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GREEK - King Antiochos III, (Molon) the Great 223-187 B.C. of
the Seleucid Kingdom
Bronze 14mm (2.6 grams) Struck 223-187 B.C.
Reference: Sear 6956
His diademed head right with middle-aged features.
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ANTIOXOY either side of palm tree.
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Antiochus III the Great, (Greek
Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας; ca. 241–187 BC,
ruled 222–187 BC), younger son of
Seleucus II Callinicus, became the 6th ruler of the
Seleucid Empire as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. Ascending the throne
at young age, Antiochus was an ambitious ruler. Although his early attempts in
war against the
Ptolemaic Kingdom were unsuccessful, in the following years of conquest
Antiochus proved himself as the most successful Seleucid King after
Seleucus I himself. His traditional designation, the Great, reflects
an epithet he briefly assumed after his Eastern Campaign (it appears in regnal
formulas at Amyzon in 203 and 202 BC, but not later). Antiochos also assumed the
title "Basileus Megas" (which is
Greek for Great King), the
traditional title of
the Persian kings, which he adopted after his conquest of Koile Syria.
Early years
Antiochus III inherited a disorganized state. Not only had
Asia Minor
become detached, but the farther eastern provinces had broken away,
Bactria under
the Greek
Diodotus of Bactria, and
Parthia under
the nomad chieftain
Arsaces. Soon after Antiochus's accession,
Media and
Persis revolted under their governors, the brothers
Molon and
Alexander.
The young king, under the baneful influence of the minister
Hermeias,
authorised an attack on
Judea instead of
going in person to face the rebels. The attack on Judea proved a fiasco, and the
generals sent against Molon and Alexander met with disaster. Only in Asia Minor,
where the king's cousin, the able
Achaeus represented the Seleucid cause, did its prestige recover, driving
the Pergamene power back to its earlier limits.
In 221 BC Antiochus at last went east, and the rebellion of Molon and
Alexander collapsed. The submission of Lesser Media, which had asserted its
independence under
Artabazanes, followed. Antiochus rid himself of Hermeias by assassination
and returned to Syria
(220 BC). 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
of his attacking Syria, Antiochus considered that he might leave Achaeus for the
present and renew his attempt on Judea.
The campaigns of 219 BC and 218 BC carried the Seleucid armies almost to the
confines of
Ptolemaic Egypt, but in 217 BC
Ptolemy IV confronted Antiochus at the
battle of Raphia and inflicted a defeat upon him which nullified all
Antiochus's successes and compelled him to withdraw north of the
Lebanon. In
216 BC Antiochus went north to deal with Achaeus, and had by 214 BC driven him
from the field into
Sardis. Antiochus contrived to get possession of the person of
Achaeus (see
Polybius),
but the citadel held out until 213 BC under Achaeus' widow
Laodice and then surrendered.
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 recover the outlying provinces of the north
and east. He obliged
Xerxes of Armenia to acknowledge his supremacy in 212 BC. In 209 BC
Antiochus invaded
Parthia, occupied the capital
Hecatompylus and pushed forward into
Hyrcania.
The Parthian king
Arsaces II apparently successfully sued for peace.
Bactrian
campaign and Indian expedition
Year 209 BC saw Antiochus in
Bactria,
where the
Greco-Bactrian king
Euthydemus I had supplanted the original rebel. Antiochus again met with
success.
[1]
After sustaining a famous siege in his capital
Bactra (Balkh), Euthydemus obtained an honourable peace by which
Antiochus promised Euthydemus' son
Demetrius the hand of one of his daughters.
[2]
Antiochus next, following in the steps of Alexander, crossed into the
Kabul valley,
renewed his friendship with the
Indian king
Sophagasenus and returned west by way of
Seistan and Kerman (206/5). According to
Polybius:
-
"He crossed the Caucasus (Hindu
Kush) and descended into India; renewed his friendship with
Sophagasenus (Subhashsena in Prakrit) the king of the Indians; received
more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once
more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving
Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king
had agreed to hand over to him."
Polybius 11.39
Persia and Koile
Syria campaigns
The Seleucid Empire in 200BC, (before Antiochus was defeated by the
Romans)..
From
Seleucia on the Tigris he led a short expedition down the
Persian
Gulf against the
Gerrhaeans of
the Arabian coast (205 BC/204 BC). Antiochus seemed to have restored the
Seleucid empire in the east, and the achievement brought him the title of "the
Great." (Antiochos Megas). In 205 BC/204 BC the infant
Ptolemy V Epiphanes succeeded to the Egyptian throne, and Antiochus is said
(notably by Polybios) 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 were to receive Egypt's around the Aegean Sea and
Cyrene while Antiochus would take
Cyprus and
Egypt.
Once more Antiochus attacked the Ptolemaic province of Koile Syria and
Phoenicia, and by 199 BC he seems to have had possession of it before the
Aetolian,
Scopas, recovered it for Ptolemy. But that recovery proved brief, for in 198
BC 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
Antiochus then moved to Asia Minor to secure the coast towns which had
belonged to the Ptolemaic overseas dominions and the independent Greek cities.
This enterprise brought him into antagonism with
Rome, since
Smyrna and
Lampsacus
appealed to the republic of the west, and the tension became greater after
Antiochus had 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.
Aetolians. In
191 BC, however, the Romans under
Manius Acilius Glabrio routed him at
Thermopylae and obliged him to withdraw to Asia. The Romans followed up
their success by attacking Antiochus in
Anatolia,
and the decisive victory of
Scipio Asiaticus at
Magnesia ad Sipylum (190 BC), following the defeat of Hannibal at sea off
Side, delivered
Asia Minor into their hands.
By the
Treaty of Apamea (188 BC) the Seleucid king abandoned all the country north
of the
Taurus, which Rome distributed amongst its friends. 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 expedition to the east in
Luristan, where he died in an attempt to rob a temple at Elymaïs, Persia, in
187 BC. The Seleucid kingdom as Antiochus left it fell to his son,
Seleucus IV Philopator, by his wife
Laodice.
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