Lagoras was a Cretan

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 soldier of fortune, who, when in the service of Ptolemy IV Philopator, king of Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter invaded Egypt and declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to...

, was sent by Nicolaus

Nicolaus of Aetolia

Nicolaus was an Aetolian, and a general of Ptolemy IV Philopator , king of Egypt. In 219 BC we find him besieging Ptolemais, which was held by the traitor Theodotus, who had revolted from Ptolemy to Antiochus III the Great . Nicolaus, however, abandoned the siege on the approach of the Seleucid king...

, Ptolemy's general, to occupy the passes of Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

 at Berytus

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, and to check there the advance of Antiochus III the Great

Antiochus III the Great

Antiochus III the Great Seleucid Greek king who became the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. Antiochus was an ambitious ruler who ruled over Greater Syria and western Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BC...

, who was marching upon Ptolemais, 219 BC

219 BC

Year 219 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Paullus and Salinator...

. He was, however, defeated and dislodged from his position by the Syrian

Seleucid Empire

The Seleucid Empire was a Greek-Macedonian state that was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.The Seleucid Empire was a major centre...

 king. In 215 BC

215 BC

Year 215 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Albinus/Marcellus/Verrucosus and Gracchus...

, in the war of Antiochus against Achaeus

Achaeus (general)

Achaeus was a general and later a separatist ruler of part of the Greek Seleucid kingdom. He was the son of Andromachus, whose sister Laodice II, married Seleucus Callinicus, the father of Antiochus III the Great. Achaeus himself married Laodice of Pontus, one of the daughters to Laodice and...

, we find Lagoras in the service of the former; and it was through his discovery of an unguarded part of the wall of Sardis

Sardis

Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey's Manisa Province...

, that Antiochus was enabled to take the city, Lagoras being himself one of the select party who forced their way into the town over the portion of the wall in question.