Perseus of Macedon: the last king of The antigonid family

Perseus - a name that belonged not only to the ancient Greek mythical hero. This was also the name of the last Macedonian king, who belonged to The antigonid family. Perseus was born in 213 BC, and although he was from an Antigonid family, some believed that the boy was taken by the wife of king Philip V from a woman named Gnaphenia. According to ancient sources, Perseus was greedy and loved power. Although Plutarch, who spoke so of the king, was hostile to Macedonia and its rulers.

Perseus' treachery is confirmed by the actions that brought him to power. He was jealous of his brother, Demetrios, so he persuaded his father to get rid of Him. When Philip found out that the poisoning was caused by a banal power struggle, he died of grief. The new ruler negotiated with Rome, but his actions only brought discord. Perseus captured Delphi, drove the ambassadors from Rome out of Macedonia, and eventually entered the war that went down in history as the Third Macedonian war.

At first, the king was able to successfully resist the enemy, but after a while the army, led by Aemilius Paulus, defeated the troops of Perseus. The king was taken prisoner, and The antigonid state, which was deprived of its ruler, was divided into four parts, each of which became a separate Republic. The triumph of Aemilius Paulus, followed by the family of the Macedonian ruler, was one of the most famous in the history of Rome and served as the subject for many paintings from the Renaissance. The Roman booty was so great that it allowed the direct tax on the Romans to be abolished for 120 years. In 2005, archaeologists discovered the tomb of Perseus in the Central part of Italy, in the city of L'aquila.