave, among others, supplied it with the necessary labour to build its civilization. Even though Macedonia, more so than any other nation in the history of the Roman Empire, had contributed to its development, modern Roman history mentions nothing of the Macedonians. The Macedonian people have received no credit for their contribution and the willing and unwilling sacrifices they made for the success of the Romans. Even though it is well known that the Roman Empire was built on the foundation of Alexander the Greats’ Macedonian Empire, its modern inheritors refuse to give Macedonia and the Macedonian people the credit they deserve. Today’s modern westerner speaks of the Roman Empire’s accomplishments with great pride, forgetting that without Macedonia’s contributions their precious empire would be an empty shell. Every historian knows that the only contribution that the lumbering Roman Empire should be credited with is the construction of roads, cities and aqueducts. In terms of government it had none. At its best it had a bureaucratic administration that kept the peace but failed to secure it. The typical Roman was so overly preoccupied with pursuing “the loot” that he forgot to implement any free thinking and apply knowledge. He had an abundance of books but very few were written by Romans. He respected wealth and despised science. He allowed the rich to rule and imagined that the wise men could be bought and bargained for in the slave markets. He made no effort to teach, train or bring the common people into any conscious participation of his life. He had made a tool of religion, literature, science and education and entrusted it to the care of slaves who were bred and traded like animals. His empire, “It was therefore, a colossally ignorant and unimaginative empire. It foresaw nothing. It had no strategic foresight, because it was blankly ignorant of geography and ethnology.” (Page 397, H.G. Wells, The Outline of History) This is only a tiny sample of what an eminent western scholar and author thinks of the contributions of the Roman Empire. Ironically we refer to the Romans as civilized and to the Macedonians as barbarian, knowing full well that Macedonia employed no slaves and Rome built its empire on the backs of slaves. “Civilize: bring out of barbarous or primitive stage of society; enlighten, refine and educate.” (Page 127, The Oxford Dictionary of Current English) I guess 19th century modern historians forgot to consult the dictionary for the word “civilized” when they wrote the modern history of the Roman Empire.

Without getting into the grossness of the Roman excesses and coliseum blood lusts, I believe I made my point that “the Roman Empire was neither civilized nor did it contribute as much as its proponents would have us believe”. The start of the new millennium witnessed the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of Imperial Rome. The Augustan emperors may have brought peace to the empire but with it they also brought neglect, decline and decay. As mentioned earlier, by 180 AD there were unmistakable signs of decay. Besides the agricultural and economic decline, the empire opened its doors to anarchy when the adoptive system of choosing emperors was abandoned in favour of personal appointments. The following century witnessed bloodshed, misrule and civil war. The erosion of central power opened the doors for barbarian invasions.