The Great Emperor- A Battle of Raphia ATL

Foreword: This is my first ATL ever so I'm not going to ask for mercy if it's terrible just keep that in mind. It's centred (obviously) around the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC.



The Great Emperor- A Battle of Raphia ATL
In 217 BC Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire took advantage of Ptolemaic weakness following the ascension of Ptolemy IV and declared war on the Ptolemaic Dynasty in an attempt to reclaim Coele-Syria from the Ptolemaic Kingdom. His army quickly made it's way South to the Sinai peninsula where it met the Ptolemaic Army at Raphia.

The Seleucid Army was comprised of 62,000 infantry, 6000 cavalry and 102 elephants. This great army was made up of native Greeks who formed the phalanges (20,000 Macedonians and 10,000 Silver Shields) and these phalanges were placed in the centre. However the rest of the infantry was light infantry most of which was levied from throughout the Empire- Persians, Cretans, Cilicians and even Thracians all came to fight for Antiochus. These light infantry went to the side of the phalanges with missile forces in front. Before those lay the Elephants and on the far flanks lay the cavalry.

On the other side lay the Ptolemies of Egypt, their leader was Ptolemy IV who was known to be corrupt and weak and very much under the control of his courtiers. It was those courtiers who had made the preparations for Antiochus and it was those courtiers who were really directing the Ptolemy forces as opposed to Ptolemy IV. His army was made up of 70,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry and 73 elephants although these were African elephants as opposed to the Indian variety used by Antiochus. Ptolemy and his courtiers had cleverly managed to solve their crippling manpower problem by hiring native Egyptians, 30,000 of them. His army was arrayed nearly identically to Antiochus'.

The two forces met at Raphia and after 5 days of skirmishing they lined themselves up for battle and prepared to confront one another. Immediately things went wrong for the Ptolemies as their elephants ran amok at the sight of the Indian elephants and started making for their own lines. Ptolemy's forces wheeled away hurriedly to avoid these elephants just in time to see Antiochus' forces advance. Just as Ptolemy's forces began to get back into position, Antiochus' elephants crashed into them. The Phalanx, which hadn't managed to quite get itself back into formation broke immediately under the elephant assault as the Elephants walked through them. Shortly afterwards the Seleucid line engaged the Egyptians, meanwhile Antiochus engaged the Egyptian cavalry and after a tough fight managed to rout them from the field. Knowing the battle wasn't one he wheeled his cavalry around and gave the order to charge. The enemy phalanx was broken enough and when the heavy Seleucid cavalry came charging in, it broke. The Seleucids were merciless as they hunted down the Egyptian soldiers who broke and fled.

In total 12,000 infantry, 450 cavalry and 16 elephants were killed with a further 4000 infantry captured. However Ptolemy wasn't done as he escaped with 54,000 infantry, 4550 cavalry and 57 elephants as he fled towards the Egypt and the perceived safety of the Nile river.

Yes, thank you! We need more Hellenistic timelines!

Cuāuhtemōc said:

Yes, thank you! We need more Hellenistic timelines!

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I agree. I'm curious to see where this goes.

Subscribed! Welcome to the forum. I used to be a big Seleucid fan before I discovered the Byzantines, but there aren't too many Seleucid ATLs around. Good luck.

Subscribed, love to see where this heads.

Hellenistic period? YES!

You've piqued my interest good sir.

Love Seleucids, keep up

P.S. Are there some good older Seleucid timelines?

I'll be following this one.

By August of 217 BC the war had taken it's toll on Egypt, the constraints of fielding the large army that Ptolemy was leading had hit the Egyptian economy heavily. In response the Ptolemaic King had raised taxes on the native Egyptians and the other non-Greek portions of society, these increased taxes were followed by sweeping drafts of the non-Greek populace. Short term this helped keep the Egyptian war-effort afloat as well as allowing their army to recover slightly. By early October 217 BC, Ptolemy's army was ready to march out against Antiochus it was made up of 63,000 infantry; 35,000 of which were native Egyptians, 4600 cavalry and 65 elephants.

