Alexander the Great entered Egypt in 332 BC and wrested it from the Achaemenids. He did not reach Yemen, and his later preparations towards the Arabian Peninsula remained unfulfilled when he died in 323 BC. After that, the Ptolemies invested in ports, roads and water stations connecting the Red Sea to the interior of Egypt, and the port of Bernitz was one of the most prominent links in this network. The value of the port depended on its permanent connection with the Nile and Mediterranean markets, and its ability to receive trade coming from the south. In the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the kingdoms of Sheba, Maine, Katban, Hadramaut and then Himyar had their own resources, roads and commercial interests. Therefore, the history of the road is not correct if Yemen is seen as a station waiting for the great powers. Its rulers and merchants negotiated, made alliances and set the terms for the use of their ports and markets. Partnering with them was a means of accessing trade, while subjugating them carried other calculations. Elios Gallos' campaign tested the limits of the transfer of power from Egypt to Yemen. After the annexation of Egypt to Rome in 30 BC, the empire sent the campaign towards southern Arabia in 26 and 25 BC. It ended in failure at the walls of Marib, after disease and the difficulties of routes and supplies exhausted the army's capacity. Rome possessed the resources and ports of Egypt, and was unable to turn them into stable control in an environment she did not know well enough. The Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea, written by an anonymous writer in the first century AD, provides a picture of this partnership. It describes the ports of Mauza, Aden and Kina, records goods and shipping methods, and mentions the contacts of a king living in Dhofar with the emperors through embassies and gifts. It shows the Yemeni authorities managing their interests within a wide network, from which they were able to benefit without occupying their land. In late antiquity, trade in the Red Sea was intertwined with the conflicts of Himyar, Axum, Byzantium and the Sasanian state. Axum intervened in Yemen in the sixth century as part of the rapprochement with Byzantium, within which Egypt was ruled. Then the Sasanian intervention ended Aksum rule in parts of Yemen, and decades later the Sasanians conquered Egypt, starting in 618 or 619. This widespread Persian presence belongs to the Sasanian era; As for the Achaemenids who ruled Egypt before Alexander, their rule does not match similar evidence for the subjugation of Yemen. The Sasanian synchronicity also does not prove a unified plan for sea control.

Alexander the Great entered Egypt in 332 BC and wrested it from the Achaemenids. He did not reach Yemen, and his later preparations towards the Arabian Peninsula remained unfulfilled when he died in 323 BC. After that, the Ptolemies invested in ports, roads and water stations connecting the Red Sea to the interior of Egypt, and the port of Bernitz was one of the most prominent links in this network. The value of the port depended on its permanent connection with the Nile and Mediterranean markets, and its ability to receive trade coming from the south. In the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the kingdoms of Sheba, Maine, Katban, Hadramaut and then Himyar had their own resources, roads and commercial interests. Therefore, the history of the road is not correct if Yemen is seen as a station waiting for the great powers. Its rulers and merchants negotiated, made alliances and set the terms for the use of their ports and markets. Partnering with them was a means of accessing trade, while subjugating them carried other calculations. Elios Gallos' campaign tested the limits of the transfer of power from Egypt to Yemen. After the annexation of Egypt to Rome in 30 BC, the empire sent the campaign towards southern Arabia in 26 and 25 BC. It ended in failure at the walls of Marib, after disease and the difficulties of routes and supplies exhausted the army's capacity. Rome possessed the resources and ports of Egypt, and was unable to turn them into stable control in an environment she did not know well enough. The Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea, written by an anonymous writer in the first century AD, provides a picture of this partnership. It describes the ports of Mauza, Aden and Kina, records goods and shipping methods, and mentions the contacts of a king living in Dhofar with the emperors through embassies and gifts. It shows the Yemeni authorities managing their interests within a wide network, from which they were able to benefit without occupying their land. In late antiquity, trade in the Red Sea was intertwined with the conflicts of Himyar, Axum, Byzantium and the Sasanian state. Axum intervened in Yemen in the sixth century as part of the rapprochement with Byzantium, within which Egypt was ruled. Then the Sasanian intervention ended Aksum rule in parts of Yemen, and decades later the Sasanians conquered Egypt, starting in 618 or 619. This widespread Persian presence belongs to the Sasanian era; As for the Achaemenids who ruled Egypt before Alexander, their rule does not match similar evidence for the subjugation of Yemen. The Sasanian synchronicity also does not prove a unified plan for sea control.