Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast.

Episode 91, the fourth Syrian war to a disappointing end.

Since this setback, Antiochus had launched a campaign of reconquest that took him across much of Asia,

and by 205, he was master of the largest empire in the known world.

Ptolemy, on the other hand, spent his remaining time accomplishing little,

and his unexpected death in 204, meant that his six-year-old son,

Ptolemy V, would now sit upon the throne of Egypt.

Ministers fought to puppeteer the boy king, and a massive rebellion of Egyptians ripped much

of the Thebate away from Ptolemaic control.

The time was ripe for another attempt to reclaim the lands of Kauili Syria, and with a secret

pact formed with Philip V of Macedon, Antiochus looked to avenge his disgrace once and for

all.

For some 18 months following the death of Ptolemy the 4th, the two other great powers of the

Hell and Sick world began to tear apart the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

As we can recall, Antiochus and his governor's campaigned in southeastern Asia Minor in 2003,

capturing a number of settlements that were in the Ptolemaic sphere of influence.

Philip V, on the other hand, attacked the western coastline in Ione and Lychea,

areas that fell outside of Seleucate interests, and therefore adhered to the terms of the pact.

With the dismemberment of Ptolemy's territories in Asia Minor, Antiochus was now ready to make his decisive move into the south.

Unlike the 4th Syrian War, the account of the 5th Syrian War is poorly documented, and we are running on limited sources of information.

What we do know is that by the middle of 202, Antiochus assembled an army and crossed the border into Kauili Syria.

In the previous conflict, he marched through the Beka Valley in modern Lebanon, taking each fortress and

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