The Adriatic War

The Adriatic War was a war during The Second Republic, begun in 545 AVC when Crete, together with the Aetolian League, Carthage and Macedonia struck at the Roman presence in Magna Graecia and Sicily while Rome was occupied with the Gauls. It is the minor war that precipitated the much larger Second Seleucid War.

The War


The Aetolians called on Crete, their alliance member, to join the war against Rome. The Aetolians had aligned themselves with Carthage earlier in the year, and the Carthaginians were allied with the Macedonians. The Cretan Senate was presented with a conundrum. To not join would mean offending the Aetolians, a vital alliance member on the mainland. However, the Roman Republic was a vital trading partner and a major power. In an emergency session, the Senate voted to honor the pact and join in the fight. In 545 AVC, the Cretan Navy set off for the Adriatic, the first time the Cretan Navy had been in those waters for hostile purposes.

The war was short lived, and involved only a single battle off the coast of Italy resulting in the loss of a single ship. That same year, the Seleucid Empire invaded Bithynia, a Cretan protectorate, setting off The Second Seleucid War. When news of this arrived in Gortyn, the Archon quickly concluded a white peace with the Romans to organize his forces against the Seleucid threat.