The Great Library of Alexandria

A History of Mankind (156)

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In the end, over half a century of conflict between various generations of Ptolemies and Seleucids only served to have borders shift back and forth, so they ended up pretty much where they had been at the start of the conflict. Still, much more war were to come before both sides exhausted themselves just in time for the Romans to pick up the pieces.

This was bad enough for Egypt, as Seleucid hostility in Asia Minor – despite multiple attempts at settlement including the marriage of Antiochus II to a daughter of Ptolemy II – wasted resources that could have been used to have an impact elsewhere, but it was even worse for the Seleucids.

The Eastern Dynasty was distracted with extensions of the Diadochi Wars that meant their vast domains in the East – including the many Alexandrias in modern Afghanistan like Herat, Ghazni and Kandahar – never took the shape of a stable empire with any sort of recognizable borders.