Ptolemy IV Philopator

The Romans, in search of iron, copper, precious metals, slaves, and crops, begin to expand into the Balkan Peninsula in the late third century BCE.

The tax burden on both rural and urban populations of the Hellenistic kingdoms rises as the constant military conflicts raise revenue needs.

The Persians, Parthians, and Bactrians meanwhile threaten from the east; and Roman expansionism in southern Italy and the western Mediterranean sets the stage for repeated clashes between Rome and various Hellenistic rulers.

Conflicts between the Roman Republic and the kingdom of Macedonia from 215 BCE cause increasing involvement by Rome in Greek affairs.

Antiochus III the Great, upon taking the Seleucid throne in 223 BCE, had set himself the task of restoring the lost imperial possessions of Seleucus I Nicator, which extended from Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in the east, the Hellespont in the north, and Syria in the south.

He has by 221 BCE reestablished Seleucid control over Media and Persia, which had been in rebellion.

The ambitious king turns his eyes toward Syria and Hellenistic Egypt.

Near East (225–214 BCE): Attalid-Pergamene Rivalry and the Fourth Syrian War

After several years of relative peace, conflict in western Anatolia flares again in 218 BCE, as Attalus I of Pergamon recaptures his lost territories with assistance from Thracian Gauls, seizing an opportunity presented while his rival Achaeus, who had declared himself king in opposition to the Seleucid crown, is preoccupied with a campaign south of the Taurus Mountains at Selge.

Upon his return in 217 BCE, victorious from Selge, Achaeus immediately resumes hostilities against Attalus. This prompts Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great, acting under an alliance with Attalus, to intervene directly. Antiochus crosses the Taurus in 216 BCE, initiating a two-year siege of the key Anatolian city Sardis, the regional seat of Achaeus. In 214 BCE, Sardis finally falls to Antiochus, although Achaeus and his supporters maintain control of its citadel. Later, through an act of betrayal disguised as a rescue attempt, Achaeus is captured and executed, ending his challenge to Seleucid dominance.

In Egypt, the reign of the young king Ptolemy IV Philopator, inaugurated in 221 BCE by the assassination of his mother, Queen Berenice II, descends into internal chaos. Under the sway of manipulative courtiers such as the powerful minister Sosibius, the Egyptian court becomes marked by intrigue and widespread public unrest.

Recognizing Egypt's weakened condition, Antiochus III launches the Fourth Syrian War in 219 BCE, swiftly capturing Seleucia Pieria and key cities in Phoenicia, including Tyre. However, Antiochus hesitates for over a year in Phoenicia, consolidating gains rather than pressing immediately toward Egypt.

This delay allows Sosibius to reorganize the Egyptian army, recruiting extensively from native Egyptian populations—an unprecedented move under the Greek-dominated Ptolemaic rule. Approximately thirty thousand native Egyptians are enrolled and trained as phalangites. This new Egyptian force decisively engages Antiochus in 217 BCE at the Battle of Raphia, the largest military confrontation since Ipsus eighty years earlier. The unexpected Egyptian victory secures continued Ptolemaic control over Coele-Syria, though the hesitant Ptolemy IV fails to capitalize on this success by advancing further into Seleucid territory.

Despite this military success, Ptolemaic Egypt continues its decline, facing persistent economic struggles and internal rebellion—issues exacerbated by the empowerment of native Egyptian troops who begin to recognize their own strength within the faltering Greek regime.

Egypt has been significantly weakened by court intrigue and public unrest.

The rule of the newly inaugurated Ptolemy IV Philopator begins in 221 BCE with the murder of queen-mother Berenice II.

The young king quickly falls under the absolute influence of imperial courtiers.

His ministers use their absolute power in their own self-interest, to the people's great chagrin.

Antiochus seeks to take advantage of this chaotic situation.

After an invasion in 221 BCE fails to launch, he finally begins the Fourth Syrian War in 219 BCE.

He recaptures Seleucia Pieria as well as cities in Phoenicia, among them Tyre.

Rather than promptly invading Egypt, Antiochus waits in Phoenicia for over a year, consolidating his new territories and listening to diplomatic proposals from the Ptolemaic kingdom.

Ptolemy's minister Sosibius meanwhile begins recruiting and training an army.

The threat from Seleucid Syria is sufficiently grave that, for the first time under the Ptolemaic regime, Sosibus recruits not only from the local Greek population, as Hellenistic armies generally are, but also from the native Egyptians, enrolling at least thirty-thousand natives as phalangites.

This innovation pays off, but it will eventually have dire consequences for Ptolemaic stability.

Ptolemy, after intensive drilling of the reorganized Egyptian army, engages and defeats the long-delayed Antiochus in the summer of 217 BCE in the Battle of Raphia, the largest battle since the Battle of Ipsus over eighty years earlier.

Ptolemy's victory preserves his control over Coele-Syria, and the weak king declines to advance further into Antiochus' empire, even to retake Seleucia Pieria.

