With the Rhodian fleet and economy suffering from the depredations of the pirates, Philip believed his chance to crush Rhodes was at hand.

In 202 BC, Rhodes and her allies Pergamum, Cyzicus, and Byzantium combined their fleets and defeated Philip at the Battle of Chios.

While Philip was plundering Pergamese territory and attacking cities in Caria, Attalus I of Pergamum went to Athens to try to create a diversion.

After suffering a defeat at the hands of the Rhodian and Pergamese fleets, Philip withdrew, but not before attacking the city of Abydos on the Hellespont.

Marching his forces to Macedon's northern frontier, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the Illyrians, who lost 10,000 men in battle.

[1] By the end of 205 BC, Rhodes had been significantly weakened by these raids, and Philip saw his chance to go forward with the second part of his plan, direct military confrontation.

[5] Despite attempts by Rhodes and other states to mediate a settlement, Philip captured and razed Cius as well as its neighbour Myrleia.

[6] Philip next compelled the cities of Lysimachia and Chalcedon, which were also members of the Aetolian League, to break off their alliance with Aetolia probably through the threatened use of violence.

[5] In 204 BC or the spring of 203 BC, Philip was approached by Sosibius and Agathocles of Egypt, the ministers of the young pharaoh Ptolemy V.[1] The ministers sought to arrange a marriage between Ptolemy and Philip's daughter in order to form an alliance against Antiochus III the Great, emperor of the Seleucid Empire, who was seeking to expand his empire at Egypt's expense.

Philip, however, declined the proposal and in the winter of 203–202 BC, he formed an alliance with Antiochus and organised the partition of the Ptolemaic Empire.

Macedonian aggression had convinced the Aetolian League that they needed additional protectors in order to maintain their current position.

The siege was not going well for Philip and the situation worsened as the combined fleets of Pergamum, Rhodes and their new allies, Kos, Cyzicus and Byzantium approached from both the north and south.

[13] Philip, comprehending that the allies were attempting to seal his line of retreat, lifted the siege and began to sail for a friendly harbour.

The Rhodians were able to use their superior navigational skills to incapacitate large numbers of Macedonian ships, swinging the battle back into their favour.

Philip, however, whose ship had not been involved in the fighting to this point, saw that Attalus had strayed some distance from his fleet and sailed to attack him with four quinqueremes and three hemioliae.

[26] Subsequently, Philip turned north in order to seize and garrison the cities of Iasos, Bargylia, Euromus and Pedasa in quick succession.

[21] While the allies were making their preparations, Philip slipped past them by night with his fleet, leaving numerous campfires burning to give the appearance that he remained in his camp.

[29] The Acarnanians complained to Philip about this provocation, and he decided to send a force under the command of Nicanor the Elephant to assist them in their attack on Attica.

[31] The invaders made it as far as the Academy of Athens when the Roman ambassadors in the city ordered the Macedonians to retreat or to face war with Rome.

In response to these complaints the Romans sent three ambassadors, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Gaius Claudius Nero and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus to Egypt with the orders to go to Rhodes after speaking with Ptolemy.

[36] While this was happening, Philip attacked and occupied the cities in Thrace which still belonged to Ptolemy, Maroneia, Cypsela, Doriscus, Serrheum and Aemus.

They decided to liberate all slaves to secure their loyalty, to place all the children and their nurses in the gymnasium and to put all the women in the temple of Artemis.

As Polybius writes: ... whenever they saw the inner wall being captured by the enemy, they would kill the children and women, and would burn the above mentioned ships, and, in accordance with the curses that had been invoked, would throw the silver and gold into the sea.

'[41] When the interior wall fell, the men, true to their promise, sprang from the ruins and fought with great courage, forcing Philip to send his troops forward in relays to the front line.

That night the Abydenians resolved to save the women and children and at daybreak they sent some priests and priestess with a garland across to the Macedonians, surrendering the city to Philip.

[44]While Philip was walking through Abydos, he saw people killing themselves and their families by stabbing, burning, hanging, and jumping down wells and from rooftops.

[45] The Abydenians, who were bent on following the orders of the original decree, thought that this would amount to treason to the people who had already died, and refused to live under these terms.

[3] Under the treaty signed at the conclusion of the war, Hierapytna agreed to break off all relations and alliances with foreign powers and to place all its harbors and bases at Rhodes' disposal.

In the war's immediate aftermath the Dardani, a barbarian tribe, swarmed across the northern border of Macedon, but Philip was able to repel this attack.

The Pergamese, meanwhile, came out of the war having gained several Aegean islands which had been in Philip's possession and went on to become the supreme power in Asia Minor, rivaled only by Antiochus.