Definition: The Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 B.C.) was the decisive battle in the Second Macedonian War, the battle in which Rome liberated the Greeks. The Roman legions, led by Titus Quinctius Flaminius, defeated the phalanx structure of the Macedonians under King Philip V. It's more than a trivial point that the battle illustrated the superiority of the legion over the phalanx formation. The terrain of the battle was, according to Plutarch, in his Life of Flaminius, difficult. There were sharp hill tops which looked like dogs' head and from which the name of the area Cynoscephale came. The Greek phalanx broke through the Roman's left wing, scattering the men, but then Titus led the legionaries into the phalanx which couldn't move back and still maintain the closeness needed, because of the terrain, and the Greeks' armor was too heavy for the man-to-man-combat necessitated by the presence of the Romans in their midst, so the Romans were able to break through and routed the Macedonians.
Philip survived. Plutarch says 8000 Macedonians were slain and 5000 taken prisoner.
