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How did Ptolemy I Soter gain influence over the League of Islanders?
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Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter, portrait on a silver tetradrachm; in the British Museum
Ptolemy I Soter gained the protectorate over the League of Islanders during a final coalition war fought between 288 and 286 BCE.1
In this conflict, Ptolemy joined a coalition alongside Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Pyrrhus to oppose Demetrius Poliorcetes. During the course of the war, the Egyptian fleet played a decisive role in the liberation of Athens from Macedonian occupation, which facilitated Ptolemy's acquisition of the protectorate over the league. The League of Islanders, which included most of the Greek islands in the Aegean, had originally been established by Antigonus Monophthalmus in 315 BCE. This alliance became the foundation for Egypt's maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean for the decades that followed.1