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Antiochus III the Great– 3 July 187,
ruled April/June 222 – 3 July 187 was a Macedonian Hellenistic king and
the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire. He ruled over the region of Syria and
large parts of the rest of western Asia towards the end of the 3rd century.
Rising to the throne at the age of eighteen in 222, his early campaigns against
the Ptolemaic Kingdom were unsuccessful, but in the following years Antiochus
gained several military victories and substantially expanded the empire's
territory. His traditional designation, the Great, reflects an epithet he
assumed. He also assumed the title Basileus Megas (Greek for "Great
King"), the traditional title of the Persian kings. A militarily active
ruler, Antiochus restored much of the territory of the Seleucid Empire, before
suffering a serious setback, towards the end of his reign, in his war against
Rome. Declaring himself the "champion of Greek freedom against Roman
domination", Antiochus III waged a four-year war against the Roman
Republic beginning in mainland Greece in the autumn of 192 before being
decisively defeated at the Battle of Magnesia. He died three years later on
campaign in the east.
Background:
Antiochus III was a member of the Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty. He was the son
of king Seleucus II Callinicus and Laodice II and was born around 242 near Susa
in Persia. He may have borne a non-dynastic name (starting with Ly-), according
to a Babylonian chronicle. He succeeded, under the name Antiochus, his brother
Seleucus III Ceraunus, upon the latter's murder in Anatolia; he was in Babylon
at the time. Antiochus III inherited a disorganized state. Not only had Asia
Minor become detached, but the easternmost provinces had broken away, Bactria
under the Seleucid Diodotus of Bactria, and Parthia under the rebel satrap
Andragoras in 247–245, who was himself later vanquished by the nomad
chieftain Arsaces. In 222, soon after Antiochus's accession, Media and Persis
revolted under their governors, the brothers Molon and Alexander. The young
king, under the influence of the minister Hermeias, headed an attack on
Ptolemaic Syria instead of going in person to face the rebels. The attack
against the Ptolemaic empire proved a fiasco, and the generals sent against
Molon and Alexander met with disaster. Only in Asia Minor, where the king's
cousin, Achaeus, represented the Seleucid cause, did its prestige recover,
driving the Pergamene power back to its earlier limits. In 221 Antiochus at
last went far east, and the rebellion of Molon and Alexander collapsed which
Polybios attributes in part to his following the advice of Zeuxis rather than
Hermeias. The submission of Lesser Media, which had asserted its independence
under Artabazanes, followed. Antiochus rid himself of Hermeias by assassination
and returned to Syria in 220. Meanwhile, Achaeus himself had revolted and
assumed the title of king in Asia Minor. Since, however, his power was not well
enough grounded to allow an attack on Syria, Antiochus considered that he might
leave Achaeus for the present and renew his attempt on Ptolemaic Syria.
Early wars against other Hellenistic rulers:
Fourth Syrian War and Seleucid–Parthian wars:
The campaigns of 219 and 218 carried the Seleucid armies almost to the confines
of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, but in 217 Ptolemy IV defeated Antiochus at the
Battle of Raphia. This defeat nullified all
Antiochus' successes and compelled him to withdraw north of Lebanon. In 216 his
army marched into western Anatolia to suppress the local rebellion led by
Antiochus' own cousin Achaeus, and had by 214 driven him from the field into
Sardis. Capturing Achaeus, Antiochus had him executed. The citadel managed to
hold out until 213 under Achaeus' widow Laodice who surrendered later. Having
thus recovered the central part of Asia Minor (for the Seleucid government had
perforce to tolerate the dynasties in Pergamon, Bithynia and Cappadocia),
Antiochus turned to recovering the outlying provinces of the north and east. He
obliged Xerxes of Armenia to acknowledge his supremacy in 212. In 209 Antiochus
invaded Parthia, occupied the capital Hecatompylos and pushed forward into
Hyrcania, winning the Battle of Mount Labus. The Parthian king Arsaces II
apparently successfully sued for peace.
Bactrian campaign and Indian expedition:
The year 209 saw Antiochus in Bactria, where the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus
I had supplanted the original rebel. Antiochus again met with success.
Euthydemus was defeated by Antiochus at the Battle of the Arius but after
sustaining a famous siege in his capital Bactra (Balkh), he obtained an
honourable peace by which Antiochus promised Euthydemus' son Demetrius the hand
of Laodice, his daughter. Antiochus next, following in the steps of Alexander,
crossed into the Kabul valley, reaching the realm of Indian king Sophagasenus
and returned west by way of Seistan and Kerman (206/5).
According to Polybius: He crossed the Caucasus and descended into India,
renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus, king of the Indians, and received
more elephants, raising their number to a total of one hundred and fifty, and
provisioned his army once more on the spot. He himself broke camp with his
troops, leaving behind Androsthenes of Cyzicus to bring back the treasure which
this king (Sophagasenus) had agreed to give him.
