The late 160’s were a rather quiet period in the East. The stronger Seleucid presence in the further parts of their realm meant the Parthian mostly fought against the northern tribes from the steppes and looked for more gains against the Bactrian kingdom. This also meant that Antiochos IV could spend some time in his capital to help train his son on the proper way to be a king. His stronger position also allowed him to renegotiate the treaty of Apamea to officially increase his forces, especially the amount of elephants and ships he was allowed to own.
While his force in Syria did indeed seem to respect the old treaty of Apamea, his forces in the East on the Iranian plateau were actually much stronger than anyone expected, with amongst other a rather strong force of Elephants procured from India of which the Romans had not gotten wind. Thanks to the new agreement, he ordered part of those forces to the West while increasing anew his forces in the East to maintain them at the same level of strength against the Partians.
This period of peace also allowed for the birth of many new children from the Macedonian soldiers in their garrisons cities, thus insuring the renewal of the manpower of the Empire with a new generation of troops that would be available in the early 140’s.
In Egypt the period was more troubled, but did also allow for the consolidation of the state and the renewal of its manpower base. The main issue was the conflict between the three rulers of the land. Between the two Ptolemies and Cleopatra the situation had deteriorated to the point one had to take action.
But the affairs of Egypt were no longer decided in Alexandria alone, as the rulers of the land of the Pharaohs had long ago brought Rome as an arbitrary in their affairs. In 164 Ptolemy VI Philometor actually went to the city of the seven hills to ask the Senate for a settlement, his brother having succeeded to oust him from the country. A few months later he came back with a solution that gave it’s independance to Cyrenaica, under the rule of his younger brother, and put him back on the throne of Egypt, with the backing of the legions. Yet Ptolemy VII Evergetes was not happy with this decision, feeling that he should also rule over Cyprus.
In 161 he actually attempted to land on the island, with the tacit agreement of a Roman Senate that was all too happy to foster trouble in the region, as long as gold came to the senators’ pockets and grain flowed to Ostia. But Evergete’s assault was soon a failure. Furious, Ptolemy VI decided his brother had done enough damages and sent assassins against him, which were successful, Cyrenaica coming back to the Egyptian crown.
All these trouble of course slowed the projects of infrastructure ordered by Ptolemy VI, especially as bribing the Senators of Rome took a lot of gold away from those projects. While most of the fortress were built, the canal was not yet completely dug up.
To the West Rome was still trying to bring some order to Greece. Its recent victory was bringing new hostages to the city, such as Polybius, and new troubles such as an aflux of philosophers that would soon find themselves expelled by the Senate.
But overall this period was rather quiet, with Rome slowly strengthening it’s hold on Spain and Cisalpina while increasing its influence all around the Mediterranean. Of course the influx of riches brought by conquest and corruption meant that the Romans wanted more and more luxury goods from the East, be it jewels, spices, silks or incense. This meant that the port of Gaza took a more and more important place in the roman trade network, with some roman merchants going as far as living in Gaza to steer trade toward the Delos market, recently freed of taxes by the Romans in an attempt to diminish the power of the Rhodian traders.