Greece
History: the Roman Period
The Greece Roman period
 The History of the Roman
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 The Greek Empire, due to a constant warfare among the several autonomous kingdoms, was made vulnerable. At the same time, Greece was threatened from the East by Persians, Parthians, and Bactrians and from the West by the Romans, who started expanding their power in the South of Italy and started getting in competition with the Greek colonies, especially Tarentum (Taranto) and Syracuse.
Around 280 B.C., the Greek king of Epirus, Pyrrhus, confronted his army against the Romans in southern Italy. Feeling the threat of the Roman Empire, Greeks allied with their former enemies against Rome.
The most important adversary of Rome in the Mediterranean was the Empire of Carthage (modern Tunisia). Wars started between these two Empires, called the Punic Wars. These Wars lasted 45 tears. The Greeks were involved in this campaign against Rome. Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader, allied with Philip V of Macedonia, the most important power of the Balkans. The Romans defeated the Macedonians in the first and second Macedonian Wars that ended in 197 B.C. The victorious commander Flamininus established a protectorate over the “independent” city-states of Greece. The Achaean confederacy started a rebellion in 146 B.C. that resulted in the destruction of Corinth. Severe and oppressive restrictions were set. Rome had no consistent policy about the Greek states. They demanded only security and revenue.
Greece under the Roman Empire, from 31 B.C. to 180 AD is described as the era of the Pax Romana, a Roman Peace between Rome and the central areas of the Empire like Greece and the Greek East. This period is described as a period of peace and security which permitted an economical and cultural progress, especially in the cities such as Athens, Corinth, Alexandria, Miletus, Thessaloniki, and Smyrna. Due to a decentralized Roman provincial administration, a urban Greek elite re-appeared, which also had the right to participate to the Roman Senate.
The Romans welcomed the Greek culture and Latin and Greek became the dominant languages of the Empire. A Greco-Roman Empire was born.
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