Tom Holland

Yeah, and for Massinissa, I mean, this is the servant turning on the master because the Numidians had been subject to Carthage.

And so by salami slicing Carthage's territory, I mean, he's getting his own back on the old imperial mistress.

And so the poor Carthaginians,

They can't really do anything about this because they're not allowed to fight Massinissa off.

And so all they can really do is send embassies to Rome complaining about these encroachments by the Numidians.

But obviously Massinissa, you know, he's an ally of the Roman people.

He can send embassies of his own and be assured of getting heard.

So in 171, for instance, Carthaginians have gone to Rome to complain.

Massinissa sends his own son.

And...

This son of Massinissa's, he knows exactly how to play the Romans.

So he's endlessly going on about how the Carthaginians are treacherous and deceitful.

Beware of Punic deceit, all this kind of stuff.

And so the Carthaginians don't get justice.

And the Romans ignore Carthaginian complaints, not just because they are pro-Numidian, but also to reiterate, because they are genuinely fearful that Carthage might make a comeback.

And so they feel that she has to, you know, her territory has to constantly be eroded.

macedonia or greece directly roman primacy roman control is basically acknowledged as throughout greece yeah and i think the romans feel that that if um their strategic demands require the greeks to knuckle down and kind of surrender chunks of territory or autonomy or whatever then they have to do it and there's perhaps a slight element of donald trump's attitude to greenland about all this

And increasingly, the more that Greece and the Balkans kind of have to do what the Romans say, the Romans decide, well, there's no point in allowing the Macedonians to have any autonomy at all.

I mean, we might as well snuff that out.

So in June 168...