Lucius Mummius, consul of 146 BCE, now takes over the command of the war against the Achaean League, defeating the incapable Diaeus and the remaining Achaean forces, composed largely of untrained slaves, at Leucopetra on the Isthmus of Corinth and capturing Corinth.

All the men of Corinth are put to the sword and the women and children sold into slavery.

The Roman Senate now dissolves the Achaean League and, prompted by the mercantile party, which is eager to be rid of a dangerous commercial rival, orders Mummius to teach a lesson to the Greeks: the venerable city is sacked, its treasures taken to Rome, and its buildings burned to the ground.

However, at least two ancient authors give accounts that suggest Corinth was not completely destroyed (Cicero in Tusc. 3.53, and Dio Cassius 21).

Mummius' indifference to works of art and ignorance of their value is shown by his well-known remark to those who contracted for the shipment of the treasures of Corinth to Rome, that “if they lost or damaged them, they would have to replace them.”

In the subsequent settlement of affairs, Mummius exhibits considerable administrative powers and a high degree of justice and integrity, which gain him the respect of the inhabitants.

He especially abstains from offending their religious susceptibilities.

The destruction of Corinth brings Sicyon an acquisition of territory and the presidency over the Isthmian games.

Rome, when Critolaus blocks further negotiations, declares war on the Achaeans in 146 BCE, citing as reason the ill treatment of their embassy.

Metellus, a brilliant general, having delayed with his army, marches against Critolaus and defeats him in Locris.

Macedonia, made a Roman province in 146 BCE, is to be governed and taxed by a Roman proconsul, who also watches over the Greek cities to the south, where the Achaean and Aetolian leagues have been disbanded.

A smaller league, however, is set up soon afterward (and will continue into the Roman imperial age.)

Macedonia is in fact the first province of Rome’s nascent empire.

Throughout the rest of Greece, the leagues have been dissolved, democracies abolished, and power placed with the rich.

Intercity peace has been established and left to the governor of Macedonia to enforce.

The ironic result is that this external agency, Rome, has given the city-states a degree of autonomy and peace they had previously lacked.

Thessaly becomes part of the province of Macedonia, for which Salonika serves as the provincial capital.

Metellus, having secured the annexation of Macedonia as a Roman province, earns the agnomen Macedonicus for his victory; Andriscus figures in figured in his Triumph.

Aemilianus, on his return to Rome in this year, celebrates a splendid Triumph also.

Having established a personal claim to the adoptive agnomen of Africanus, he now becomes known as Scipio Africanus Minor.

Scipio Aemilianus, though a subordinate officer, had distinguished himself repeatedly in the early operations of the Third Punic War, which had gone altogether against the Romans.

He had garnered great popularity as a military tribune in 149-148 BCE, and in 147 BCE had been elected consul, while yet under the legal age, in order that he might hold the supreme command.

After a year of desperate fighting and splendid heroism on the part of the defenders, Aemilianus breaches the walls in 146 and captures the citadel following a week of fierce house-to-house combat in which nine-tenths of the Carthaginians die.

Eighteen-year-old Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, eldest son of the plebeian Roman diplomat of the same name, serves at Carthage with Aemilianus at Carthage, who is still in the company of the historian Polybius.

The Romans sell the surviving Carthaginians into slavery, then, under the supervision of Aemilianus,  raze the city completely, even salting the fields.

Ptolemy VI Philometor is in 145 BCE drawn into a battle in which Demetrius' son defeats Balas in his last desperate attempt to regain his throne.

During the battle, Ptolemy had fallen from his horse and fractured his skull, dying a few days later.

The Egyptian troops march home, leaderless and disillusioned.

Balas had meanwhile fled for refuge to a Nabataean prince, who murders him and sends his head to Ptolemy's court.

The Seleucid prince takes the throne as Demetrius II Nicator (Greek “Victor”).

New troubles soon arise, however.

The pillaging of the Cretan soldiers under Lasthenes cause the Antiochenians to rise in rebellion, and only after terrible massacres can order be restored.

In opposition, Diodotus Tryphon, or Trypho, a general of the Syrian army, promotes the claims of Balas' young son by Cleopatra Thea, Antiochus VI Epiphanes Dionysius.

Demetrius proves unable to retake the capital, instead …

…establishing himself in Seleucia.

Mithridates of Parthia, called also Arsaces VI, the "Great King" of Parthia from about 171 BCE, has made Parthia into a major political power, expanding the empire westward into Mesopotamia around 145 BCE.

A Hellenistic settlement on the ancient citadel of Nimrud is abandoned around this time, probably due to the incursions of Mithridates.

With the battle death of Philometor at the Battle of Antioch, his younger son and, briefly, co-ruler, succeeds to the throne of Egypt in July, 145 BCE, named by his mother as Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator (Greek: Philopator, the Younger). (Classical and even contemporary Egyptian sources are confused concerning the placement of Neos Philopator in the royal sequence because at least one other son of Philometor, also named Ptolemy, had served as co-ruler earlier in the reign. Modern scholars have gathered evidence to show that Neos Philopator became co-ruler in 147 BCE.)

Still a minor, Ptolemy is the ward of his mother, Cleopatra II, who also serves as his co-ruler.

His father's army, however, had been dispersed in Syria; and Neos Philopator and his mother enjoy only limited support.

After the opposition factions invites the return from Cyrenaica of the young king's uncle, Ptolemy Euergetes, also called Physcon (Greek: Potbellied”), he proposes joint rule and marriage to Cleopatra II, his sister.

Neos Philopator is deposed in late August.