As for Antiochus, he had pursued Ptolemy's army as far as the eastern bank of the Nile where he set up camp opposite Memphis. Meanwhile he received news from the North, Achaeus, a once trusted general of Antiochus' had revolted in 220 BC and now, with Antiochus deep in Egyptian territory he hoped to make gains in Syria and had crossed the Taurus mountains into Syria. With his capital under threat of a rebel attack, Antiochus quickly sent missives North ordering his general, Philotas, to raise an army and to fight the rebels. Despite many soldiers being in Egypt under Antiochus, Philotas managed to raise 35,000 infantry, 4000 cavalry and 20 elephants to fight Achaeus with. He marched North to confront Achaeus and soon found that luck was on his side, Achaeus' soldiers had mutinied and refused to cross the Taurus mountains which confined Achaeus to Anatolia. This allowed Philotas to cross the Taurus mountains unopposed and march straight into Anatolia. But Achaeus was nothing if not an able general and in February 216 BC he defeated Philotas heavily on the fields outside of Tarsos.

By February of 216 BC, events in Egypt had come to a head. The crippling taxes combined with the sweeping drafts of native Egyptians had made the native Egyptians restless as they began to desire a native dynasty in charge of Egypt. This discontent was especially prominent within the native Egyptians drafted into the army by Ptolemy and his courtiers, these Egyptians were largely led by a native Egyptian named Hugronaphor. In early March 216 BC, this discontent led to riots in various major population centres throughout the Ptolemaic Kingdom, particularly prevalent in the Old Native Egyptian cities such as Memphis and Thebes both of which were particularly important places to the native Egyptians. With Antiochus advancing from the East and revolts springing up across Egypt, Ptolemy's courtiers began to worry about the possibility that they might lose Alexandria and encouraged Ptolemy to retreat. Ptolemy, who was completely under the control of these very courtiers took their advice and turned back towards Alexandria. However on March 10th, Ptolemy's Egyptian soldiers rose up en masse which started a violent struggle between the Greek soldiers who made less than half of the army at this point after they had been diluted by increased drafts of the natives and the disaster at Raphia. Ptolemy's soldiers managed to fight their way free and fled towards Alexandria.

Meanwhile Antiochus had recieved news of the disaster at Tarsos where Philotas had been heavily defeated. Despite this disaster, Antiochus learned some valuable information: Achaeus' soldiers had mutinied at the Taurus mountains when they were asked to cross them. This showed Antiochus that Achaeus had very little offensive strength against him which allowed Antiochos to focus on subduing the rest of the Nile river. On March 13th Antiochus besieged Memphis hoping to take the city relatively easily, but the Egyptians were fighting to overthrow one Greek king and they had no intention to let another one take over Egypt. As a result the Egyptian rioters soon started attacking Antiochus' soldiers from within the city.

Meanwhile Ptolemy came to the realisation that Egypt had started to rise up in revolt against him in response to his corruption and weak nature which gave him one option: Negotiate with the Seleucids. Guarded by his army, Ptolemy slowly made his way towards Memphis where, in early June, he started peace negotiations with Antiochus. Eventually the two came to a peace treaty:

-Ptolemy would relinquish control of Cyprus, Coele-Syria and their Anatolian territories to Seleucid rule.
-Ptolemaic Egypt would pay a large indemnity to the Seleucids.
-Ptolemaic Egypt would provide a large tribute of gold,silver and wheat to the Seleucids.
-The Seleucids would have free access to Ptolemaic territory.
-Ptolemaic Egypt would not make alliances or wage war without Seleucid consent.
-In return Antiochus would provide military support against the native Egyptian rebels.

This treaty effectively secured the southern border of the Seleucid Empire for the time being and allowed Antiochus the free reign to deal with Achaeus' revolt and other revolts that were starting to crop up in the East. The treaty was effectively brought about in Mid-Late June 216 BC and Antiochus immediately began his military withdrawal from Egypt, leaving 15,000 soldiers in Egypt to provide support against the Egyptian rebels.

