by F.W. Walbank University of California, 201 pp., $8.50 On June
22, 168 BC, in about one hour, the Macedonian phalanx was
destroyed near home, on the fields of Pydna, by the Roman
legions. In the Greek East there was no longer any organized
force that could check the winners. The old monarchy of Macedon
was split into four republics, vassals of Rome; its ruling class
was systematically uprooted. The inhabitants of Epirus, who had
supported their neighbors, were sold into slavery, and their
towns were destroyed. “Allies” of Rome who had shown less than
the required enthusiasm during the campaign were punished. The
most important Greek state, the Achaean League (which included
Arcadia), had to surrender a thousand young members of its upper
class—that is, the greater part of it. The thousand Achaean
hostages were distributed among the cities of central Italy. A
few managed to slip away, but most withered in Italy. When,
seventeen years later, the three hundred survivors were allowed
to go back to Greece, Cato