I'm John Batchel with Professor Toby Wilkinson.

He's an Egyptologist, which is a very specialized form of taking for a walk in history.

And this period is the 300 years before Rome shows up and takes over everything in the Mediterranean.

The Macedonians are in the Nile River Valley, and they learn through Ptolemy.

Alexander starts it, but Ptolemy and Ptolemy 2 and Ptolemy 3,

to work with the Egyptians who have gifts and many gods and understand the

Nile is life-giving.

At the same time, they're surrounded by warriors who mean to take control of the bounty that

the Egyptian kings, Ptolemy's, have produced.

And we have the first Syrian war.

I lost count how many Syrian wars there.

I think there are five.

We also have a war called the Kremlinodian War.

And all of this is fought in the third and second and third and fourth century BCE. The Punic War started in here. Rome gets

involved. Rome versus Carthage, Rome versus Macedon, Saluquids versus Egypt. And the Ptolemy's

managed all this because what of their army?

I've presented them as intellectual giants.

Were they also very good on the battlefield?

They were.

And the key to Ptolemaic military success is mercenary troops.

So Egypt is a very wealthy country from grain and from gold, and part of that wealth is used to buy the services of foreign mercenaries. And again, if you're a young man anywhere

in the Greek-speaking world and you want to get rich quick and have a bit of adventure along the way,

...