ded with satisfaction the internal
dissensions of Greece, which they foresaw would only render her an
easier prey, and neglected to answer the appeals of the Spartans for
protection. In 183 the Messenians, under the leadership of Dinocrates,
having revolted from the league, Philopoemen, who had now attained the
age of 70, led an expedition against them; but having fallen from his
horse in a skirmish of cavalry, he was captured, and conveyed with many
circumstances of ignominy to Messene, where, after a sort of mock
trial, he was executed. His fate was avenged by Lycortas, the
commander of the Achaean cavalry, the father of the historian Polybius.

In B.C. 179 Philip died, and was succeeded by his son Perseus, the last
monarch of Macedonia. The latter years of the reign of Philip had been
spent in preparations for a renewal of the war, which he foresaw to be
inevitable; yet a period of seven years elapsed after the accession of
Perseus before the mutual enmity of the two powers broke out into open
hostilities. The war was protracted three years without any decisive
result; but was brought to a conclusion in 168 by the consul L.
AEmilius Paulus, who defeated Perseus with great loss near Pydna.
Perseus was carried to Rome to adorn the triumph of Paulus (167), and
was permitted to spend the remainder of his life in a sort of
honourable captivity at Alba. Such was the end of the Macedonian
empire, which was now divided into four districts, each under the
jurisdiction of an oligarchical council.

The Roman commissioners deputed to arrange the affairs of Macedonia did
not confine their attention to that province, but evinced their design
of bringing all Greece under the Roman sway. In these views they were
assisted by various despots and traitors in different Grecian cities,
and especially by Callicrates, a man of great influence among the
Achaeans, and who for many years lent himself as the base tool of the
Romans to effect the enslavement of his country. After the fall of
Macedonia, Callicrates denounced more than a thousand leading Achaeans
who had favoured the cause of Perseus. These, among whom was Polybius
the historian, were apprehended and sent to Rome for trial. A still
harder fate was experienced by AEtolia, Boeotia, Acarnania, and Epirus.
In the last-named country, especially, no fewer than seventy of the
principal towns were abandoned by Paulus to his soldiers for pillage,
and 150,000 persons are said to h