Thrace and the Roman Allies in the Balkans During the First Macedonian War (215 – 205 bc)
Thrace and the Roman Allies in the Balkans During the First Macedonian War (215 – 205 bc)

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the fragmentary and incomplete ancient texts containing data on some events in the border areas between Macedonia and Thrace that took place during the First Macedonian War (215 – 205 BC). Alongside this war, the Romans fought in Italy, which was then the center of operations in the Second Punic War (218 – 201 BC). Therefore, the events in the Balkans remained in the shadow of the dramatic struggle of the Romans against the Carthaginian commander Hannibal and the scarce evidence in the works of Polybius and Titus Livy are the only sources of information available to modern scholars for recovering the relationships between Thracians and Macedonians at that time. The ancient references, collected and analyzed in this paper, indicate that there is no evidence of Thracian participation in the anti-Macedonian coalition, as has been suggested in historiography. Their clashes with Philip V are explained as traditional contradictions along the borders of the Macedonian kingdom.

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