During the Punic Wars, Egypt and Rome were friendly powers that shared a number of common interests. Most notably, neither of them wanted to see a hegemonic power arise in Greece, and neither of them wanted to see Carthage expand. Rome and Egypt actually signed a treaty of friendship nine years before the First Punic War.

Rome was an excellent customer for Egyptian grain and Asian goods moved through Egypt, such as cotton and silk. Carthage also exported grain, as well as metals, dyes and other value-added goods.

Apart from the commercial rivalry between Carthage and Egypt, Carthage had fought a long series of wars in Sicily and North Africa against Greek colonizers, which surely antagonized the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. Cyrene, in what is now eastern Libya, had fought losing wars against Carthage on several occasions and welcomed annexation by Alexander the Great.

When Alexander died, Ptolemy allied with Cyrene's nobility while the leaders of a lower-class faction allied with Carthage. Cyrene briefly revolted and joined Syracuse in a war against Carthage. The failure of this war left the city exhausted and Ptolemy was able to easily reassert control. It also demonstrated the difficulty of marching an army by land across Libya.

So, when Carthage and Rome went to war, Egypt was content to sit back and give Rome tacit encouragement but no real support. On the other hand, Egypt refused a Carthaginian request for a substantial loan to fund its war effort, and by extension an offer to resolve the long cold war between the two African powers.

Egypt did not join the war, however, because Carthage had shown its prowess in defeating a series of Greek attacks from Cyrene and Sicily, and it seemed like a cheaper, sounder strategy to let the Romans bleed their enemies for them.