A History of the Hellenistic World (Blackwell History of the Ancient World) by Errington R. Malcolm

Author:Errington, R. Malcolm [Errington, R. Malcolm]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

The crisis in Syria was provoked by Antiochos, but Sosibios and his associates mastered it in the end. The measures they took to respond to the threat, however, had repercussions on the internal stability of the Ptolemaic state, which at about the same time was suffering losses in the far south from the expansion of the Nubian kingdom. This now controlled the Nile valley as far north as Philai (Aswan). More important in the short term, however, was dissatisfaction expressed by the returning Egyptian native troops who, fighting in the phalanx for their Pharaoh, had made a major contribution to Ptolemy’s success at Raphia. Polybios comments that they thought that with a suitable leader they could now set themselves up as a state within the state, which did indeed happen not long afterwards (Polybios 5.107). “Not long afterwards” in fact amounted to some ten years, after which we do have some evidence for an independent native Egyptian Pharaoh called Herwennefer based on Thebes, but whose influence extended at least as far north as Abydos in middle Egypt. Polybios also mentions a savage guerrilla-type war fought during Ptolemy IV’s reign, though he does not say when it began, only that it was brutal though unspectacular – no big battle took place (Polybios 14.12.4–5). An important document dating from the time of his successor, Ptolemy V, optimistically called “Epiphanes,” “the Renowned,” refers to attacks on temples in the delta region, and this suggests that the rebels were active there and regarded the priests as enemies because they supported the Ptolemaic regime that from the beginning had always made efforts to woo them (the “Rosetta Stone“: OGIS 90 = Austin2 283 = Burstein 103 = BD2 165).

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