Decision Where the War Will be Fought

Back around 200 B.C. King Philip V of Macedon was aggressing on some peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean. Some of them asked the Romans for help. So the issue was brought up in the Roman Assembly and the pros and cons were being debated. After a while Publius Sulpicius spoke up. He said that the people thought that they were being asked whether they wanted peace or war. That decision was not up to them, he said. That decision had already been made. Philip was assembling money, weapons, soldiers, and ships right as he spoke. The question before them was whether the war will be in Macedonia or in their own Italy.

He cited the recent Second Punic War with Carthage. It had begun when the people of Saguntum in Spain had asked for help from the Romans. The Romans sent negotiators. Hannibal led an army into Italy, where the war was fought for a decade in their own country. The Romans should have sent soldiers, he said.

The Romans decided to send an army to Macedonia. It wasn’t easy. But no foreign Army invaded Italy for hundreds of years after that.