Philip V of Macedon

Philip V became king of Macedon in 221 BC and sought to restore the kingdom’s influence in Greece and the Adriatic. His alliance with Hannibal during the Second Punic War drew Rome into the First Macedonian War.

A later conflict ended with Philip’s defeat at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Roman legion against the Macedonian phalanx under those conditions. He remained king under restrictions and spent his later reign rebuilding resources. Philip V of Macedon was born in Pella, Kingdom of Macedonia and died in Amphipolis, Kingdom of Macedonia.

In Ben Kane’s Clash of Empires, the ambitious senator Titus Quinctius Flamininus turns his attention to Macedon and seeks command of the coming invasion. In Christian Cameron’s The Last Greek, in 210 BCE, the Greek world is divided among leagues, oligarchs and kings while Macedon and Rome contest control of the wider Mediterranean. Philopoemen believes that the Achaean League can survive only if its citizens reject submission and build an army able to defend their own communities. Reform turns him into both a national hope and a threat to men who profit from weakness. Philip V of Macedon is treated fictionally in Ben Kane’s The Falling Sword.