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Fifth Syrian War (202–195)
See also: Battle of Panium:
The death of Ptolemy IV in 204 was followed by a bloody conflict over the
regency as his heir, Ptolemy V, was just a child. The conflict began with the
murder of the dead king's wife and sister Arsinoë by the ministers
Agothocles and Sosibius. The fate of Sosibius is unclear, but Agothocles seems
to have held the regency for some time until he was lynched by the volatile
Alexandrian mob. The regency was passed from one adviser to another, and the
kingdom was in a state of near anarchy. Seeking to take advantage of this
turmoil, Antiochus III staged a second invasion of Coele-Syria. He convinced
Philip V of Macedon to join the war and conquer the Ptolemies' territories in
Asia Minor - actions which led to the Second Macedonian War between Macedon and
the Romans. Antiochus quickly swept through the region. After a brief setback
at Gaza, he delivered a crushing blow to the Ptolemies at the Battle of Panium
near the head of the River Jordan which earned him the important port of Sidon.
In 200 BC, Roman emissaries came to Philip and Antiochus demanding that they
refrain from invading Egypt. The Romans would suffer no disruption of the
import of grain from Egypt, key to supporting the massive population in Italy.
As neither monarch had planned to invade Egypt itself, they willingly complied
to Rome's demands. Antiochus completed the subjugation of Coele-Syria in 198 BC
and went on to raid Ptolemy's remaining coastal strongholds in Caria and
Cilicia. Problems at home led Ptolemy to seek a quick and disadvantageous
conclusion. The nativist movement, which began before the war with the Egyptian
Revolt and expanded with the support of Egyptian priests, created turmoil and
sedition throughout the kingdom. Economic troubles led the Ptolemaic government
to increase taxation, which in turn fed the nationalist fire. In order to focus
on the home front, Ptolemy signed a conciliatory treaty with Antiochus in 195,
leaving the Seleucid king in possession of Coele-Syria and agreeing to marry
Antiochus' daughter Cleopatra I.
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