Fourth Macedonian War

The Fourth Macedonian War, fought from 150 to 148 BC, was the last of the Macedonian Wars between the Roman Republic and the kingdom of Macedon. It began when Andriscus, a Greek who resembled the dethroned Antigonid king Perseus, claimed to be Perseus' son and re-established a Macedonian kingdom with Thracian support. Andriscus defeated Roman client forces, destroyed a Roman army under the praetor Publius Juventius Thalna in a battle in which Thalna was killed, and overran much of Thessaly. Rome then sent a full army of two legions under the praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus, who defeated Andriscus at the Second Battle of Pydna in 148 BC and pursued him until he was handed over by a Thracian prince. After minor uprisings were put down, Rome abolished the Macedonian client republics and took direct control of the region, making it a Roman province. It was the last war to seriously threaten Roman control of Greece until the First Mithridatic War about sixty years later.