Persia and Coele Syria campaigns
See also: Fifth Syrian War:
From Seleucia on the Tigris he led a short expedition down the Persian Gulf
against the Gerrhaeans of the Arabian coast (205/204). Antiochus seemed to have
restored the Seleucid empire in the east, which earned him the title of
"the Great" (Antiochos Megas). In 205/204 the infant Ptolemy V
Epiphanes succeeded to the Egyptian throne, and Antiochus is said (notably by
Polybius) to have concluded a secret pact with Philip V of Macedon for the
partition of the Ptolemaic possessions. Under the terms of this pact, Macedon
was to receive the Ptolemaic possessions around the Aegean Sea and Cyrene,
while Antiochus would annex Cyprus and Egypt. Once more Antiochus attacked the
Ptolemaic province of Coele Syria and Phoenicia, and by 199 he seems to have
had possession of it before the Aetolian leader Scopas recovered it for
Ptolemy. But that recovery proved brief, for in 198 Antiochus defeated Scopas
at the Battle of Panium, near the sources of
the Jordan, a battle which marks the end of Ptolemaic rule in Judea.
War against Rome and death:
Main article: Roman–Seleucid War
Antiochus then moved to Asia Minor, by land and by sea, to secure the coast
towns which belonged to the remnants of Ptolemaic overseas dominions and the
independent Greek cities. This enterprise earned him the antagonism of the
Roman Republic, since Smyrna and Lampsacus appealed to the Republic, which at
the time acted as a defender of Greek freedom. The tension grew when Antiochus
in 196 BC established a footing in Thrace. The evacuation of Greece by the
Romans gave Antiochus his opportunity, and he now had the fugitive Hannibal at
his court to urge him on. In 192 Antiochus invaded Greece with a 10,000-man
army, and was elected the commander in chief of the Aetolian League. In 191,
however, the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed him at Thermopylae,
forcing him to withdraw to Asia Minor. The Romans followed up their success by
invading Anatolia, and the decisive victory of Scipio Asiaticus at Magnesia ad
Sipylum (190), following the defeat of Hannibal at sea off Side, delivered Asia
Minor into their hands. By the Treaty of Apamea (188) Antiochus abandoned all
the country north and west of the Taurus, most of which the Roman Republic gave
either to Rhodes or to the Attalid ruler Eumenes II, its allies (many Greek
cities were left free). As a consequence of this blow to the Seleucid power,
the outlying provinces of the empire, recovered by Antiochus, reasserted their
independence. Antiochus mounted a fresh eastern expedition in Luristan, where
he died while pillaging a temple of Bel at Elymaïs, Persia, in 187.
Family:
In 222, Antiochus III married Princess Laodice of Pontus, a daughter of King
Mithridates II of Pontus and Princess Laodice of the Seleucid Empire. The
couple were first cousins through their mutual grandfather, Antiochus II Theos.
Antiochus and Laodice had eight children (three sons and five daughters):
Antiochus (221–193), Antiochus III's first heir apparent and joint-king
with his father from 210–193 Seleucus IV Philopator (c. 220 – 175),
Antiochus III's successor Ardys unnamed daughter, betrothed in about 206 to
Demetrius I of Bactria Laodice IV, married all three of her brothers in
succession and became Queen of the Seleucid Empire through her second and third
marriages Cleopatra I Syra (c. 204 – 176), married in 193 Ptolemy V
Epiphanes of Egypt Antiochis, married in 194 King Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia
Mithridates (215–164), succeeded his brother Seleucus IV Philopator in 175
under the regnal name Antiochus IV Epiphanes In 191, Antiochus III married a
girl from Chalcis, whom he named "Euboea". They had no children.
Laodike III may have fallen in disgrace; however, she clearly survived
Antiochus III, and appears in Susa in 183.
Antiochus and the Jews:
Antiochus III resettled 2000 Jewish families from Babylonia into the
Hellenistic Anatolian regions of Lydia and Phrygia. He is not the king of the
Hanukkah story who was resisted by the Maccabees; rather, that was his son,
Antiochus IV. On the contrary, Josephus portrays him as friendly towards the
Jews of Jerusalem and cognizant of their loyalty to him (see Antiquities,
chapter 3, sections 3–4), in stark contrast to the attitude of his son. In
fact, Antiochus III lowered taxes, granted subventions to the Temple, and let
the Jews live, as Josephus puts it, "according to the law of their
forefathers." Books of Maccabees Antiochus III is mentioned once in the
deuterocanonical Books of the Maccabees. The subject of Maccabees is the
Maccabean Revolt against Antiochus' son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Chapter 8 of
the First Book of the Maccabees describes Judas Maccabeus' knowledge of the
deeds of the Roman Republic, including an allusion to the defeat of Antiochus
III by the Romans. The NRSV says "They [the Romans] also had defeated
Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who went to fight against them with one
hundred twenty elephants and with cavalry and chariots and a very large army.
He was crushed by them; they took him alive and decreed that he and those who
would reign after him should pay a heavy tribute and give hostages and
surrender some of their best provinces, the countries of India, Media, and
Lydia. These they took from him and gave to King Eumenes." (1 Maccabees
8:6-8)
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