However, the start of the campaign had not been easy. Livy offers a ‘different’ history of how two Roman officers, the praetors Gaius Lucretius Gallus and Lucius Hortensius, caused protests among Rome’s allies, and legal proceedings in Rome, by their private enterprises, corruption, and chaos while in charge of the campaign.
Idle hands
The Third Macedonian War was different from other Roman campaigns in that it was fought without the usual allies. Rome’s military power had produced an increasing number of conquests, and the conquered had been forced to provide troops and ships to support the Roman war effort. At the start of this war, ships and crew had been called as well, and the allies gathered in Chalcis, on Euboea, in 171 BC. However, the praetor decided that there was no use for them and sent them home. The Romans only used the ships provided by Eumenes, king of Pergamon, and Prusias, king of Bithynia. Rhodian ships also operated, but they were not in alliance with Rome and were, instead, cooperating to further their own interests in the area.
Macedon’s maritime power had greatly diminished from what it had been under Philip V, Perseus’ father, during the wars that he fought against Rome between 211 and 197. This decline can be seen in the position of Chalcis, the gateway to Greece. At the time of Philip, the port
