Perseus
or
Perses (
Περσεύς). The last king
of Macedonia, the eldest son of Philip V. He reigned eleven years, from B.C. 178 to 168.
Before his accession he persuaded his father to put to death his younger brother Demetrius,
whom he suspected that the Roman Senate intended to set up as a competitor for the throne on
the death of Philip. Immediately after his accession he began to make preparations for war
with the Romans, which he knew to be inevitable, though seven years elapsed before actual
hostilities commenced. The war broke out in B.C. 171. The first year of the war was marked by
no striking action. The consul P. Licinius Crassus first suffered a defeat in Thessaly in an
engagement between the cavalry of the two armies, but subsequently gained a slight advantage
over the king's troops. The second year of the war (B.C. 170), in which the consul A.
Hostilius Mancinus commanded, also passed over without any important battle, but was, on the
whole, favourable to Perseus. The third year (B.C. 169), in which the consul Q. Marcius
Philippus commanded, again produced no important results. The length to which the war had been
unexpectedly protracted, and the ill success of the Roman arms, had by this time excited a
general feeling in favour of the Macedonian monarch; but the ill-timed avarice of Perseus, who
refused to advance the sum of money which Eumenes, king of Pergamus, demanded, deprived him of
this valuable ally; and the same unseasonable niggardliness likewise deprived him of the
services of
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Coin of Perseus, King of Macedonia.
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twenty thousand Gallic mercenaries, who had actually advanced into Macedonia to his
support, but retired on failing to obtain their stipulated pay. He was left to carry on the
contest against Rome single-handed.
The fourth year of the war (B.C. 168) was also the last. The new consul, L. Aemilius Paulus,
defeated Perseus with great loss in a decisive battle fought near Pydna, on June 22, B.C. 168.
Perseus took refuge in the island of Samothrace, where he shortly afterwards surrendered with
his children to the praetor Cn. Octavius. When brought before Aemilius he is said to have
degraded himself by the most abject supplications; but he was treated with kindness by the
Roman general. The following year he was carried to Italy, where he was compelled to adorn the
splendid triumph of his conqueror (November 30, B.C. 167), and afterwards cast into a dungeon,
from whence, however, the intercession of Aemilius procured his release, and he was permitted
to end his days in an honourable captivity at Alba. He survived his removal thither a few
years, and died, according to some accounts, by voluntary starvation, while others,
fortunately with less probability, represent him as falling a victim to the cruelty of his
guards, who deprived him of sleep. Perseus had been twice married; the name of his first wife,
whom he is said to have killed with his own hand in a fit of passion, is not recorded; his
second, Laodicé, was the daughter of Seleucus IV. Philopator. He left two children
—a son, Alexander, and a daughter, both apparently by his second marriage, as they
were mere children when carried to Rome. Besides these, he had adopted his younger brother
Philip, who appears to have been regarded by him as the heir to his throne, and who became the
partner of his captivity. See Livy, bks. xl.-xliv.; and Polyb. bks. xxiv., xxvi., xxvii.,
xxix.
