Why was it that Romans could unify their peninsula and the Greeks could not?

Answer 1

The Greeks did not unify mainland Greece because;

a) For a long time Greece had many independent city states, some of which formed leagues (alliances). The existence of the two most powerful city-states, Athens and Sparta, which fought each other, would have prevented any attempts to conquer of the whole of Greece by one state, if there had been one.

b) The Greeks expanded well beyond mainland Greece. Alexander the great conquered the massive Persian Empire. After his death his conquests were partitioned into the Greek states of the Seleucid Empire (centred on Syria) and the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt

c) Later, the Romans curbed the expansionist ambition of Macedon, which had become the biggest and dominant state in Greece. Originally, under Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, Macedon did not want to take over the whole of Greece. Then, after a period of internal strife Macedon had aims of further expansion it was prevented from doing so by Rome.

Philip II of Macedon expanded his kingdom into north-eastern and northern Greece, which became the largest Greek state. Athens responded by forming an alliance with other states of central Greece, but was defeated. However, Philip did not want to expand further and made peace because he wanted to make an alliance with the other Greek states to get them to help him with his planned war with Persia. He was assassinated two years later (336 BC).

Philip's Son, Alexander the Great, continued his father's project. He expanded a bit further into central Greece, but made the alliances needed to fight Persia. He succeeded to conquer the whole of the vast Persian Empire with the help of the other Greeks. After Alexander's death (332 BC) there were power struggles over his succession which ruled out further expansion of Macedon.

King Philip IV had expansionist aims. In 218 BC he made an alliance with Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who was invading Italy. He did so to boost his project to expand his kingdom westward and take over southern Illyria (Albania) on the eastern Adriatic Coast, which was under Roman influence. The Romans were concerned about this alliance and their security on the Adriatic Sea, which lies between Italy and Albania, and their interests in Illyria. They sent an army to Greece. They fought and won the First Macedonian War (214-205 BC) in conjunction with Greek states which allied with her because they were opposed to and concerned about Macedon's expansion. Rome won with the help of several Greek states: Aetolian League (an alliance of city-states in Central Greece), Sparta, Elis, Messenia and Pergamon,

A Second Macedonian War (200-197 BC) broke out because Rhodes, an island near Turkey, and Pergamon (a Greek kingdom in western Turkey) asked Rome for help against Macedon. Philip IV attacked land that belonged to the (Greek) king of Egypt south of Pergamon and close to Rhodes. He then ravaged the territory of the latter. Rhodes and Pergamon asked Rome for help. The Romans sent ambassadors to investigate who found little support for a war against Philip in Greece. However, Athens declared war on Greece and Macedon sent an invading force. The Roman ambassador urged Philip to leave the Greek states alone and gave an ultimatum. Philip ignored this. Rome declared war and won. The Aetolian league, Athens, Pergamon and Rhodes fought with Rome.

The Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC) was caused by the policies of the new king of Macedon, Perseus. He increased the size of his army and made alliances with the kingdom of Epirus (on the coast next to Italy) some Illyrian tribes (in an area which was in Rome's sphere of influence) and Thracian tribes hostile to Rome's allies in that area. Pergamon accused Perseus of violating an existing treaty. Rome declared war, won and divided Macedon into four puppet republics with restrictions of political and trade contracts, destroyed some cities and villages, gave some land to Roman veterans and enslaved 300,000 Macedonians Pergamon fought with Rome again.

The Fourth Macedonian War (150 to 148 BC) was caused by a revolt in Macedon. Rome won and annexed Macedon. In 146 BC the Achaean League rebelled and Rome annexed the whole of mainland Greece, which became the Roman provinces of Achaea and Epirus. Pergamon continued to be an ally of Rome until its last king, Attalus III, who died without male issue, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 133 BC.

Answer 2

Because it wasn't as spread out.