Marcellus is elected consul yet again in…

Enna, repeatedly mentioned in the First Punic War, had been taken first by the Carthaginians under Hamilcar, and subsequently recaptured by the Romans, but in both instances by treachery and not by force.

In the Second Punic War, while Marcellus is engaged in the siege of Syracuse, the defection of several Sicilian towns from Rome has alarmed Pinarius, the governor of Enna.

Lest his citizens should follow their example; and in order to forestall the apprehended treachery, he with the Roman garrison falls upon the citizens when assembled in the theater, and puts them all to the sword without distinction, after which he gives up the city to be plundered by his soldiers.

Following his triumph at Casilium, Marcellus is sent to Sicily, upon which Hannibal has set his sights, and finds the island in disarray.

Hieronymus, the new ruler of the Rome-allied Kingdom of Syracuse, had recently come to the throne upon his grandfather's death and fallen under the influence of the Carthaginian agents Hippocrates and Epicydes.

He had then declared war against the Romans after the Carthaginian victory at the Battle of Cannae.

However, Hieronymus is soon deposed; the new Syracusan leaders attempt a reconciliation with Rome but cannot quell their suspicions and then align themselves with the Carthaginians.

In 214 BCE, the same year that he is sent to Sicily, …

Marcellus attacks the city of Leontini, where the two Syracusean rulers are residing.

After successfully storming the city, Marcellus has two thousand Roman deserters who were hiding in the city killed, and moves to lay siege to Syracuse itself.

At this point, several cities in the province of Sicily rise in rebellion against Roman rule.

Xiang Yu splits the former Qin Empire into the so-called Eighteen Kingdoms following the collapse of the dynasty in 206 BCE.

Two prominent contending powers, Western Chu and Han, emerge from these principalities and engage in a struggle for supremacy over China.

Western Chu is led by Xiang Yu, while the Han leader is Liu Bang.

During this period of time, several minor kings from the Eighteen Kingdoms also fight battles against each other.

These battles are independent of the main conflict between Chu and Han.

The war ends with total victory for Han, after which Liu Bang proclaims himself "Emperor of China" and, as Emperor Gaozu of Han, establishes the Han Dynasty in 202 BCE.

The Xiongnu, a nomadic confederation possibly of Turkic ethnicity and viewed by the Qin as bandits, had been recently expelled from the north, but return after the death of the First Qin Emperor, Shi Huangdi, to occupy the region from the Mongolian-Tibetan borders eastward to the Yellow Sea.

Antiochus III's Eastern Reconquests

Following decades of territorial losses to the rising Parthian and Bactrian kingdoms after 238 BCE, Antiochus III the Great, driven by the ambition to reunite Alexander the Great’s former empire, initiates a decisive campaign eastward in 209 BCE. At this time, the Seleucid realm had significantly diminished, with regions east of Persia and Media largely lost due to earlier distractions in wars with Ptolemaic Egypt.

Antiochus achieves remarkable military success against the Parthians, forcing them to acknowledge Seleucid authority and restricting their domain back to the historical boundaries of the province of Parthia itself. However, this vassalage remains largely symbolic and enforced primarily by the presence of Seleucid military power.

For these significant achievements, Antiochus earns the title ‘Great’ from his nobles. Despite his military prowess, he ultimately recognizes the independence of the Parthian kingdom and the Greco-Bactrian ruler Euthydemus, stabilizing the region through a pragmatic system of vassal states and client kingdoms.

With the eastern provinces secured, Antiochus III soon redirects his ambitions westward, compelled by ongoing rivalries with Ptolemaic Egypt and the emerging power of the Roman Republic, setting the stage for future confrontations and further reshaping the geopolitical landscape of the ancient Near East.

The Parthians had begun to try to conquer as much of the eastern Seleucid empire as possible after 238 BCE, joined in this endeavor by the now independent province of Bactria.

The Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos was at the time too busy fighting a war against Ptolemaic Egypt and so the Seleucids had lost most of their territory east of Persia and Media.

Antiochus III, an ambitious Seleucid king who has a vision of reuniting Alexander the Great's empire under the Seleucid dynasty, launches a campaign in 209 BCE to regain control of the eastern provinces, and after defeating the Parthians in battle, he successfully regains control over the region.

