By the Winter of Two-Eighty, the situation in Egypt had broken out into a full-scale Civil War, with Ptolemy Keraunos in Upper Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphos in Lower Egypt, and Meleager having claimed Cyprus and the Levant for himself as an Independent Great King of Phoenecia with the backing of Antiochus I Asianos, who had reconquered the territories his father had lost to Ptolemy I Soter in Asia Minor as part of the bargain. Thus far, most battles had been inconclusive or had been raids. That was about to change.
Magas of Cyrene had refused to declare for one side or another, hoping to squeeze out further concessions for his aid from the various claimants before picking a side. Meleager had refused to offer anything, as he cared nothing for far-off Cyrene, while Ptolemy Keraunos promised loot, money, and lower taxes and tributes for five years. That had been tempting, but Ptolemy Philadelphos had gone and promised nothing less than de jure Independence for the Cyrenaican Pentopolis in exchange for Magas' aid, with the caveat that Cyrenaica be allied to Egypt upon its independence.
That was exactly what Magas wished to hear, and so he gathered an army from the Greek Cities of the Cyrenaican Pentopolis. Appolonia, Tochaira, Euesperides, Balagrae, and Barke each sent five-thousand troops, while Cyrene sent a further ten-thousand. These troops marched east to Alexandria to link up with Ptolemy Philadelphos' army of twenty-five-thousand men, then they marched south along the Nile to Hermopolis, the winter not being as much of a hindrance to moving troops in Egypt as it was in places like Hellas or Italia. With Ptolemy Keraunos reported as only having twenty-thousand men at Thebes, many thought this overwhelming force would crush him.
Indeed, at first, it seemed that way, with the Battle of Panopolis hopelessly lost for Ptolemy Kerounos and the city under siege to begin the fighting. Strangely, however, Ptolemy Keraunos was not present himself at the battle, leaving the commanding position to his General, Sosebios of Taras. Also, Sosebios only had fifteen-thousand men with him, not the twenty-five-thousand reported at Thebes, nor the forty-thousand that had escaped from Pelusium with Ptolemy Keraunos in the autumn. When Panopolis surrendered after two months of siege, and Ptolemy Philadelphos resumed his march toward Thebes, Sosebios resorted to delaying tactics, hit-and-run attacks on supply lines, scouts, and foragers, ambushes on columns of men, and so forth.
Many were curious about what Ptolemy Keraunos was playing at. The delaying tactics could slow Ptolemy Philadelphos, but not stop his army. Indeed, a month later, Ptolemy Philadelphos' army reached the City of Ptolemais Hermiou and placed it under siege. He would not have to wait very long to find out exactly what Ptolemy Keraunos had been doing, however. Once Ptolemais Hermiou surrendered after a month of siege at the end of April, when the campaign stopped to allow the Nile to flood, reports started coming in from the far southern cities of Philae, Berenike, and Pselchis of a large force coming north out of Kush.
You see, Ptolemy Keraunos' Kushite Puppet, Arkemenai, nephew of Ergemenes, had been assassinated by the same priests that had slain Ergamenes, thinking that with a Civil War ongoing in Egypt, the House of Ptolemy would be too preoccupied fighting amongst themselves to bother with them. Unfortunately for the Kushite Priests, Arkemenai had been popular among the Army and common people for his efforts to rebuild Kush through Modernization. In the past nine years since he had been placed on the throne, Arkemenai had refilled the treasury, rebuilt Meroe, modernized the Army, forged new trade routes south to the emerging Aksumite Kingdom and east across the Sea of Reeds to the Sabean Kingdom, and brought a number of Greek innovations, methods, and philosophies to Kush.
His administration had allowed Kush to flourish, even with the tributes and restrictions placed on it by Ptolemy Keraunos, however, it was those very same Greek innovations, methods, and philosophies that allowed this flourishing that the Priests of Kush so despised. The priests gathered together a number of more conservative nobles and their retainers into a small force of five-thousand men and marched on the Palace, slaying Arkemenai and placing a noble named Armanislo who had supported the coup on the throne. The common people and elements of the Army saw that Armanislo had started to reverse the very policies that Arkemenai had used to allow Kush to flourish and in the winter of two-eighty, they sent an embassy to Thebes, begging Ptolemy Keraunos to take control of Kush.
Invited to rule by the Kushites, and in need of as much power as he could get to win the Civil War, Ptolemy Keraunos accepted the invitation of the Kushites and marched with twenty-five-thousand men south into Kush. He was joined by a further twenty-thousand Kushite troops, who were organized along more Hellenistic Lines, swelling his forces. Over the course of the late Winter and Early Spring, he smashed aside a Kushite conservative army that had been hastily reorganized along more traditional Kushite lines at Napata with minimal casualties and took the city after the common people rose up against the garrison. He moved to Meroe and demolished the last-ditch Kushite Conservative Force put in place to stop him, before taking the city by coup de main when sympathetic merchants in the city opened the gates for his army.
Once inside, Ptolemy Keraunos massacred the priests and nobles who had twice caused him problems and made an example of Armanislo via public execution. He reinstated Arkemenai's reforms, which Armanislo repealed, then left a governor in Meroe with a garrison commanded by locals who had joined his cause. With Kush now a province of Egypt under Ptolemy Keraunos, he marched back north into Upper Egypt with Kushite reinforcements, arriving at Pselchis by the end of April of two-seventy-nine, just in time to pause for the Nile floods.
