which were under the protection of Rome. For these things the Roman Senate
determined to punish him. An army under Flamininus was sent into Greece,
and on the plains of Cynoscephalae, in Thessaly, the Roman legion
demonstrated its superiority over the unwieldy Macedonian phalanx by
subjecting Philip to a most disastrous defeat (197 B.C.). The king was
forced to give up all his conquests, and Rome extended her protectorate
over Greece.

THE BATTLE OF MAGNESIA (190 B.C.).--Antiochus the Great of Syria had at
this time not only overrun all Asia Minor, but had crossed the Hellespont
into Europe, and was intent upon the conquest of Thrace and Greece. Rome,
that could not entertain the idea of a rival empire upon the southern
shores of the Mediterranean, could much less tolerate the establishment in
the East of such a colossal kingdom as the ambition of Antiochus proposed
to itself. Just as soon as intelligence was carried to Italy that the
Syrian king was leading his army into Greece, the legions of the republic
were set in motion. Some reverses caused Antiochus to retreat in haste
across the Hellespont into Asia, whither he was followed by the Romans,
led by Scipio, a brother of Africanus.

At Magnesia, Antiochus was overthrown, and a large part of Asia Minor fell
into the hands of the Romans. Not yet prepared to maintain provinces so
distant from the Tiber, the Senate conferred the new territory, with the
exception of Lycia and Caria, which were given to the Rhodians, upon their
friend and ally Eumenes, King of Pergamus (see p. 171). This "Kingdom of
Asia," as it was called, was really nothing more than a dependency of
Rome, and its nominal ruler only a puppet-king in the hands of the Roman
Senate.

Scipio enjoyed a magnificent triumph at Rome, and, in accordance with a