200 - 100 BC (Guardians)

This century is dominated by the rise of Rome into the major power of the Mediterrenean and European worlds as well as the emergence of another dominant Persian empire and the corresponding division of the Greek-ruled kingdoms between them. Elsewhere, the Maurya and Xin Dynasties of India and China fell, giving way to new powers that would take their place. Arabia was the setting of the conflict between Sabaea and Himyar. In Anahuac the Maya continued to centralize into major power centers and gradually overtook the Zapotec as the dominant force in the region. Peru recovered from the collapse of the Chavin culture and new societies gradually emerged to take its place.

The Homeland Falls
Following the defeat of the Aeacids and the division of their territory between the victorious allies, the other Greek states began to envy and fear the power of the Roman Republic within Greece. While everyone had gained from the war, Rome received the lion's share, taking much of central Greece as well as the two oracles of Dodonia and Delphi. The latter was particularly hurtful to the Greeks, who felt that the possession of the center of the world by anyone other than themselves was a grave insult to both themselves and their gods. While both the Antigonids and the Argead Hegemony did not trust each other, they understood that only together could they potentially evict the Romans from Greece.

Despite this, it took some time before tensions would devolve into open war. Rome was more focused on solidifying its presence in Africa and Hispania than it was expanding further east and the Greek states wanted to gather their strength for a war that they knew would be difficult. They also hoped that a great and terrible event would befall the Roman Republic at some point, allowing themselves to take advantage of the disorder and lessen the chances of defeat. Ultimately, the annexation of Carthage and the resulting instablity in the early 140s BC would give them the best chance and so they struck.

With most of Rome's assembled forces in Africa and the frontier provinces of Illyria and Hispania, the Greek forces expected relatively little resistance in their march against fellow Greek areas. Macedonian forces led by the Antigonids marched against Thessaly while the Argolid Hegemonic forces hoped to liberate Delphi and the rest of Aetolia. Roman forces were forced back a bit before they rallied and were able to hold the rest of the pressed frontiers, especially after a more conclusive Carthaginian settlement was reached by 155 BC, allowing the transfer of Roman forces to Greece. Additionally, the Romans gained the alleigance of the Attalids in Anatolia, promising them protection from the rising power of the Cappadocians further east.

Turning their attentions against the Antigonids first, the Romans marched from their strongholds in Epirus and coastal Illyria while the Attalids seized much of Antignoid Anatolia. Compressed on two fronts, the Antigonids collapsed by 151 BC, stretching Roman rule across the north of Greece to the shores of the Black Sea. The Argolids, possessing the greater untapped force of support compared to the Antigonids, were able to resist far longer even as they were unable to push further into Roman-controlled Greek lands. At the Battle of Copae in 147 BC, the Romans were able to break Argolid power, pushing past Thebes and entering the southern Greek lands. With no allies and a growing Roman presence, the Argolids were conclusively beaten at the Battle of Tenea in 146 BC and all of Greece was now subject to Roman law.

The Hawk and the Sun
Further east in the ancient lands still ruled by Alexander's descendants, new threats began to arise, both from their native subjects and each other. The Seleucids, while successful at defeating Ptolomaic attempts to annex their portion of Alexander's former empire, failed to return the favor and now struggled to defend their more porous northeastern frontiers against advancing Iranian tribes collectively known as the Parthians. While the Ptolomaic rulers would have loved to take advantage of this difficulty, they were ultimately unable to for reasons of their own. Native revolts in both the Ptolomaic Fertile Crescent and Argead Egypt proved to be difficult and ever-present threats for the their rulers, often prompting them to make the difficult decision of Hellenization to appease the Greek upper classes or assimilate for the peace of mind of their many subjects. Rarely did any specific policy prove effective in these scenarios.

In addition to these domestic struggles, both the Ptolomies and the Argeads waged long wars against each other in a bid to gain an upper hand in their regional struggles. For many decades, neither was able to weaken the other to the point of subjugation and never had their respective capitals of Bucephala and Alexandria fallen to the enemy. However, the regions that lay between those two capitals such as Judea and Phoenicia suffered constantly as they often switched hands. These two regions also happened to be the most restless of both realms, as their inhabitants frequently saw themselves back and forth in the hands of two foreign oppressors of the same kind.

Towards the latter half of this century, the struggle had begun to swing in favor of the Argeads, who's superior influence amongst Greeks and greater ability to mobilize armies faster than the more spread out Ptolomies began to take affect. Furthermore, the continued march of the Parthians put strain on the Ptolomaic border province of Mesopotamia, as Seleucid remnants fled the fall of their power base in Persia. While Mesopotamia and its major cities of Susa, Babylon, and Ptolomais Charax had yet to fall, the region was under increased threat and the Ptolomies had a greater difficulty in dealing with both the impending Parthians as well as the Argeads.

Starting at 167 BC, Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem became outraged at a series of edicts enforced by their Ptolomaic occupiers demanding that they worship the Greek gods and conform to standard Greek culture. Unable to accept these edicts because of their unique monotheism, the Jews revolted, led by a local priest by the name of Mattathias, who soon fled into exile. His son, Judah Maccabee, returned a year later to complete his father's work and drive the Greeks from Judea and restore Jewish practice to the land. Still unable to effectively resist because of the turmoil in their realm, the Ptolomies put up only meager resistance, allowing the poorly trained yet highly motivated Judeans to regain Jewish independence for the first time since their conquest by the Second Babylonian Empire.

Despite these constant wars, Greek civilization reached some of its highest points during this period. The cities of Bucephala and Alexandria were some of the largest and most sophisticated in the world at this time while Greek art, philosophy, religion, and other cultural elements had a presence from the Indus to Rome. Greek science, building off of previous discoveries by the Babylonians and Egyptians, continued moving forward at a remarkable pace, leading to several key discoveries such as the round Earth and the first description of a steam engine. Greek society, reviled as it was by some of the occupied, had reached a height that few in living memory had observed before.