The Ptolemaic kingdom will continue to decline over the following years, suffering from economic problems and rebellion.

Antigonus III Doson, reviving the Hellenic Alliance as a confederacy of leagues with himself as president restores internal stability and reestablishes Macedon in a stronger position in Greece than it had enjoyed since the reign of Gonatas.

Antigonus defeats the Achaean League, together with Sparta, but allows a shadow of independence to what appears to be a large body constituting a kind of representative government.

The Social War, or the War of the Allies, fought from 220 BCE to 217 BCE between the Hellenic League under Philip V of Macedon and the Aetolian League, Sparta and Elis, is ended with the Peace of Naupactus.

As a result of the war, Philip V becomes the major military power in Greece.

Philip after 217 turns his attention westward towards the Roman Republic.

He takes Illyria on the westernmost part of the Balkan Peninsula, in 215 allies with Hannibal and Carthage against Rome, and even considers crossing the Adriatic Sea and invading Italy.

The Second Punic War, also referred to as the Hannibalic War (by the Romans), The War Against Hannibal, or "The Carthaginian War", begins in 218 BCE and involves combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean.

This is the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the crucial participation of Numidian-Berber armies and tribes on both sides.

The two states have three major conflicts against each other over the course of their existence.

They are called the "Punic Wars" because Rome's name for Carthaginians is Poeni, derived from Poenici (earlier form of Punici), a reference to the founding of Carthage by Phoenician settlers.

The war is to a considerable extent initiated by Rome, but is marked by Hannibal's surprising overland journey and his costly crossing of the Alps, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies in the battle of the Trebia and the giant ambush at Trasimene.

In the following year (216), Hannibal's army defeats the Romans again, this time in southern Italy at Cannae.

In consequence of these defeats, many Roman allies go over to Carthage, prolonging the war in Italy for over a decade.

Antiochus appoints Achaeus to the command of all Asia Minor on the western side of the Taurus mountains.

Achaeus recovers all the districts which Attalus had gained for the Seleucids once more; but being falsely accused by Hermeias of intending to revolt, he does so in self-defense, assumes the title of king, and rules over the whole of Asia on the western side of the Taurus.

Antiochus III, the younger son of Seleucus II Callinicus, had succeeded his brother Seleucus III to the throne of the disorganized kingdom.

He has retained from the previous administration Hermias as chief minister, Achaeus, a cousin and general of Antiochus III, as governor of Asia Minor, and Molon and his brother Alexander as governors of the eastern provinces, Media and Persis.

Antiochus, when Molon rebels and assumes the title of king in 223, abandons a campaign against Egypt for the conquest of southern Syria, on the advice of Hermias, and marches against Molon.

Ptolemy III Euergetes, Macedonian ruler of Egypt, had sent aid to Rhodes after earthquakes in 226-225 devastated the island.

Avoiding involvement in the wars that have continued to plague Syria and Macedonia, he had refrained also from subsidizing the schemes of the Spartan king Cleomenes against Macedonia, though he grants him asylum in 222, his policy being to maintain an equilibrium of power, guaranteeing the safety of his own territory.

The early Ptolemies have not disturbed the religion or the customs of the Egyptians, and indeed built magnificent new temples for the Egyptian gods and soon adopted the outward display of the Pharaohs of old.

Thousands of Greek veterans during the reign of Ptolemies II and III have been rewarded with grants of farm lands, and Greeks have been planted in colonies and garrisons or settled themselves in the villages throughout the country.

Upper Egypt, farthest from the center of government, is less immediately affected, though Ptolemy I had established the Greek colony of Ptolemais Hermiou to be its capital, but within a century Greek influence had spread through the country and intermarriage had produced a large Greco-Egyptian educated class.

The Greeks nevertheless always remain a privileged minority in Ptolemaic Egypt.

They live under Greek law, receive a Greek education, are tried in Greek courts, and are citizens of Greek cities, just as they had been in Greece.

The Egyptians are rarely admitted to the higher levels of Greek culture, in which most Egyptians are in any case not interested.

A large factor in the prosperity of the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt is the exploitation of the region's resources, both natural and human.

The Nile valley is rich with resources available at the Ptolemies' disposal, and there is a large Egyptian population available to be utilized for labor.

Two of the most valuable resources for the Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt are grain and papyrus, the writing paper of the time period.

After declaring his seventeen-year-old son Ptolemy IV Philopator (Greek: Loving His Father) his successor, Ptolemy dies in 221, leaving Egypt at the peak of its political power and internally stable and prosperous.

The new king, weak and easily influenced, has his mother, brother, and others at the urging of advisors.

Classical writers depict Ptolemy IV as a drunken, debauched reveler, completely under the influence of his disreputable associates, among whom Sosibius is the most prominent.

Cleomenes, imprisoned by Ptolemy, escapes in 219 and, after failing to raise a revolt in Alexandria, takes his own life.