Ptolemaic Armies 305–30 BC

This insightful study describes and illustrates the troops fielded by the Ptolemaic regime in North Africa throughout its turbulent 275-year existence.

Founded by Ptolemy I Soter, a close companion of Alexander the Great, the Ptolemaic Empire encompassed Egypt, northern Libya and parts of the Levant for nearly three centuries. Initially, its armies fought in the Wars of the Diadochi, as Alexander’s successors disputed his conquests. Intermittent conflicts with the empire’s neighbours, notably the Seleucids, characterized the following decades, with the Ptolemaic Empire falling under the influence of the Roman Republic during the 1st century BC. The death of Cleopatra VII, the dynasty’s final ruler, saw the realm’s incorporation into the Roman Empire.

At first, Ptolemaic armies resembled the Macedonian forces of Alexander’s conquests, with the pike and phalanx at the heart of their tactics. The empire increasingly relied upon hired troops and adopted Roman military practices in the decades before the battle of Actium and the eclipse of Cleopatra’s realm in 30 BC. In this book, William Horsted describes the evolution of the Ptolemaic Empire’s army, investigating its various troop types, from the Wars of the Diadochi to their decline in the 1st century BC. Specially commissioned artwork reveals the colourful appearance of these warriors over nearly three centuries of conflict in the Near East.