on
and Syria, whose rulers made continued efforts to oust the Ptolemies from
the Aegean and from the Syrian coast.

*Syria.* Syria, the kingdom of the Seleucids, with its capital at Antioch
on the Orontes, was by far the largest of the Hellenistic monarchies in
extent and population, and in wealth it ranked next to Egypt. It stretched
from the Aegean to the borders of India, and included the southern part of
Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, and northern Syria. But the very size of
this kingdom was a source of weakness, because of the distances which
separated its various provinces and the heterogeneous racial elements
which it embraced. The power of the dynasty was upheld, as in Egypt, by a
mercenary army, and also by the Greek cities which had been founded in
large numbers by Alexander the Great and his successors. However, these
islands of Greek culture did not succeed to any great extent in
Hellenizing the native populations which remained in a state of
subjection, indifferent or hostile to their conquerors. Furthermore the
strength of the Seleucid empire was sapped by repeated revolts in its
eastern provinces and dissensions between the members of the dynasty
itself.

*Macedon.* The kingdom of Macedon, ruled by the house of the Antigonids,
was the smallest of the three in extent, population and resources, but
possessed an internal strength and solidarity lacking in the others. For
in Macedon, the Antigonids, by preserving the traditional character of the
patriarchal monarchy, kept alive the national spirit of the Macedonians
and made them loyal to the dynasty. They also retained a military system
which fostered the traditions of the times of Philip II and Alexander, and
which, since the Macedonian people had not lost its martial character,
furnished a small but efficient national army. Outside of Macedon, the
Antigonids held sway over Thessaly and the eastern part of Greece as far
south as the Isthmus of Corinth. Their attempts to dominate the whole
peninsula were thwarted by the opposition of the Aetolian and Achaian
Confederacies, who were supported in this by the Ptolemies.

*The minor Greek states.* In addition to these three great monarchies we
should note as powers of minor importance the Confederacies mentioned
before, the kingdom of Pergamon on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, the
island republic of Rhodes, which was a naval power of considerable
strength, and the kingdom of Syracuse in Sicily, the last