Athens mobilized 170 ships to Macedon’s 240, and that eventually the Macedonian navy ‘destroyed’ the Athenian fleet in a series of battles in 322 BC.
[3] Ptolemy I initially competed against other Diadochoi for naval supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, before experiencing a crushing defeat at the hands of Demetrius I at the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC.
Ptolemy II, succeeding his father, maintained the policy ensuring the navy was dominant naval force in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Macedonian king Perdiccas briefly threatened Ptolemy in 321 BC when he sent an army and naval force to invade Egypt, when this operation failed he was assassinated by his officers that fleet was eventually acquired by Antigonus.
[2] In 314 BC that Antigonus made his declaration of ‘freedom for the Greeks,’ intended to scupper the political influence of the other Alexandrian successors in the Aegean.
Feeling that his own political interests were being threatened by Antigonus he also issued a similar declaration,[4] and order a naval force of 50 ships be sent to the Peloponnese, under the command of admiral Polycleitus.
[6] This force assisted Cassander’s navy in attacking Lemnos, before retiring to the island of Cos. Ptolemy I attentions then were diverted elsewhere, in dealing with a revolt in Cyrene and Demetrius’ presence in Syria, as well as spending time organizing Cyprus.
After the peace agreement brokered in 311 BC, Ptolemy I took personal command a Ptolemaic fleet sent on an expedition into the Aegean, the intention may have been to capture the Macedonian throne from Cassander.
[2] In 294 BC recorded by Plutarch, Demetrius began construction of a huge shipbuilding program that was to consist of 500 ships built at dockyards in Corinth, Chalcis, Pella and Piraeus.
[2] After this, the Ptolemaic navy remained unchallenged for almost 30 years when there followed a number of decisive naval battles in the Aegean during the reign of Ptolemy II.
[7] Nine years later in 246 BC the Ptolemaic Kingdom sent another fleet back to the Aegean during the Third Syrian War to confront the forces of Macedonia once again it was defeated and withdrew to Egypt.
[12] Governors of Cyprus from 142 BC down through to the reign of Ptolemy IX Soter II, co held two military titles that of Strategoi and Naurarch of the Ptolemaic Fleet.
[26] Part of this fleet included a river guard force or police patrol to ensure the free movement of commerce up and down the Nile, which in these times could be dangerous.
Nea Paphos in south-west Cyprus was a centre of Ptolemaic administration, possessed a major harbour, and the city and the surrounding region.
[29] Its importance as a major shipbuilding location in Ptolemaic times when Ptolemy II Philadelphos had two very large ships built there by the naval architect Pyrgoteles son of Zoes.
[33] As with Itanos, Patroclus had built a military facility on the island of Thera in 267/6 BC whilst on his way to Attica leading Ptolemaic forces during the Chremonidean War.