The Roman Empire and the Ptolemies

Ptolemies and egypt represent in this period, when one talks about the balance sheet. This is the wealthiest place in the mediterranean. They are sitting on a lot of money. And the romans know it. But probably the reason they don't is that though the various men in the roman eled are all too jealous of each other and too suspicious of each other,. So let's talk about those people then. How do you integrate that with the fact that there are obviously massive trends and forces being exerted during this time period?