After the Second Punic War ended in 202 BC, Rome was now ready to turn its attention towards Greece. During the previous war, the king of Macedon, Phillip V, had aided Hannibal. During this First Macedonian War (214-205), the Romans had aided the Greeks in rebelling against their Macedonian rulers. Rome eventually signed a peace treaty in 205 BC, but only so that they could concentrate on defeating Hannibal.
The Romans began the Second Macedonian War (200-197) on the pretext of aiding their ally in the region, Pergamum, which was located on the western edge of Asia Minor. After only a little more than three years, the Romans utterly defeat the Macedonians at the Battle of Cynoscephelae (Dog's Head). All the Greek cities were granted their independence from Macedonian rule.
Besides the Macedonians, the Romans still had another enemy threatening them. After the battle of Zama in 202 BC, Hannibal had not died, but was exiled from Carthage and eventually ended up in the Seleucid kingdom of Syria. There, he convinced the king Antiochus III to attack Rome in 195 BC. The Romans, led by Cato the Elder, headed to Asia and obliterated his army. The losses suffered by the Romans were said to be 400, Antiochus' 53,000. Hannibal, now without his protector, was forced to live a life on the run. In 183 BC he poisoned himself to avoid being captured by Roman bounty hunters.
In 186 BC, the cult of Bacchus was expelled from Rome and the Bacchanalia prohibited. At this same period, Scipio Africanus, closely associated with this cult through his wife, came under attack from his enemies and was forced to retire to his estate outside of Rome. These actions were both led by Cato the Elder, who had now become the leading statesman in Rome.
In 175, Cato the Elder was dispatched to Carthage to settle a dispute between them and the Numidians, who had been raiding Carthaginian territory. When Cato saw the wealth of the merchant city, he became convinced that Carthage posed a continuing threat to the Roman empire. It now became his life-long ambition to see that the city was destroyed. Every speech before the Senate always ended with the same phrase, Carthago delenda est, or "Carthage must be destroyed".
In the East, Rome fought two more wars against Macedonia. The Third Macedonian War was from 171-168. Rome fared very well, and when the king of Macedon Perseus, the son of Phillip V, went to Rome to discuss peace, he was sentenced to no sleep for one year, which led to his death. After another brief war, Macedonia was finally annexed in 148 BC by Rome as another province in a growing empire.
In 146 BC, was was declared on the Greek city-states. During their period of independence, the Greeks were unable to put aside old rivalries and their constant infighting was an irritation to Rome. An army was dispatched to Greece, which marched to Corinth and captured the city. All males were slaughtered, the women and children were sold into slavery, and the city was completely destroyed. Dissuaded by this display of power, the remaining Greek cities quickly gave up the fight and their territory was annexed by Rome.
At the same time as Macedonia and Greece were being annexed, Cato the Elder finally got his wish and war was declared on Carthage. Because Rome would not aid her, the Carthaginians had been forced to raise an army to defend their territory from Numidian raiders. The Romans used this minor violation of the treaty to declare war. In the Third Punic War, the Romans, led by Scipio the Younger, conquered the city of Carthage and leveled it to the ground. All the remaining citizens were sold into slavery and their territory added to the empire.
Soon thereafter, Spain, which had never been fully pacified by the Romans, was defeated by Scipio the Younger. The city of Numantia in Spain was besieged by Scipio, and after a lengthy siege, the city was taken and utterly destroyed in 133 BC, just as he had done at Carthage before. The same year, the territory of Pergamum, whose king Attallus II had been a long time ally of Rome, was bequeathed in his will to Rome.