The circumstances of the political situation there have been set forth above.( 6) The Greek free cities on the Ionian and Aeolian coast, as well as the kingdom of Pergamus of a substantially similar nature, were certainly the natural pillars of the new Roman supreme power, which here too came forward essentially as protector of the Hellenes kindred in race.

But the dynasts in the interior of Asia Minor and on the north coast of the Black Sea had hardly yielded for long any serious obedience to the kings of Asia, and the treaty with Antiochus alone gave to the Romans no power over the interior.

It was indispensable to draw a certain line within which the Roman influence was henceforth to exercise control.

Here the element of chief importance was the relation of the Asiatic Hellenes to the Celts who had been for a century settled there.

These had formally apportioned among them the regions of Asia Minor, and each one of the three cantons raised its fixed tribute from the territory laid under contribution.