The Parthians are forced to accept vassal status and now only control the land conforming to the former Seleucid province of Parthia.

However, Parthia's vassalage is only nominal at best and only because the Seleucid army is on their doorstep.

For his retaking of the eastern provinces and establishing the Seleucid borders as far east as they had been under Seleucus I Nicator, Antiochus is awarded the title ‘great’ by his nobles.

Antiochus establishes a magnificent system of vassal states but has had to recognize the independence of two kingdoms, that of the Parthians and that of the Greco-Bactrian ruler Euthydemus, which had been no more than satrapies.

Luckily for the Parthians, the Seleucid Empire has many enemies, and it will not be long before Antiochus leads his forces west to fight Ptolemaic Egypt and the rising Roman Republic.

Near East (213–202 BCE): Egyptian Instability and Hellenistic Opportunism

In the early years of this era, native Egyptians, empowered by their decisive role in the victory at the Battle of Raphia (217 BCE), become increasingly aware of their potential strength. Emboldened, they initiate a rebellion against their Hellenistic overlords. Polybius, the contemporary historian, describes this uprising as guerrilla warfare, marking a significant escalation in Egyptian resistance and highlighting the tenuous grip of the Ptolemaic dynasty over Egypt.

Meanwhile, court intrigue intensifies around the death of Ptolemy IV Philopator in 205 BCE and the accession of his young successor, Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205–180 BCE). According to Polybius, a clique led by the influential minister Sosibius consolidates power by announcing the young king’s accession and the sudden deaths of his parents, simultaneously banishing all prominent rivals from Egypt.

Recognizing Egypt's internal vulnerability, the rulers of Macedon and the Seleucid Empire, centered in Syria, secretly agree to exploit the situation, conspiring to partition Egypt’s valuable territories in Asia Minor and the Aegean region. This opportunistic alliance foreshadows further instability, as Egypt’s neighbors seek advantage from its weakened condition.

The native Egyptians, sensing their power, rise against their Hellenistic rulers in a rebellion that Polybius describes as guerrilla warfare.

Court intrigue obscures the events surrounding the death of Ptolemy IV Philopator and the succession of the youthful Epiphanes (205-180 BCE).

According to Polybius, all prominent officials are banished from Egypt while Sosibius' clique announces the young king's accession and the death of his parents.

The rulers of Macedon and of the Syrian-based Seleucid kingdom, however, realizing Egypt's weakness, conspire to partition that Kingdom's Asiatic and Aegean possessions.

A sideshow of the Punic war is the indecisive First Macedonian War in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ionian Sea, during which conflict Philip V of Macedon again defeats the Aetolian League and Rome after the two ally against him in 211.

The war ends with two different peace treaties; one with the Aetolian League in 206 and one with Rome in 205 called the "Peace of Phoenice," which allows Philip to keep the land he had taken in Illyria.

This war is essentially a renewal of the Social War and ends in the same way, with the Aetolian League losing a second war to Philip V and Macedonia.

Philip, seeing his chance to defeat Rhodes, forms an alliance with Aetolian and Spartan pirates who begin raiding Rhodian ships.

Philip also forms an alliance with several important Cretan cities, such as Hierapynta and Olous.

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

To help achieve his goal, he forms an alliance with the King of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus the Great, against Ptolemy V of Egypt (the Seleucid Empire and Egypt are the other two Diadochi states).

Philip begins attacking the lands of Ptolemy and Rhodes's allies in Thrace and around the Sea of Marmara.

Rhodes and her allies Pergamon, Cyzicus, and Byzantium combine their fleets in 202 BCE and defeat Philip at the Battle of Chios.

Rome's first major military expedition into the Greek world meets with brilliant success, disrupting Hellenistic hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean.

Philip V loses all his territory outside Macedonia, and the victorious commander Flamininus establishes a Roman protectorate over the "liberated" Greek city-states.

Flamininus develops the policy of turning the cities, leagues, and kingdoms of the Hellenistic world into clients of Rome and of himself, a policy that will become the basis of Roman hegemony of the Mediterranean.

The fortunes of Greece and Rome for about the next five hundred years will henceforth be intertwined.