Читать книгу A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East онлайн

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After Alexander’s death, even though the satrapies of the Near East were assigned to men of lower rank (such as Laomedon of Mytilene in Syria), it soon became obvious that anyone claiming succession would have to control this necessary point of passage between the upper satrapies and the Mediterranean. Starting in 319 BCE, Ptolemy undertook a systematic conquest of Syria, considered as an advanced defense of Egypt, but he had to evacuate most of it when faced in 316 BCE with the offensive of Antigonus Monophthalmos (“One-Eyed”), who captured Syria as well as Mesopotamia. However, after the heavy defeat of Demetrius, son of Antigonus, at Gaza (312 BCE), Ptolemy reoccupied Syria while Seleucus, unable to take control of North Syria, attacked Mesopotamia. Ptolemy soon had to evacuate the country faced with a counter-offensive launched by Demetrius, but the peace of 311 BCE stabilized the situation. When the new war, starting in 302 BCE, pitted the new kings against Antigonus, Ptolemy reoccupied Syria (302–301 BCE). After the defeat of Antigonus at Ipsus (301 BCE), the combined forces gave Syria in its entirety to Seleucus, but he was only able to establish himself in the northern part because Ptolemy, his friend and his ally, occupied the southern part. Seleucus refused to go to war against the man who had allowed him to conquer Mesopotamia but he also was determined to assert his legitimate rights over all of Syria: his successors consistently considered that their inheritance consisted of all of Syria.