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Note from the Author: Hi! Thanks for all your support after the first post! There are a few historical notes I would just like to cover:
-First of all: The Egyptian revolt. In OTL, the Battle of Raphia led to an increased nationalist sentiment within the native Egyptian populace and this led to a large revolt known as the "Great Egyptian Revolt" http://tebtunis.berkeley.edu/lecture/revolt
In this TL I went along the path that the defeat at Raphia as well as the continued war put a strain on the Ptolemaic Economy as the war sort-of did in OTL. To this extent I came to the conclusion that Ptolemy would increase taxes on the populace and institute further drafts to make up for the further manpower deficiency following the defeat and this would lead to discontent and an earlier Egyptian revolt.
-Second: The Peace Terms. My thinking here was that, while Antiochus would undoubtedly want to take the Nile valley from the Ptolemies, revolts in other portions of the Empire would force him to settle for Syria, Cyprus and the Anatolian holdings. In OTL, Antiochus ended up spending nearly the entirety of his reign fighting various revolts across his empire and expanding in a few instances.

Also:
Achaeus' Revolt: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...UCh1IEwG3#v=onepage&q=Achaeus' revolt&f=false

Ptolemy IV: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ptolemy4.htm

Antiochus III: http://www.livius.org/am-ao/antiochus/antiochus_iii.html

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed.

Wow, Egypt's been reduced to a satellite state.

Good update but I think Antiochus made a mistake trusting Ptolemy to run Egypt, albeit a vassalized one. He could've gained an trustworthy client in Hugronaphor who I doubt would entertain any plans to expand Egypt towards his newly won possessions in southern Syria. With Ptolemy, you can at least guarantee that he'll stab Antiochus or his successor in the back once the opportunity arises. There's still the matter of the Parthians and the rebellious eastern satrapies, namely Bactria, that need to be taken care of once Antiochus wraps up his business with the usurper Achaeus.

And there's the growing power of Rome, but they're busy with Hannibal for the meantime.

I think an Egyptian vassal would be a huge mistake as well. What you want is a loyal Greek client with some personal tie to your monarchy. So not Ptolemy but definitely not an Egyptian - they'd both have too much of a stake in further independence.

Practical Lobster said:

I think an Egyptian vassal would be a huge mistake as well. What you want is a loyal Greek client with some personal tie to your monarchy.

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Or just annex Egypt and turn it to another satrapy. Or better yet, divide Egypt into as many satrapies as possible to avoid the risk of a satrap going rogue.

By late 216 BC Ptolemy's situation in Egypt began to look desperate, despite military support in the form of 15,000 soldiers from Antiochus they had only managed to crush the revolts within the cities. Many of the rebels had fled to the countryside including the 35,000 native Egyptians who had been forcibly drafted into Ptolemy's army. These rebels haunted the countryside, attacking Ptolemaic soldiers wherever they could find them and then melting away before the Ptolemaic soldiers could force them into a fight. It quickly seemed that these rebels just wouldn't give a pitched battle as they targeted the lifeblood of the Ptolemaic kingdom- the Nile. The Nile had always been the breadbasket of Egypt for everyone who controlled it, the rebels however made continued attacks on the Egyptian crops there throughout October and November. The Ptolemaic soldiers made efforts to defend this food supply but the Nile was the longest river in the world and their soldiers were stretched then trying to stop the rebels from attacking it. By June 215 BC, the situation had only worsened for the Ptolemaic soldiers as the continued attacks on Egyptian crops led a poor harvest in February-June of that year. Ptolemy and his courtiers responded to this by diverting food supplies away from the native populace towards the Greek-speaking elite and the army. This involved the forced seizing of crops from native farmers in an attempt to feed the increasingly hungry army. This policy, however, only worsened the situation as renewed riots broke out across Egypt in response to the starvation caused in native quarters of various cities by the policy. Ultimately these riots fed the native rebellion as many rioters soon joined the rebels.

