Ptolemy, son of a Macedonian nobleman and the most trusted of Alexander's generals, was among the seven bodyguards attached to his person. In the division of the empire, Ptolemy takes Egypt as the safest and farthest place to establish a dynasty. He even manages to carry off the body of Alexander from Babylon to Egypt in order to bury him in Alexandria and thus enhance his own position.

Later Ptolemy mints a gold coin at Alexandria on which we see a car drawn by four elephants. Perhaps this is an attempt made by him to represent Alexander's funeral cortege that included elephants.

Antipater establishes himself in Macedon. He dies soon after and is succeeded by Cassander, his son.

Seleucus Nicator, a youth of twenty-three of age when he accompanies Alexander to Asia, wins distinction in the Indian campaign. Seleucus is given the government of the Babylonian satrapy.

Antigonus defeats Eumenes, installed as satrap of Cappadocia, and has him put to death. He thus gets rid of his most dangerous rival. Ostensibly Antigonus and his son Demetrius Poliocertes hope to reunify Alexander's collapsing empire but for their own purposes. Antigonus also controls parts of Greece, Asia Minor and Syria.

Lysimachus sets himself up in Thrace.

Military clashes eventually occur as each tries to encroach on the other's territory. Ptolemy annexes Phoenicia to his possessions and places garrisons in the Phoenician port cities. Antigonus too decides to enlarge his territory and set himself up as king of Asia Minor.

Returning from successful wars in Babylonia, Antigonus easily takes over the cities of Phoenicia but meets with firm resistance from Tyre. Seventeen years have passed since Alexander took Tyre and the city has recovered rapidly. Antigonus has few ships as Ptolemy is holding all Phoenician vessels and their crews in Egypt, so he decides to build a fleet of his own. He camps before Tyre, summons all the kings of the Phoenician cities and the viceroys of Syria and demands them to assist him in building ships.

Antigonus blockades Tyre by land. He establishes three shipyards, one at Tripolis, one at Byblos, one at Sidon. Diodorus Siculus records that Antigonus collects wood-cutters, sawyers and shipwrights from all regions and has wood carried from the mountains of Lebanon to the sea. Eight thousand men are employed to cut and saw the timber; one thousand pairs of draught animals are used to transport it. "This mountain range", Diodorus (19.58.3-5) writes, "extends along the territory of Tripolis, Byblos and Sidon and is covered with cedar and cypress trees of wonderful beauty and size." We thus have a description of the extent of the luxuriant forests covering the mountains of Lebanon about two thousand three hundred years ago.

After a siege of fifteen months, Tyre is taken by Antigonus. He allows Ptolemy's garrison to leave and establishes his own in the city.

In order to enhance their personal prestige, Alexander's successors strike their own coins. On the obverse of his early silver coinage, Ptolemy has engraved the head of the newly deified Alexander with the sacred ram's horns of Ammon and an elephant headdress. Alexander's name, not his, appears on the reverse of his coins.

On the coins of Seleucus, Alexander is portrayed as the god Dionysus wearing a helmet covered with panther skin adorned with a bull's ear and horns.

Lysimachus in his turn presents on his coins the diademed head of Alexander, deified, wearing the sacred horns of Ammon. When Alexander conquered Egypt, he was hailed by the high-priest of Ammon as the son of the god and Alexander's generals are determined to let no one forget it.

In 305 B.C. Antigonus and his son Demetrius assume the title of king. Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus and Seleucus react to the challenge by doing the same. Henceforth the effigies of these men, wearing the Macedonian diadem, appear on their gold and silver coins. Their patron gods appear on the reverse. This ushurs in the age of royal portraiture.

The battle of lpsus in Phrygia in 301, called the "battle of the kings", signals the great military clash between Alexander's generals. The war elephant plays an important role in the outcome of this battle and is the symbol of military strength. The armies of Seleucus and Lysimachus with one hundred and fifty elephants cut off the infantry of Antigonus, left mortally wounded on the battlefield.

Notwithstanding, his son Demetrius rules Phoenicia until 287 when it once again passes back to Ptolemy. It remains a dependency of the Ptolemies for nearly seventy years. In the year 285 Alexander's empire is neatly divided between three of his former generals, Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, and Lysimachus in Thrace.

At his death at the age of eight-four Ptolemy leaves behind him a well organized kingdom and the great library at Alexandria. He is succeeded by his son, Ptolemy 11 Philadelphus (285-246).

