which had been dormant during the Macedonian supremacy; but in 188, he
took fierce revenge upon Sparta, for which he was called to account by
the Romans; and five years later, in 183, he fell into the hands of the
Messenians, who had broken from the league, and was put to death by
poison. It was in the same year that both Hannibal and Scipio, the two
other great soldiers of the day died. [Footnote: See the Student's
Merivale, ch. xxv., for remarks about these three warriors.]

Philip V. of Macedon followed these warriors to the grave five years
later, after having begun to prepare to renew the war with Rome. His
son Perseus continued these preparations, but war did not actually
break out until 171, and then it was continued for three years without
decisive result. In 168 the Romans met the army of Perseus at Pydna, in
Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus, on the 22d June, [Footnote: This
date is proved by an eclipse of the sun which occurred at the time. It
had been foretold by a scientific Roman so that the army should not see
in it a bad omen.] and utterly defeated it. Perseus was afterward taken
prisoner and died at Alba. From the battle of Pydna the great historian
Polybius, who was a native of Megalopolis, dates the complete
establishment of the universal empire of Rome, since after that no
civilized state ever confronted her on an equal footing, and all the
struggles in which she engaged were rebellions or wars with
"barbarians" outside of the influence of Greek or Roman civilization,
and since all the world recognized the senate as the tribunal of last
resort in differences between nations; the acquisition of Roman
language and manners being henceforth among the necessary
accomplishments of princes. Rome had never before seen so grand a
triumph as that celebrated by Æmilius Paulus, the conqueror of
Macedonia, after his return. Plutarch gives an elaborate account of it.