Meanwhile Antiochus was marching North to confront Achaeus in Anatolia, by February 215 BC, he had arrived in Anatolia at the head of his army- about 45,000 infantry, 4000 cavalry and 30 Asian Elephants. Achaeus had moved West and by 215 BC, he was besieging Seleukeia in an attempt to capture the city before Antiochus could arrive. Antiochus' response to this was to make an immediate march towards Seleukeia but not before sending a messenger West towards Pergamon. Pergamon had been a long time enemy of the Seleucids and Achaeus' original job in Anatolia was campaigning to retake the lands of Asia Minor from them but now Achaeus had revolted and Antiochus saw an opportunity to gain an ally against the rebel. Attalus I, King of Pergamon was desperate to reclaim his lands in Asia Minor and likely saw Antiochus' offer of an alliance against the rogue Achaeus as a chance to get some of his land back in concessions from Antiochus. Therefore Attalus accepted Antiochus' offer and raised an army of 15,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry to help fight Achaeus. In late July 215 BC, Achaeus received news that Attalus was marching South against him he panicked, with Antiochus closing in from the East he couldn't afford to let the two join up and so he broke off the siege of Seleukeia and marched East to protect Sardis. Word soon reached Antiochus that Achaeus had broken the siege and that he was marching West. Knowing that Achaeus had too strong an army and was too experienced a general for Attalus to defeat, Antiochus quickly began to pursue him West leaving half of his army to surround and besiege Tarsus. Thus at the head of 22,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and all 30 elephants, Antiochus pursued Achaeus West. But Achaeus knew he couldn't afford to fight Antiochus at the moment but neither could he let the two join forces at Sardis, his capital. Thus Achaeus soon made sure to draft as many people as possible into his army as he passed through towns and villages en route to Sardis. Now at the head of a large army of approximately 34,000 infantry and 3500 cavalry he pushed on to Sardis.

In early November 215 BC Achaeus reached Sardis but Attalus had gone, he had elected to abandon the siege once he received word of Achaeus' approach and was marching North-East so as to make a wide berth around Achaeus' army and reach Antiochus. Achaeus soon realised this and cut across a quicker path to cut Attalus off and force him to battle, ultimately the plan worked and in early December 215 BC the two forces met on the field of battle. The battle was a disaster for Attalus who lost a large portion of his army, fleeing back West with only 7000 infantry and 1200 cavalry left. However en route he met with Antiochus and his army who were pursuing Achaeus East and joined with his army. Achaeus now had a strong army and felt confident enough to defeat the besiegers at Tarsos and then inflict a defeat on Antiochus' smaller force as he marched East to relieve the city. In comparison Antiochus hurriedly attempted to make up for lost time and confront Achaeus. He sent a flurry of missives to the force besieging Tarsus, ordering them to break the siege of Tarsus and march North-West to his aid.


But battle was inevitable and in January 214 BC Antiochus met Achaeus in battle with 29,000 infantry, 3200 cavalry and 30 elephants against Achaeus' 34,000 infantry and 3500 cavalry. As was common in battles the two forces skirmished before any battle took place but Achaeus knew time was not on his side, Antiochus would have sent missives telling his other force to march North and confront Achaeus and every day that passed they would be a day closer to arriving and trapping Achaeus. Therefore Achaeus was determined to encourage a pitched battle until after 5 days of skirmishing, Achaeus decided to withdraw from the battlefield and attempt to retreat back West to Sardis. While this retreat was initially successful, Seleucid forces in the South quickly ended Achaeus' hopes of returning to Sardis as Antiochus rejoined the rest of his forces and pushed Achaeus East. By late January 214 BC, Achaeus was trapped with no choice but to surrender or fight. During this time Achaeus made various attempts to break Antiochus' entrapment or to escape across the Taurus mountains. In early February 214 BC, a man named Bolis betrayed Achaeus to Antiochus and Achaeus was captured and sentenced to death. His army was now leaderless and surrendered to Seleucid forces a few days later. Achaeus' widow Laodice continued to resist in Anatolia until she surrendered peacefully in 213 BC ending the uprising. But this was only the beginning, while Antiochus fought Achaeus in Anatolia events had come to a head in Egypt and the East.

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Note from the author: This is the part I've been least happy with so far and I think it probably shows but I didn't know how to phrase a lot of it and some things came across as seeming absolutely ridiculous. Achaeus was (of course) a real person and this uprising was surprisingly similar to the real one. In OTL Achaeus' uprising was a long affair as he officially began his rebellion in about 223 BC but not much happened until about 217-213 BC. Antiochus did indeed ally himself with Attalus I against Achaeus and Achaeus was quickly forced from the field and into the city of Sardis where he was betrayed in 214 BC by Bolis. Like in my TL his wife held out for another year until surrendering in 213 BC. Interestingly enough, while we don't know that much about him, Achaeus seems to have been a pretty good general and very loyal to the Seleucids with his rebellion being largely in self-defence.

