With a PoD between 320 BCE and 30 BCE, have Ptolemaic Egypt estabilish control over the Levant, Syria, Cilicia, Crete and Cyprus, while possessing hegemony over Lybia and the greek city-states.
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Well, apparently they did, but their control was mostly ephemerous face the seleucids.....But they did that.
I don't think the Ptlomemies ever held Cilicia, but they did hold Lydia; I'm also not aware of them ever holding Crete or Syria.
Thanks, and a very informative! FWIG, it seems the Egyptians were at the peak of their power following the Third Syrian War (246-241), and even then it wasn't until the Fifth War (202-195) that this peak was seriously curbed. You could actually have a PoD in the Second Punic War, making sure that Rome doesn't come swooping in from the west, and you'd still have time to make the Ptlomemies the premier power in the eastern mediterranean.The control of Syria essentially went back in forth between them and the Seleucids during the Syrian Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Wars
Could 204 BCE work as a PoD -- either Ptlomey IV lives a little longer (preventing the need for a regency for his son), or his sister-wife Arsinoe avoids being assassinated (stabilizing said regency)? Now that I look into it, I'd say Arsinoe III securing the regency is the better PoD of the two, since she seems to be a more impressive figure in her own right than her debaucherous brother-husband.
So say you combine that with Carthage winning the Second Punic War (say Romans are devastated at Metaurus 207 BCE), so that Macedonia gets Roman possessions in the Illyria (these being among many other Roman losses we don't need to get into here); with the Seleucids still more or less cut off from the Mediterranean, they may well be vulnerable to being cut off from their Anatolian subjects should Cappadocia find it in their interest do so. In this kind of context, our more politically stable Ptolemaic government can get Phillip V of Macedon to go after these Seleucid holdings in Anatolia, instead of allying with the Seleucids to split Ptolemaic holdings. From there, Antiochus III just has to be distracted either trying to keep or retake Anatolia, or with another Parthian rebellion, or dying earlier than OTL, or what have you; point is, Egypt doesn't have to worry about the other two Diadochi Kingdoms or Rome for the time being, giving them time to consolidate their holdings.
@Raunchel If we're going with Arsinoe III surviving and then doing better against the Seleucids, that likely means her son, Ptolemy V, doesn't marry the daughter of Antiochus III; so who is he likely to marry instead? I don't think he had a sister; maybe Phillip's daughter, Apame? Whoever he marries, if he has a son and a daughter born around the time Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II were born OTL, then it should be within the ability of Queen Arsinoe to live long enough to see her grandchildren reach the age of maturity (circa 170 BCE).