…defeating the Boeotians at Chaeronea in 245…

Almost nothing is known of the youth of Ptolemy III Euergetes before 245, when, following a long engagement, he marries Berenice II, the daughter of Magas of Cyrene, thereby reuniting Egypt and Cyrenaica, which since 258 had been divided.

Shortly after his marriage and subsequent accession to the Egyptian throne, Ptolemy, avenging the murder of his sister Berenice, at once invades the Seleucid realm and annexes the eastern provinces, while his fleets sweep the coasts of Asia Minor.

A secondary purpose in his launching of the Third Syrian War, or Laodicean War, around 245, against Laodice and her son, Seleucus II, is to enforce earlier diplomatic arrangements disadvantageous to Seleucus.

Ptolemy's navy, perhaps aided by rebels in the cities, advances against the Seleucid forces as far as Thrace and across the Hellespont, also capturing some islands off the Asia Minor coast, but Antigonus II Gonatus of Macedon in about 244 is able to maintain his hegemony in the Aegean by defeating the Egyptian fleet at Andros.

The Aetolian League confirms its influence in central Greece by …

Ptolemy is meanwhile able to march with his army through the distraught Seleucid realm, penetrating deep into Mesopotamia and reaching at least Seleucia on the Tigris, near Babylon. (According to classical sources, he is compelled to halt his advance because of domestic troubles. Famine and a low Nile, as well as the hostile alliance between Macedon, Seleucid Syria, and Rhodes, are perhaps additional reasons.)

Sparta, always different from the rest of Greece, is by mid-century a shadow of its former self.

There are no more than seven hundred full Spartan citizens, and the land, far from being equally distributed, in the hands of only a few.

Nineteen-year-old Agis IV, succeeding his father, Eudamidas II, in 244 as the twenty-sixth Spartan king of the Eurypontid line, essays economic and social reform by abolishing debts and redistributing land.

Drawing upon the tradition of the semilegendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus, Agis proposes the division of the Spartan homeland into forty-five hundred lots for citizens.

Full citizenship is to be extended to many perioeci (voteless freemen) and foreigners, and fifteen thousand lots are to be distributed to the remaining perioeci.

In addition to pursuing these reforms, Agis seeks the restoration of the Lycurgan system of military training.

Gonatus, following the death of his nephew Alexander, gives Nicaea, Alexander's widow, to his son Demetrius in marriage and  in 244 regains Corint by means of a stratagem.

The Achaean League, led since 251 by Aratus of Sicyon, is meanwhile becoming a dangerous opponent, and is receiving financial aid from Ptolemy II.

Gonatus sends gifts in a vain attempt to win over Aratus.

The Via Appia (the Appian Way), has reached Brundisium on the heel of Italy by 244 BCE.

Carthage has no ships to speak of in Sicily by 244 BCE, when Hamilcar transfers his army at night by sea to a similar position on the slopes of Mt.

Eryx (Monte San Giuliano), from which he is able to lend support to the besieged garrison in the neighboring town of Drepanum (Trapani).

Hamilcar has seized a position between Roman forces stationed in the summit and their camp at the base, but continues his activities unhindered.

He manages to foil a plan by his Celtic mercenaries to betray his position to the Romans.

During one of the raids, when troops under a subordinate commander named “Boaster” engage in plunder against the orders of Hamilcar and suffer severe casualties when the Romans catch them, Hamilcar requests a truce to bury his dead.

The Roman consul arrogantly replies that Hamilcar should request a truce to save his living and denies the request.

Hamilcar manages to inflict severe casualties on the Romans soon after, and when the Roman consul requests a truce to bury his dead, Hamilcar replies that his quarrel is with the living only and the dead had already settled their dues, and grants the truce.

The war in Asia Minor and the Aegean intensifies as the Achaean League allies itself to Egypt, while Seleucus, maintaining himself in the interior of Asia Minor, secures two allies in the Black Sea region.

To consolidate his position, Seleucus is forced to concede territory in Anatolia to the rulers of Cappadocia and …

…Pontus.