ABSTRACT
The line between the territory of two competing dynastic houses, Ptolemaic and Seleucid, was probably never very firm but for most of the third century BC it ran a little to the south of present-day Homs. Most of what is now Lebanon was Ptolemaic territory, along with its interior reaching as far as Damascus, but it is likely that the coastal cities retained considerable autonomy. It is equally probable that Ptolemaic control of their territory was never particularly well developed or unified. The extent of Ptolemaic administration is an enigma like much of the detail of their rule outside the central lands of Egypt. ‘Syria’ was one of the outlying territories of the Ptolemaic realm along with Phoenicia, Cyprus and Cyrenaica (the eastern coast of present day Libya). At the administrative level, it is not clear whether southern Syria had the full status of a separate province or was grouped among the districts ruled by the dioiketes (Finance Minister), possibly at Alexandria. The territorial division between Ptolemies and Seleucids separated more than two squabbling Greek dynasties; it marked two traditions which spawned profoundly contrasting systems. The Ptolemies quickly took on the colouring of the pharaonic past with the style and structure of a highly centralised monarchy. In Seleucid Syria, a warrior dynasty set itself up in northern Syria in circumstances that consciously copied the Macedonian homeland.
