The string of Roman naval victories, such…

Hellenism has blended with local cultures to form a syncretic civilization in Iran under the Seleucids, who have established many Greek settlements in the east.

The empire of the Seleucids, like that of the Achaemenids before them, is shaken by revolts of the satraps.

The difficult situations in the west and the grave reverses suffered by the royal house have accelerated the weakening of the Macedonian kingdom.

The loss of its eastern possessions in the third century BCE will prove fatal to the Seleucid cause.

Parthia is the first province to detach itself from the Seleucid Empire, just as it had been the first to rise up on the accession of Darius the Great.

Andragoras, the Seleucid satrap (governor) of Parthia during the mid-third century, apparently defies Seleucid imperial authority, which is weakly established in his area, and, although he does not declare himself king, issues coins on which his image bears the royal diadem.

At this time, Parthia is one of the poorer of the high satrapies, caught between the mountains and the great central desert and without large agricultural resources.

This satrapal independence might seem surprising if it were not for the fact that the main route for the silk trade crosses right through Parthia over a distance of more than one hundred miles.

The tolls the caravans pay must produce a sizable income.

…Lilybaeum.

Carthage at this time is feeling the strain of the prolonged conflict (in addition to maintaining a fleet and soldiers in Sicily they are also fighting the Libyans and Numidians in North Africa), and as a result, Hamilcar is given a fairly small army and the Carthaginian fleet begin gradually to be withdrawn.

Little is known about the Barcid family prior to Hamilcar Barca.

The names of his parents are unknown, and it is hypothesized that the family may have come from Cyrene and was part of the landed aristocracy of Carthage.

He is relatively young (thirty-three years old) when he receives the Sicilian command.

By this time he has sired three daughters, and his son Hannibal is born in the year that Hamilcar invades Sicily in 247.

Hamilcar is in command of a mercenary army composed of multiple nationalities and his ability to successfully lead this force demonstrates his talent as field commander.

He employs combined arms tactics, like Alexander or Pyhrrus, and his strategy is similar to the ones that will be employed by Quintus Fabius Maximus in the Second Punic War, ironically against Hamilcar’s eldest son.

The difference is that Fabius is to command a numerically superior army than his opponent and will have no supply problems, and have room to maneuver, while Hamilcar is static and has a far smaller army than his opponent.

Upon taking command, Hamilcar punishes the rebellious mercenaries (unruly because of overdue payment) by murdering some of them at night and drowning the rest at sea, and dismissing many to Africa.

With a reduced army and fleet, Hamilcar commences his operations.

Hamilcar raids Locri and Brindisi in 247 BCE, and upon his return he seizes a strong position on Mount Ercte (Monte Pellegrino, near Palermo, or Mt.

Castellacio, seven miles northwest of Palermo), and not only maintains himself against all attacks, but carries on with his raids from Catana in Sicily to far as Cumae in central Italy.

He also sets about improving the spirit of the army, and succeeds in creating a highly disciplined, versatile force.

While Hamilcar wins no large scale battle or recaptures cities lost to the Romans, his Carthaginians wage a relentless campaign against the Roman land forces, and their efforts are a constant and heavy drain on Roman resources.

Antiochus II leaves his unhappy marriage with Ptolemid princess Berenice, and their infant son, somehow persuaded by his cast-off first wife, Laodice, to return to live with her and their son in Ephesus, where he dies in 246, perhaps by poison, perhaps a victim of her intrigues.

Laodice proclaims her son King Seleucos II, then orders her partisans at Antioch to …

…murder Berenice and her son, who have taken refuge at Daphne, near Antioch, in Syria.

The Seleucid province of Bactria, a vast country of a “thousand cities,” is located at the junction of the routes to China and India, and it is rich in cultivable land.

Diodotus, a Greek who finds himself at the head of the Bactrian satrapy, leads a revolt that brings independence in about 250 BCE; he takes the title of king.

The motivating force behind the rebellion in Bactria is an association—or perhaps even a collaboration—between the local nobility (large landholders who dominate the whole indigenous population) and the local Greek community.

Both groups are opposed to the Macedonian domination represented by the Seleucid dynasty.

The preserved ancient sources are contradictory and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled.

There is a high chronology (circa 255 BCE) and a low chronology (circa 246 BCE) for Diodotos’ secession.

The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus' reign.

On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BCE, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire.

During this time of chaos in the Seleucid Empire, the new Seleucid king, in order to secure the friendship of King Diodotus of breakaway Bactria, (according to some scholars) marries one of his sisters to him in 246.

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 …

…defeating the Boeotians at Chaeronea in 245 BCE.