Phillip V Submits to Rome

Phillip V didn't have a very good impression of the Roman army after the 1st Macedonian War. The Romans didn't make a good showing in the few land battles. Their formations were inflexible, but at least three times the also-inflexible Macedonian phalanx simply rolled over the Romans. The Roman cavalry was descent, but always in inferior numbers.

In the prelude to the Second Macedonian War, Rome tried to mediate between some Greek city states that were afraid of Macedonian and the Seleucids who came to ask for Roman protection. Phillip V naturally thought they were little more than a nuscince and showed their emissaries away rudely. The Romans declared war and fought with an new improved flexible fighting doctrine (not to mention not having Italia being plundered by Hannibal this time) and forced Macedon into a humiliating peace.

What if for whatever reason, Phillip V decided to submit to Rome? It would be humiliating for the proud leader (which is why he wouldn't do so after his poor impression of the Roman fighting ability), but less so than OTL. Say he got struck by lighting, sometimes that changes someone's personality (it usually doesn't if they live without brain damage, but sometimes it does... brains run on electrical signal and neurons can remodel axons based on stimulation patterns). Suppose he submits to Rome as a client king, replaces his currency with theirs, and offers an alliance against the Selucids in return for a share of the booty. What would happen over the his reign and the next three generations?
 
Philip V wouldn't leave a good impression to either his Macedonian subjects nor the Greek city-states amenable to Macedon if he just submitted to the whims of some foreign barbarian power. That said, he'd feel a lot less paranoid about the Romans overthrowing him should he stay on their good graces and not be compelled by his illegitimate son Perseus to assassinate his pro-Roman son and heir Demetrius. If anything, Perseus for being so anti-Roman and an illegitimate son of a concubine may propel Philip to kill him instead. Should and when an alternate Seleucid war with Rome arise and Macedon sides with Rome (assuming alliances stay more or less the same), Demetrius would be able to make some territorial gains in Greece and Thrace.

That said, Rome's treatments of its allies is dubious. Any alliance between Rome and Macedon is temporary in the long run. Macedon will either die with a whisper by Demetrius or his successor ceding the kingdom to Rome or die in the glory of battle. Again it should be said that Demetrius' relationship with Rome, however good it may be, would be perceived differently to his subjects and cause room for an uprising.
 
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