ORDER OF BATTLE // -167 BCE
Battle of Pydna
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 58,600–67,000 estimated
Roman Republic
28,600–37,000
Medium-confidence figure
Macedon
30,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Pydna, fought in 168 BC between Roman Republic forces under Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Scipio Nasica and the Macedonian army of Perseus, decided the outcome of the Third Macedonian War and terminated the Antigonid dynasty. Macedonian casualties of some 31,000 against a Roman force of between 28,600 and 37,000 indicate the scale of the defeat suffered by Perseus. The Antigonid line, whose royal authority traced back to Antigonus Monophthalmus, one of Alexander the Great's Diadochi successors, ceased to exist as a political institution following the battle. The result accelerated Roman ascendancy in the Hellenistic world, removing the last major Macedonian power capable of contesting Roman influence in the eastern Mediterranean.
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