The large fleet and army which Antigonus got together for the invasion of Egypt proved his opinion of the strength and skill of Ptolemy.  All Syria, except one or two cities, laid down its arms before him on his approach.  But he found that the whole of the fleet had been already removed to the ports of Egypt, and he ordered Phoenicia to furnish him with eight thousand shipbuilders and carpenters, to build galleys from the forests of Lebanon and Antilibanus, and ordered Syria to send four hundred and fifty thousand medimni, or nearly three millions of bushels of wheat, for the use of his army within the year.  By these means he raised his fleet to two hundred and forty-three long galleys or ships of war.

Ptolemy was for a short time called off from the war in Syria by a rising in Cyrene.  The Cyrenians, who clung to their Doric love of freedom, and were latterly smarting at its loss, had taken arms and were besieging the Egyptian, or, as they would have called themselves, the Macedonian garrison, who had shut themselves up in the citadel.  He at first sent messengers to order the Cyrenians to return to their duty; but his orders were not listened to; the rebels no doubt thought themselves safe, as his armies seemed more wanted on the eastern frontier; his messengers were put to death, and the siege of the citadel pushed forward with all possible speed.  On this he sent a large land force, followed by a fleet, in order to crush the revolt at a single blow; and the ringleaders were brought to Alexandria in chains.  Magas, a son of Queen Berenice and stepson of Ptolemy, was then made governor of Cyrene.

When this trouble at home was put an end to, Ptolemy crossed over to Cyprus to punish the kings of the little states on that island for having joined Antigonus.  For now that the fate of empires was to be settled by naval battles the friendship of Cyprus became very important to the neighbouring states.  The large and safe harbours gave to this island a great value in the naval warfare between Egypt, Phoenicia, and Asia Minor.  Alexander had given it as his opinion that the command of the sea went with the island of Cyprus.  When he held Asia Minor he called Cyprus the key to Egypt; and with still greater reason might Ptolemy, looking from Egypt, think that island the key to Phoenicia.  Accordingly he landed there with so large a force that he met with no resistance.  He added Cyprus to the rest of his dominions:  he banished the kings, and made Nicocreon governor of the whole island.

From Cyprus, Ptolemy landed with his army in Upper Syria, as the northern part of that country was called, while the part nearer to Palestine was called Coele-Syria.  Here he took the towns of Posideion and Potami-Caron, and then marching hastily into Asia Minor he took Malms, a city of Cilicia.  Having rewarded his soldiers with the booty there seized, he again embarked and returned to Alexandria.  This inroad seems to have been meant to draw off the enemy from Coele-Syria; and it had the wished-for effect, for Demetrius, who commanded the forces of his father Antigonus in that quarter, marched northward to the relief of Cilicia, but he did not arrive there till Ptolemy’s fleet was already under sail for its return journey to Egypt.