Coele-Syria & Phoenicia in 218 B.C.

Coele-Syria & Phoenicia — Ptolemaic Egypt › The Overseas Empire.

The contested Levant — from Gaza on the desert edge up through the rich Phoenician ports — won by Ptolemy I and held against four Syrian wars. It is the buffer that keeps the Seleucids off the Egyptian frontier and a source of cedar, purple and trade. In 219 Antiochus III stormed across it; in 218 the Ptolemaic hold is crumbling, and the prize will be decided on the field of Raphia.