10. Rome Intervenes to Save Egypt
While the power of the Ptolemies was declining in the Eastern Mediterranean, that of the Roman Republic was rising in the Western Mediterranean and the Aegean. Rome would ultimately gobble up Egypt and extinguish the Ptolemaic Kingdom, but in the second century BC, Rome came to Egypt’s rescue in a big way, saving the Ptolemies from the depredations of Antiochus IV. In 168 BC, the Seleucid king launched a second invasion of Egypt, that once again routed the Egyptians. Antiochus’ invasion was stopped in its tracks by a single Roman envoy, Gaius Popillius Laenas, who met the invading army a few miles out of Alexandria.
Laenas told Antiochus that the Roman Senate demanded that he abort his attack, and return to his kingdom. When Antiochus played for time, and sought to consult his advisers, Popillius Laenas used a stick to draw a circle in the sand around the Seleucid monarch, and told him not to step out of it until he gave an answer. By then, Rome had routed the Carthaginians, the Macedonians, overran Greece, and were running rampant all over the Mediterranean. Antiochus IV decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and immediately turned his army around and marched out of Egypt. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was saved, but from then on, the Ptolemies would continue on as Rome’s client kings and puppets.
