At the same time the periodical insurrec- tions in Corsica and Sardinia continued as before, and in Italy the long war had brought about a state of things which imperatively demanded permanent peace, if order and national wealth were to be restored.

In spite of all these considerations, the peace with Carthage was scarcely concluded, when the Roman senate decided on commencing a new war, a war not like those of Cisalpine Gaul, Liguria, and Spain, which were only continuations of the Punic war, but one coolly planned for a political purpose and forced upon an enemy who wished nothing more than to live in peace with Rome.

Four years before the end of the Hannibalic war, in Motives the year 205 BC, Rome had come to terms with king Philip of Macedonia.

This step had become necessary, Mace- because Romes allies, the ZEtolians, had already given up the unequal struggle with Philip, in which they had not been strenuously supported by Some.

The exhaus- tion of Italy in the latter part of the Hannibalic war, which had been the cause of this neglect of the JEtolians, made it imperative for the senate to purchase the peace with Philip even at the sacrifice of some Eoman posses- sions in Illyria.