The article is focused on the problem of the clarification of the date of the famine which occurred in Egypt in the first decade of Ptolemy III Euergetes's reign. Currently, the list of sources about this humanitarian disaster, which was caused by the series of the low floods of Nile, comprises of the following: the so-called Decree of Canopus (CGC 22186 = OGIS I. 56), the papyrus P.Edfou, 8, the story of Athenaeus of Naucratis about the sending of the grain by Hieron II of Syracuse to the king Ptolemy (Athen. V. 209a–b), probably the stele of Tahebit (Lady Meux, 164), and, possibly, one of the inscriptions on the wall of the Temple of Khonsu in Karnak (Urk. VIII, 63). Usually, modern researchers date this Egyptian famine to 245th BC. But recent discovery of the full version of the so-called Alexandrian synodal Decree from 3 December 243 BC causes the redating of the mentioned event. The Decree of Alexandria doesn’t contain a slightest mention about the series of the low floods of Nile and the famine, which was caused by them. At the same time, a colorful story about these events presented in the Decree of Canopus is evidencing of a very small interval between them and the date of this decree (7 March 238 BC). Thus, low floods and the famine should be attributed to 242–239 BC. This attribution is supported by the story of Athenaeus. It would be reasonable to assume that Hieron II had the opportunity to send his huge ship with grain to Alexandria only after the end of the First Punic War (264–241 BC). During this war, the king of Syracuse had to supply his Roman allies with the provisions. Besides that, active military operations, that took place in area of Sicily, would not allow him to carry out the construction of the mentioned floating giant.