One other thing I would like to talk about is the Egyptian revolt. The main source I used for this revolt comes from Polybius who describes the war as having: "No pitched battle, no naval battle, no siege". This seems to be describing a guerilla war which seems likely considering their circumstances. I imagine that since Ptolemy, despite his defeat, still quite badly outnumbers the native Egyptians they would still resort to the guerilla warfare.
Anyway. I hope you enjoy!

Enjoying this, great ATL.

Ptolemy's days ruling Egypt look numbered. With Antiochus busy handling Achaeus, he doesn't have a friend in the world that can save him.

If I was Antiochus, no matter what I'd still think about replacing Ptolemy. Especially now that he's relying on Seleucid soldiers.

What does the Egyptian rebellion look like? It seems pretty decentralized, which is good right now but might become a downside if they end up having to put together a single government.

I'm very excited to read more!

I'm enjoying this TL, although the one thing that I find somewhat problematic is regarding the guerrilla war. You mentioned that they attacked the crops of the Nile as a way to target the Ptolemies' pockets. That makes sense but how are they feeding themselves? They could just be seizing the crops and eating it themselves, but the problem is then that these nativist rebels are going to be stealing first and foremost from Egyptian farmers, turning those same farmers against the guerrillas.

Ambushing patrols? Sure. Killing tax collectors? Sure. Assassinating locals that collaborate with the Ptolemies? Absolutely. But burning crops? I don't think that's so likely.

In late 215 BC King Arsaces I of Parthia, a rebellious vassal in the Eastern potion of the Empire took advantage of Antiochus being stretched thin in Anatolia and Egypt to expand his influence by launching an invasion of Seleucid territory. On 3rd December 215 BC, Arsaces launched an assault on Seleucid territory.

The Parthian army was vastly different to that of the Seleucids in the way of composition, the Seleucid King generally would raise the soldiers he needed for wars by himself whereas the Parthians would raise armies by using the levies of various vassals and subordinate kings while the King of Kings himself only held a small force at his express command. The Parthian army was also much smaller than the Seleucids with far inferior infantry but vastly superior cavalry. As it was the Parthians still posed a very real threat although Arsaces was only able to raise approximately 15,000 men with which to invade the Seleucid territory.

The Parthians moved quickly and by February 214 BC they besieged Hecatompylos. This invasion posed a massive threat to Antiochus who was still pre-occupied with the war in Anatolia but some response force had to be deployed in order to relieve the defenders at Hecatompylos and repel the Parthians until he could finish up in the West and launch a counter-attack. To this extent Antiochus soon made the decision to withdraw Seleucid soldiers from Egypt to act as his response force.

By March 214 BC Ptolemy was nothing but a puppet king controlled by his courtiers who had slowly exploited the revolt to increase their influence. This situation had caused deep divisions within the court as courtiers fought among each other for influence over the king. By this point the situation had become untenable for the ruling class, courtiers and nobles rose and fell in the court on an almost daily basis as assassinations and purges began to define day to day existence within the elite of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Therefore when, in the middle of this political chaos, Antiochus made the decision to pull out his soldiers it created mayhem. Ptolemy himself had slowly grown more and more detached from the state as his courtiers had taken over running the affairs of the state and as a result it fell to his courtiers to respond to this event. On 28th March Ptolemy's (current) head courtier left Egypt to appeal to Antiochus to halt the withdrawal and continue supporting the Egyptians. While he was away another courtier rose to exert influence over Ptolemy and had his predecessor executed upon his return to Egypt. It was this kind off political upheaval that delayed any action being taken to seek the help of Antiochus or even fight Hugronaphor. With no help to be expected from Antiochus, Ptolemy's courtiers turned West to seek support there. Ultimately they found none, Philip V of Macedon was pre-occupied with his war against Rome in Illyria. Rome was still faced with the problem of Hannibal Barca's assault on Italy while Carthage was busy trying to force a defeat out of Rome.

The political situation in Egypt had had a massive effect in the army, following the defection of 216 BC other portions of the army had begun to desert. Those who didn't desert the army had been fighting all over Egypt as their army was whittled down by fighting the rebels and, even on occasion, fighting each other to establish people within the court. The once-mighty Phalanges had been weathered down by the war and mutinies and now barely anything remained.

