Apries, a few years later, captured the Phoenician coast and invaded
Palestine; but the country did not remain for long under Egyptian rule.
It is not necessary to record all the Syrian wars of the Dynasty of the
Ptolemies. Egypt and Asia were now closely connected, and at several
periods during this phase of Egyptian history the Asiatic province came
under the control of the Pharaohs. The wars of Ptolemy I. in Syria were
conducted on a large scale. In the reign of Ptolemy III. there were
three campaigns, and I cannot refrain from quoting a contemporary record
of the King's powers if only for the splendour of its wording:--

"The great King Ptolemy ... having inherited from his father the royalty
of Egypt and Libya and Syria and Phoenicia and Cyprus and Lycia and
Caria and the Cyclades, set out on a campaign into Asia with infantry
and cavalry forces, a naval armament and elephants, both Troglodyte and
Ethiopic.... But having become master of all the country within the
Euphrates, and of Cilicia and Pamphylia and Ionia and the Hellespont
and Thrace, and of all the military forces and elephants in these
countries, and having made the monarchs in all these places his
subjects, he crossed the Euphrates, and having brought under him
Mesopotamia and Babylonia and Susiana and Persis and Media, and all the
rest as far as Bactriana ... he sent forces through the canals----"
(Here the text breaks off.)

Later in this dynasty Ptolemy VII. was crowned King of Syria, but the
kingdom did not remain long in his power. Then came the Romans, and for
many years Syria and Egypt were sister provinces of one empire.

There is no necessity to record the close connection between the two
countries in Arabic times. For a large part of that era Egypt and Syria
formed part of the same empire; and we constantly find Egyptians