Third Syrian War
| date | 246-241 BC Chr. |
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| place | Syria |
| output | Victory for Egypt |
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The Third Syrian War or Laodic War ( ancient Greek Λαοδίκεως πόλεμος Laodíkeos pólemos ), like the First and Second Syrian Wars, was a conflict between Ptolemaic Egypt on the one hand and the Seleucid Empire on the other. It began in 246 BC. And ended in the year 241 BC. The Egyptian Ptolemy III. The 19-year-old Seleukos II was now formally opposed to his mother Laodike , who both Ptolemy and Seleucus had only assumed government in the same year.
The indirect cause of the war was the conclusion of peace for the Second Syrian War in 253 BC. BC, whose agreements were sealed by the marriage between Antiochus II and Ptolemy II's daughter Berenike the Younger . In order to fulfill his part of the contract, Antiochus had to leave his wife Laodike, to whom he then joined in 246 BC. BC returned, which in the same year led to two developments:
- Laodike took her former husband back in and poisoned him immediately, as did Berenike and their son a short time later.
- The Egyptians felt compelled to start the Third Syrian War because of the treatment of their princess.
After the death of Antiochus II in Ephesus , Laodike called her son Seleucus as his successor at the same place, thereby passing over Berenike's son, who according to the peace treaty was entitled to succeed. Berenike, who lived in Antioch on the Orontes , then sent two embassies: one traveled to the city of Soloi , on the Cilician coast opposite Antioch, and had a treasure of 1,500 talents handed over to her, which Laodice had already requested for himself others traveled to Egypt to meet their brother Ptolemy III. To ask for help.
Ptolemy immediately set off on board a small fleet, was enthusiastically received in Seleukia Pieria , the port of Antioch, and then also in Antioch itself (probably by Berenike's followers) - and found his sister and nephew murdered. Apparently the murder had been kept secret up to this point. The immediate cause of the war was thus omitted, but the opportunity presented was not. With the army brought up by land, Ptolemy secured rule over Syria , Mesopotamia and Cilicia without a sword blow , appointed his officials ( Antiochus and Xanthippus ) and returned in the first half of the year 245 BC. Back to Egypt with immeasurable booty - the latter, however, not entirely voluntarily, because he was forced to return by an uprising on the Nile, the first in the history of the Ptolemies: the costs of the campaign had disrupted the social balance in the region and the consequent discharge generated.
Seleucus II succeeded in 245 BC. To regain the lost Babylonia, which should not have caused him any great problems, since he was the only legitimate ruler after the death of his competitor, which has now become known. The further acts of war in the Syrian area are marginal, around 242 BC. It is said that there were still fights for Damascus with an unclear outcome, in the end Seleucus even seems to have started an attack on Egypt.
The Aegean Sea was also a second theater of war in this war . Ephesus, which was a royal seat at the beginning, went into existence in 246 BC. To the Ptolemies, and remained in their possession until 197 BC. Chr .; in the year 243 BC Then the commander Ptolemy Andromachou (apparently an illegitimate son of Ptolemy II) even managed to conquer the Thracian coast. On the other hand, he lost an important naval battle against Antigonus II Gonatas and was finally murdered by his own soldiers in Ephesus.
241 BC Then peace was made again, on conditions which were extremely advantageous for Egypt, and which made it - without much fighting - the most powerful Hellenistic state, with the exception of one province ( Pamphylia ) in this form until the end of the 3rd century v. Was preserved: The Ptolemaic Empire now spanned the entire area of the eastern Mediterranean with a few gaps, from Cyrenaica to Thrace, including the port city of Seleukeia as an enclave, which was of extreme economic importance as the end of long-distance trade routes.
The Seleucid Empire, on the other hand, was in a shattered state after this peace. The satraps of Bactria and Parthia had effectively become independent, and the Graeco-Bactrian empire came into being , whose ruler assumed the title of king two years later. And Parthia was even completely lost to Hellenism when invaded tribes established the Parthian Empire.
literature
- Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, Ideology and Religious Culture from Alexander the Great to the Roman Conquest. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1994, ISBN 3-534-10422-6 , pp. 46-50.