In the history of rome why are they fighting the greece?

Question

I wanted to know why are they fighting for?

Answer 1

Well, at first the Romans were mainly fighting the Macedonians, who can be considered Greeks (a contraversial issue). The Macedonians ruled most of Greece, and many cities, like Athens saw them as oppressors (this will become important)

At first there were some conflicts between Rome and Macedonia about borders in the northern Balkans. But the bad blood really started during the Second Punic War when Hannibal invaded Italy. After he defeated the Romans at the Battle of Cannae, he convinced Philip V of Macedonia to be his ally. Hannibal eventually lost, and after they defeated him, the Romans went after Phillip. He was defeated at the Battle of Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC.

But his son, Perseus, continued to be a thorn in Rome's side, and the Greek cities asked for more aid against Macedonian aggression. So in 172 BC, Romans invaded Greece and defeated the Macedonians again. Throughout this, the Greeks city states, like Athens and Corinth, fought for the Romans. When the Romans defeated Perseus, they declared themselves the liberators of Greece and forced a Roman style government on Macedonia, splitting it into four republics. However, the Macedonians didn't like being ruled by these puppet states, and a Macedonian named Andriscus, pretending to be Perseus' son, declared himself king. The Romans defeated him, too, though, and completely took over Macedonia, making it a Roman province.

However, the Romans also started interfering on a wide scale in the affairs of the Greek city states, annoyed by the constant fighting between the different cities. And now that Macedonia was a Roman province, the Greeks realized that the Romans were not liberators, but wanted control of the region. And worse for the Greeks, now the Romans had a province in the north, so they no longer had to invade from Italy, but could permanently station legions there to enforce Roman will. So several Greek cities, called the Achean League, tried to expel the Romans.

It didn't work, though, and the Acheans were easily crushed. In 146 BC, the Romans finally had enough and captured and destroyed the Greek city of Corinth, enslaving all its surviving people. Thus, all resistance in Greece was subdued and it became part of the Roman Empire.

Answer 2

Originally the Romans were asked by certain Greek factions to help them defeat their enemies. Greece was not a unified empire and consisted of many city-states that were often hostile to each other. The Roman military did not at first occupy Greece; they came and left. Eventually they got tired of the Greeks inability to govern themselves peacefully and simply occupied the whole region. Rome was also given the Greek city of Pergamon (in Turkey) in the last king's will, which naturally drew them into Greek politics. Also, the rich mines (silver in particular) attracted Rome's attention. The Greeks rebelled against the Romans a couple of times and were crushed both times. The city of Corinth was destroyed completely in 146 by Mummius (the same year as Carthage was razed).