Prepare Ye the Way

200 - 100 BC, the Middle East

At the end of the third century, the line of canny Ptolomaic kings petered out into weakness. A greedy Antiochu III of Seleucia claimed the rest of Syria and Palestine by 198 BC. Hard pressed by the Selecucid king, Pergamum and Rhodes called in Roman aid. Rome responded gladly. It destroyed Antiochus' armies and set in motion a collapse of his empire. By the middle of the century, the Parthians held its western half and Judea was in revolt in the south.

Roman expansion gradually absorbed Macedon (148 BC) and Greece (146).

The slow disruption of the Seleudic kingdom continued as Parthia took Mesopotamia. Armenia began to expand its borders over what was left to the south and Judea established the hard-earned Maccabean Kingdom.

By the end of the century, the Mediterranean was close to being the fabled "Roman Lake." Even Egypt was subject to Roman "protection".

Posted by John Read more Comments (15) 17.01.