Battle of Raphia

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Article abstract: Type of action: Climactic ground battle in the Fourth Syrian-Egyptian War. Result: Ptolemaic recovery of Syrian possessions annexed by Antiochus III.

In 217 b.c.e., covering twenty-two miles a day for five days, the Ptolemaic army, including 20,000 Egyptians, crossed north Sinai and passed through the narrow Jiradj pass. Ptolemy IV Philopator gave battle about five miles southwest of Raphia, where dunes protected his flanks from superior Seleucid cavalry and drifting sand offered an impediment to Seleucid mounted forces.

Antiochus III’s...

[The entire page is 329 words long]

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