The persistent lug of war between Ptolemies and Seleucids over Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine also results in great cultural changes in the region. Phoenician is discarded as a literary language and is replaced by Greek. Greek religious practices and beliefs take root but at the same time a Phoenician god travels south to Egypt and is honored with great pomp in Alexandria.

Byblos is the center for the worship of Adonis, a youth of great beauty, loved by Aphrodite. In legendary tradition, Adonis is hunting the wild boar one day in the company of Aphrodite at Afka, the source of a river high up in the mountains of Lebanon. The boar turns on him and gores his thigh. Adonis dies of the wound as his blood flows into the river turning the waters red and the anemones in the river valley scarlet. Aphrodite appeals to Zeus, king of the gods, to bring her lover back to life. Zeus pities the youth and allows him to pass part of the year on earth, the other part underground in Hades. His death is mourned annually at Byblos. He returns in the spring time to the upper world and there is great rejoicing. Adonis in Phoenician means "lord" and is the title given to the young god of vegetation.

Theocritus, a Greek poet born in Syracuse c. 315 B.C., lived in Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy if Philadelphus. In his Idyll 15 he describes how the Festival of Adonis is celebrated in the city. On the first day a great procession forms as women and children pour out into the crowded streets to watch. Adonis has come back to life for a brief reunion with Aphrodite and there is great rejoicing. The second day is one of mourning as the women bewail the god's departure once again for the underworld.

In Alexandria, Adonis is represented by a graceful statue reclining on a silver couch in a temporary bower ornamented with birds and cupids. He is portrayed as a beautiful youth and the women cluster around him as he is carried through the streets in the procession. The crowd enters the royal palace as part of the ceremony is performed there. Praises are sung to Queen Berenice, the mother of Philadelphus and Arsinoë, his sister-wife, one way of eulogizing the family of Ptolemy who patronize the festival.

On the second day the women lament the departure of the youthful god. At the end of the festival the statue of Adonis is carried outside the city and flung into the sea amidst the wailing and weeping of the women.

The years roll by...

In Egypt descendants of Ptolemy rule at Alexandria, one after the other. In Syria a line of Seleucid kings, usurpers and imposters alike, sit on the throne of Antioch.

The Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great (223-187) makes Phoenicia a battlefield in his wars against the Ptolemies. Antiochus III drives the forces of Ptolemy IV Philopator out of Syria, takes Tyre and Acre (Ptolemais) and even threatens Egypt. In the following years the cities of Phoenicia pass back and forth between the two powers. In 196 B.C. Phoenicia and Coele Syria (the Bekaa valley) pass into the possession of the Seleucid kings. The Phoenician cities welcome the change, for the establishment and commercial expansion of Alexandria is a threat to their commerce.

The discovery in 1897 of several painted funerary stelae in a garden south of Sidon point to the presence of Greek mercenaries in the armies of the Seleucids during the second century B.C. These soldiers of fortune from the Greek mainland and cities of Asia Minor died here while on active duty and were laid to rest forever in foreign land. The stelae today are exposed in the Archaeological Museum, Istanbul.

The Seleucid monarchy is now in a state of chronic civil war. In the struggle to seize the throne between the usurper Tryphon and Antiochus VII Sidetes during the latter part of the second century B.C., the situation becomes so unbearable that merchants of Beirut desert the city and open commercial establishments on the Greek island of Delos where they conduct a flourishing business.

But in the West the rise of Rome presents a danger. The Italian wars of 91-83 B.C. keep the Romans at home. The chaotic conditions in Syria permit Tigranes 11 the Great, king of Armenia, to overrun Cappadocia and expel one of the last feeble representatives of the Seleucid monarchy. By 83 B.C. Tigranes sits on the throne at Antioch and his frontier extends to Mount Lebanon.

In 69 B.C. the Roman general Lucullus arrives in the East, crosses the Euphrates in pursuit of Tigranes and invades Armenia. However his army does not support him so he withdraws to Asia Minor.

Pompey replaces Lucullus in 66 B.C. Syria is taken out of the hands of the Seleucids once and for all on the ground that they have virtually ceased to rule. Pompey turns the districts of the Seleucid territory, including Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine into a new province named "Syria". Although this political move consolidates Roman authority in the East and increases the annual revenue of the Roman treasury, in return a measure of security is given to the peoples of the region that they had not enjoyed since the conquests of Alexander. Anarchy and piracy is brought under control and the cities of Phoenicia turn to the sea and trade.