Ptolemy had always been a drunk and violent man but his current situation had only worsened this. He was also a large gambler and frequently squandered away his money on games at the tavern. Ptolemy's constant abuse of drink and his massive gambling debts often translated into abuse and violence back home towards his wife. In late June 214 BC, Ptolemy returned to the palace one night in a drunken rage after losing a gambling game in this drunken fury he beat Queen Arsinoe to death with a club. By October his mourning combined with his abuse of drink and seemingly hopeless financial and political situation gave way to depression.

Meanwhile Hugronaphor's situation had become seemingly impossible as the rebels started to turn against him. The rebels were mostly just a loose group but they were united by their national identity by the idea of Egypt which was strong enough to unite them. Therefore Hugronaphor had made himself massively unpopular when, in 215 BC, he began attacking Egyptian farms and seizing their crops. But Hugronaphor knew that his rebellion had grown extraordinarily quickly and that without attacking Egyptian farms along the Nile he would have no chance of feeding his rebellion much less defeating the Ptolemies. But the rebels were slowly turning against him as they preferred Ankhmakis, a senior member of the rebellion to be leader. Hugronaphor couldn't afford a split in his rebellion especially not one that Ptolemy and his army could take advantage off and so he made the decision to make Ankhmakis co-leader of the rebellion and his heir apparent should the rebellion succeed.

In October 214 BC Antiochus received news from agents within the Ptolemaic court informing him that Ptolemy had been attempting to make a treaty with Rome in the West. Antiochus had had agents within the Ptolemaic court ever since the truce had been concluded so inform him should Ptolemy attempt to make a secret treaty with anyone else. By making this move, Antiochus concluded that Ptolemy had broken the terms of their agreement and that therefore the two were enemies again. But Antiochus saw an advantage in this as he composed a letter to the Egyptian rebels offering to support them financially and with weapons and armaments on the condition that the new Egyptian state become an ally of the Seleucids and acknowledge Seleucid supremacy. This offer reached the rebels in late November 214 BC and it was an offer Ankhmakis and Hugronaphor were eager to accept. Thus the rebels and the Seleucid Empire became allies and the fate of Ptolemaic Egypt was sealed.

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Note from the Author: I actually ended spending more time on this than I wanted. So I want to explain what I did here. I spent so long detailing the events in Anatolia last time with Achaeus' rebellion that I didn't get to cover as much as I wanted in regards to the Egyptian revolt so I left most of the detail on that out of the last one and focussed on it in this update so I hope you will excuse that. I'll probably focus on the Parthian invasion in the next update a bit more so I apologise for that. Once again I wasn't particularly happy with this part and I feel as if some of it seems absolutely ridiculous.

Also:
-Ptolemy IV: Ptolemy was indeed a well known drunk and had many of his family members killed including his brother. As for gambling, while I couldn't find any sources explicitly saying that I did fell it wasn't too much of a stretch.
-Ankhmakis and Hugronaphor: Yeah. That was my mistake and I've tried to remedy it in this update with the narrative of Hugronaphor making Ankhmakis his co-leader of the rebellion and heir apparent. I was wrong, in OTL Ankhmakis and Hugronaphor were both leaders from the start so I once again apologise for my idiocy.

What does the Egyptian rebellion look like? It seems pretty decentralized, which is good right now but might become a downside if they end up having to put together a single government.

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Yes, in OTL the Egyptian revolt was pretty decentralised and I assume it would be even more in my timeline considering the speed with which it grew and considering it is largely random civilians.

You mentioned that they attacked the crops of the Nile as a way to target the Ptolemies' pockets. That makes sense but how are they feeding themselves? They could just be seizing the crops and eating it themselves, but the problem is then that these nativist rebels are going to be stealing first and foremost from Egyptian farmers, turning those same farmers against the guerrillas.

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Yeah, that was my big problem with my last update so I don't blame you for this. I've tried to justify it in this update but my thinking is that their revolt grew so quickly they can't sustain themselves without seizing crops (once again I didn't make that one clear enough). My thinking is that they seized crops along the Nile because it's Egypt so they aren't going to get it from anywhere else as a calculated risk knowing that it would lose support both within and outside of the rebellion. I didn't have much to work with because in OTL they quickly seized the Nile Delta and sustained themselves with that but in my TL the rebellion just popped up all over the place.

Thanks everyone for the support!