<P> Pyrrhus then went to war with Macedonia in 275, deposing Antigonus II Gonatas and briefly ruling over Macedonia and Thessaly until 285 . Afterwards he invaded southern Greece, and was killed in battle against Argos in 272 BC . After the death of Pyrrhus, Epirus remained a minor power . In 233 BC the Aeacid royal family was deposed and a federal state was set up called the Epirote League . The league was conquered by Rome in the Third Macedonian War (171--168 BC). </P> <P> Antigonus II, a student of Zeno of Citium, spent most of his rule defending Macedon against Epirus and cementing Macedonian power in Greece, first against the Athenians in the Chremonidean War, and then against the Achaean League of Aratus of Sicyon . Under the Antigonids, Macedonia was often short on funds, the Pangaeum mines were no longer as productive as under Philip II, the wealth from Alexander's campaigns had been used up and the countryside pillaged by the Gallic invasion . A large number of the Macedonian population had also been resettled abroad by Alexander or had chosen to emigrate to the new eastern Greek cities . Up to two thirds of the population emigrated, and the Macedonian army could only count on a levy of 25,000 men, a significantly smaller force than under Philip II . </P> <P> Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC . His son Demetrius II soon died in 229 BC, leaving a child (Philip V) as king, with the general Antigonus Doson as regent . Doson led Macedon to victory in the war against the Spartan king Cleomenes III, and occupied Sparta . </P> <P> Philip V, who came to power when Doson died in 221 BC, was the last Macedonian ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the "cloud rising in the west": the ever - increasing power of Rome . He was known as "the darling of Hellas". Under his auspices the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC) brought the latest war between Macedon and the Greek leagues (the social war 220 - 217) to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum . </P>

Hellenistic culture brought together the traditions of what regions