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The Syrian Wars are one of the "bugbears" of Hellenistic historiography. The root cause of the wars was the line of Koile Syria by Ptolemy I in 301 BC; and for over a century, beginning in the 270s BC, the Ptolemies and Seleucids fought over this territory at least once a generation. Reconstructing the story of this series of wars-cumulatively almost 40 days of campaigns and combat-is, however, difficult, to say the least.

The chronology and the succession of events of many of the wars are unclear, and in the character of the Second Syrian War even who can be said to have won is subject to question.Historians even differ concerning how many Syrian Wars they recognize, with the number varying between six and the nine discussed in this study.

What is behind these difficulties, of course, is the deplorable province of the sources, which are worse, indeed, than is the subject for many other aspects of Hellenistic history. Narrative sources are episodic or non-existent. Indeed, only with the eruption of the Fourth Syrian War in 221 BC is a comprehensive story of a Syrian War provided by Polybius. Although inscriptions, papyri, and cuneiform texts-especially the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries-fill some of the gaps in the literary evidence, they also all too often grow more questions than answers.In this spot it is understandable that the majority of the scholarship on the Syrian Wars consists of articles instead of books, and that John D. Grainger's new word is the first monograph devoted to analyzing the whole series of wars from the blood of the difference in the wars of Alexander's Successors to Kleopatra VII's unsuccessful endeavor in the 30s BC to use Roman patronage to fix her dynasty's position in Syria-Palestine.

The Syrian Wars is a distinguished addition to Dr. Grainger's numerous works on the story of the Seleucids. In many ways The Syrian Wars is an old fashioned work. It is narrative story in the tradition of E. Bevan's classic The Home of Seleucus (London 1902). The center is on diplomatic and military history interpreted in the fall of the geo-political constants of Syria-Palestine.The book, however, is intended to do more than merely reconstruct the story of a frustratingly obscure series of wars. Rather, the author offers a revolutionary new version of Hellenistic history based on the Syrian Wars being "the key diplomatic and political and military factor in external affairs in the Hellenistic world from 301 to 128, and_more important for the first century of that point than anything which happened in the Western Mediterranean_.The Syrian Wars were a major case of both the king of the two dynasties (sc. the Ptolemies and Seleucids), but also of their destruction (p. 419)."

The story of the Syrian Wars is a complicated story, and the writer tells it well.The construction of his word is light and lucid. After an introduction outlining Alexander's campaign in Syria and a prologue recounting the work by which Ptolemy I gained mastery of Koile Syria, the story proceeds chronologically through the nine wars recognized by the author. The discussion of each war is divided into two chapters: the first analyzes the results of the late war and their meaning for the next, and the second narrates the war itself.The story of the wars, as the author reconstructs it, falls into four periods. The first begins with Ptolemy I's line of Koile Syria and ends with Ptolemy III's victory in the Third Syrian War and the virtual disintegration of the Seleucid kingdom. The second, which covers the sovereignty of Antiochus III, begins with his failure to conquer Koile Syria in the Fourth Syrian War and ends with his success in the Fifth Syrian War, a success that was facilitated by the internal collapse of Ptolemaic Egypt due to native revolts and the "slothfulness" of Ptolemy IV. The third, which extends from Antiochus III's defeat by the Romans to the "Day of Eleusis", is modified to the Sixth Syrian War and its setting and ends with Roman recognition of Seleucid rule of Koile Syria and the independency of Egypt. The 4th and last period embraces the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Syrian Wars and is marked, on the one hand, by the chimerical project of union the two kingdoms, a destination that briefly seemed within reach during the rule of Ptolemy VI, and, on the other hand, by chronic and debilitating dynastic disputes that sapped the speciality of both Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid state.

Reconstruction of this long and complex history is an impressive achievement. Various themes recur throughout it, but three stand out: (1) the resiliency of the unitary Ptolemaic kingdom in contrast to the "ramshackle" character of the Seleucid state that rendered it vulnerable to disintegration; (2) the restriction of the wars to around one per generation because of the diplomatic "rule" that treaties remained in power during the lifetimes of the signatories; and (3) the strength of the defensive system created by the Ptolemies in Koile Syria in frustrating Seleucid intervention in the region during the 3rd century BC.

As was mentioned earlier, The Syrian Wars is old-fashioned narrative history, and it has the virtues and vices of the genre. On the one hand, the writer has a big story to tell, and he tells it well. Particularly effective is his lucid exposition of the near association between the kings' concentration on gaining or maintaining control of Koile Syria and such phenomena as Ptolemy II's fiscal reorganization of Egypt and the Seleucid loss of Iran, Bactria, and Asia Minor. Also, welcome is his revisionist treatment of the Maccabee revolt as chiefly a local problem with limited impact on the Seleucid state as a whole. On the other hand, the generator is not as decisive of the sources as he might be. So, for example, he too readily accept Polybius' and Josephus' negative characterizations of Ptolemy IV and Alexander Balas, although in the latter subject he does remark that Balas' energetic actions are difficult to settle with the sources' picture of him as dominated by luxury. Similarly, we are certainly entitled to inquire if the "principle" that treaties were honored during the life of their signatories is due more to the deficiencies of the sources than the honor of the Hellenistic kings. Nevertheless, while we may question if the Syrian Wars actually do offer the key to reason the loser of the Hellenistic kingdoms, as the source claims, the fact remains that The Syrian Was is an important part to Hellenistic political and military history that should get the standard treatment of its matter for days to come.

Table of Contents

Maps

Abbreviations

Introduction

Prologue: Syria's Importance Revealed

1. Syria Divided

2. Cold War

3. The New Kings, and the First Syrian War

4. Competitive Developing

5. The Second Syrian War

6. Increasing Strains

7. The Third War, the 'War of Laodike'

8. The Seleukid Collapse

9. The Fourth War

10. The Reversal, the Ptolemaic Collapse

11. The Fifth War: the Victory of Antiochos III

12. Changing Priorities

13. The Sixth War: and the 'Day of Eleusis'

14. Mutual Troubles and a New Agenda

15. The Seventh War, the Triumph of Ptolemy Philometor

16. The Legacy of Philometor

17. The Eighth War, the Last Chance for Union

18. The Ninth, and Last, War

Epilogue: the Dream of Kleopatra VII

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index