The True Booty of Pydna

Thursday, June 30th, 2005

J.F.C. Fuller, in A Military History of the Western World, Volume I, explains the true significance of the Roman victory at Pydna, which ended the Third Macedonian War:

Nevertheless, once this ruthlessness ended, the result was not the decay of Greece, but the victory of Hellenism; for the Greeks were the Chinese of the ancient world and always conquered their conquerors. What they needed, in order to exorcise the excessive individualism which had kept them fractionalized and mutually antagonistic, was the authority of a strong and stable world-government. And what Rome needed, in order to become a civilizing world power, was the culture of the Hellenistic world. These two things and not plunder and tribute were the true booty of Pydna and the Third Macedonian War.

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