While all this was occurring, Meleager was extending his control over Raphia, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, and the other cities of the Israelites that had fallen under the control of Ptolemy I Soter in his twilight years. This proved popular with a certain class of Jew, who viewed the trade networks that Meleager controlled as a path to prosperity, while Meleager's insistence on a more limited style of Hellenism, involving the right to worship local gods not being infringed, helped make the Priests of the Temple more supportive of his rule when compared to Ptolemy or Antiochus, both of whom were great champions of Hellenism. Meleager was, after all, the black sheep of the Ptolemies, having been shuffled off to Cyprus by his father, he had since come to appreciate the local Gods and Cultures of the Levant more.
What this meant for the Civil War was that by the time the Campaign concluded in the South, the Great King of Phoenecia would be too entrenched in the Levant to root out easily, and his complete naval dominance would preclude any attempt to take Cyprus from him. Whoever won in Upper Egypt would be forced to give up their father's conquests in Asia Minor, the Levant, and Cyprus because of that fact. Furthermore, two years of the Civil War and the loss of those territories would have weakened whoever won enough that even if they defeated Meleager, they would be unable to withstand a war with his backers in Antiochus I Asianos' court. Meleager had played his hand expertly, and all knew it.
As it happened, when the War in Upper Egypt resumed in the Autumn of two-seventy-nine, it did so with a vengeance. Ptolemy Philadelphos moved swiftly, even as Sosebios pulled his troops back to Thebes to trade space for time, seizing control of Koptos and Denderra in September before marching on Thebes. It was here that he met Ptolemy Keraunos in battle for the first time. The armies were evenly matched in terms of numbers and veterancy, both had Forty-thousand blooded troops to fight with. While equipment differed some, Ptolemy Keraunos having more Archers compared to Ptolemy Philadelphos having more Phalangites, the real difference was in leadership.
Ptolemy Philadelphos was a middling commander with a staff primarily made of middling officers. Furthermore, his successes, purchased by having overwhelming superiority in troop numbers over poor, outmanned, Sosebios, had made him overconfident. Ptolemy Keraunos on the other hand, had a keen military mind and had a staff full of career soldiers for officers. On papyrus, Ptolemy Keraunos should have won, using his advantage in leadership to beat Ptolemy Philadelphos bloody. It would have happened if not for Magas of Cyrene and his Cyrenaicans. Magas was more akin to Ptolemy Keraunos than to Ptolemy Philadelphos and had a knack for skullduggery besides. He had his Cyrenaican Peltasts move to flank Ptolemy Keraunos' forces via the Theban Hills, hiding them in the rugged terrain.
When Ptolemy Keraunos smashed through Ptolemy Philadelphos' right flank thanks to correctly anticipating his Half-Brother's tactics and fighting accordingly, the only thing that saved Philadelphos' army from total collapse was Magas' surprise attack from the Theban hills allowing Ptolemy Philadelphos' army to withdraw from the field. Ptolemy Philadelphos himself took a wound from a Kushite Arrow to the shoulder in the battle, and Magas' surprise attack did much to damage Ptolemy Keraunos' army. By the end of the battle, Ptolemy Keraunos had lost roughly a fourth of his army killed or wounded, while Ptolemy Philadelphos had lost roughly a third of his army killed or wounded.
Ptolemy Keraunos pushed his half-brother out of Upper Egypt, but his strength was spent doing so. His forces needed rest and refitting if they were to fight again. Ptolemy Philadelphos' forces were not in much better shape. The two brothers realized that a truce was necessary, and met to discuss terms for one. In the end, the terms were quite simple to hash out. Ptolemy Keraunos would retain Upper Egypt and Kush, while Ptolemy Philadelphos would retain Lower Egypt. Magas would gain formal independence for Cyrenaica, while still being in alliance with Ptolemy Philadelphos. Neither brother touched on Meleager, both recognizing that they could do nothing to defeat him at this time and so nothing needed to be said.
So, by the end of two-seventy-nine, the First Brother's war ended with the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt carved up like a roast pig between Ptolemy Keraunos, Ptolemy Philadelphos, Magas of Cyrene, and Meleager of Phoenecia. Almost immediately, the peace, and Ptolemy Philadelphos' ceding of territories proved unpopular in Alexandria. There was little that anyone could do about it, however. Time needed to be gained to refill the ranks and replenish troops and equipment stores. Plus there had been a more limited harvest due to the war, so there was not as much grain left to export to cities in Asia Minor for more revenue, and the Lapis Lazuli and Gold Mines were split by the agreement as well. The treasury needed time to replenish accordingly.
This guaranteed that while the First Brothers' War had ended, there would be a second one occurring no less than a decade from now. . .
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AN: All right, so here's how things shook out in Egypt, with a division of territories. Ptolemy Keraunos gets Upper Egypt and recently-conquered Kush, Ptolemy Philadelphos gets Lower Egypt, Magas of Cyrene gets independence for the Cyrenaican Pentopolis, though in an alliance with Ptolemy Philadelphos, and Meleager gets Cyprus, Phoenecia, and Judea, though only de facto, as de jure he's still considered to be in revolt, kind of like the Taiwan situation IRL.
Notably, this means that the bulk of the agricultural wealth goes to Ptolemy Philadelphos, as he has the Nile Delta, while the majority of the Mineral Wealth goes to Ptolemy Keraunos, as much of the mines for stuff like Gold, Iron, Copper, Malachite, and Lapis Lazuli were in Upper Egypt. With the Gold Mines of Kush and trade routes to Aksum and the Sabean Kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen respectively added in, it's more likely that Ptolemy Keraunos will recover first. When round two comes along, Ptolemy Keraunos is going to have the upper hand.
At any rate, next up will be a look at how Antiochus I Asianos is doing in Asia.
Stay tuned. . .