ABSTRACT
The conditions in which the later wars for Syria were fought – after Antiochos III’s conquest of Koile Syria – were very different from those of the fi rst fi ve. First, the cession of Syria to Antiochos III in 195 meant that the onus for aggression now lay with the Ptolemies; second, and this followed from the fi rst, the Ptolemaic dynasty was grievously weakened by the great rebellion of the native Egyptians which lasted for over twenty years, between 207 and 186, and which was liable to erupt at times in various places over the next century; it was also weakened, of course, by the loss of the territory which it hoped to recover.
