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| Antiochos III Megas 'The Great' |
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Antiochus
III was born in 242 BC, the son of Seleucus II, near Susa, Iran. He was
the Seleucid king of the Hellenistic Syrian Empire from 223 to 187 BC,
and rebuilt the empire in the East but failed in his attempt to
challenge Roman ascendancy in Europe and Asia Minor. He reformed the
empire administratively by reducing the provinces in size, established
a ruler cult (with himself and his consort Laodice as divine), and
improved relations with neighbouring countries by giving his daughters
in marriage to their princes.
Antiochus
succeeded his brother Seleucus III as king. He retained from the
previous administration Hermias as chief minister, Achaeus as governor
of Asia Minor, and Molon and his brother Alexander as governors of the
eastern provinces, Media and Persis. In the following year, when Molon
rebelled and assumed the title of king, Antiochus abandoned a campaign
against Egypt for the conquest of southern Syria, on the advice of
Hermias, and marched against Molon, defeating him in 220 BC on the far
bank of the Tigris and also conquering Atropatene, the northwestern
part of Media. Shortly thereafter he had Hermias killed and was thus
rid of most of the influences from the previous administration.
In
the same year, Achaeus set himself up as king in Asia Minor, but a
mutiny in his army kept him from attacking Antiochus. Antiochus was now
free to conduct what has been called the Fourth Syrian War (219-216),
during which he gained control of the important eastern Mediterranean
sea ports of Seleucia-in-Pieria, Tyre, and Ptolemais. In 218 he held
Coele Syria (Lebanon), Palestine, and Phoenicia.
In
217 he engaged an army (numbering 75,000) of Ptolemy IV Philopator, a
pharaoh of the Hellenistic dynasty ruling Egypt, at Raphia, the
southernmost city in Syria. His own troops numbered 68,000. Though he
succeeded in routing the left wing of the Egyptian army, his phalanx
(heavily armed infantry in close ranks) in the centre was defeated by a
newly formed Egyptian phalanx. In the subsequent peace settlement,
Antiochus gave up all his conquests except the city of
Seleucia-in-Pieria.
After
the Syrian war, he proceeded against the rebel Achaeus. In alliance
with Attalus I of Pergamum, Antiochus captured Achaeus in 213 in his
capital, Sardis, and had him executed in a barbaric manner. After the
pacification of Asia Minor he entered upon his later to be famous
eastward campaign (212-205), pressing forward as far as India.
In
212 he gave his sister Antiochis in marriage to King Xerxes of Armenia,
who acknowledged his suzerainty and paid him tribute. He occupied
Hecatompylos (southeast of the Caspian Sea), the capital of the
Parthian king Arsaces III, and forced him to enter into an alliance in
209 and the following year defeated Euthydemus of Bactria, though he
allowed him to continue to rule and retain his royal title.
In
206 he marched across the Hindu Kush into the Kabul Valley and renewed
a friendship with the Indian king Sophagasenos. Returning westward via
the Iranian provinces of Arachosia, Drangiana, and Carmania, he arrived
in Persis in 205 and received tribute of 500 talents of silver from the
citizens of Gerrha, a mercantile state on the east coast of the Persian
Gulf. Having established a magnificent system of vassal states in the
East, Antiochus now adopted the ancient Achaemenid title of "great
king," and the Greeks, comparing him to Alexander the Great, surnamed
him also "the Great."
After
the death of Ptolemy IV, Antiochus concluded a secret treaty with
Philip V, ruler of the Hellenistic kingdom of Macedonia, in which the
two plotted the division of the Ptolemaic empire outside Egypt.
Antiochus' share was to be southern Syria, Lycia, Cilicia, and Cyprus;
Philip was to have western Asia Minor and the Cyclades. Antiochus
invaded Coele Syria, defeated the Ptolemaic general Scopas at Panion
near the source of the Jordan River in the year 200, gained control of
Palestine, and granted special rights to the Jewish temple state. But
Philip, marching along the Dardanelles, became involved in a war with
Rhodes and Pergamum, both of whom appealed to Rome for help against
Macedonia, informing Rome of the alliance between the two Hellenistic
kings.
Rome
intervened decisively in the system of Hellenistic states. Philip was
defeated by the Romans in the Second Macedonian War (200-196), and
Antiochus refused to help him. Instead, taking advantage of the Romans'
involvement with Philip, Antiochus marched against Egypt. Though the
Romans had sent ambassadors to Ptolemy V, they could not lend him any
serious assistance. When peace was concluded in 195, Antiochus came
permanently into possession of southern Syria--which had been fought
over for 100 years by the Ptolemies and Seleucids--and of the Egyptian
territories in Asia Minor. He also gave his daughter Cleopatra in
marriage to Ptolemy V. Egypt practically became a Seleucid protectorate.
In
his insatiable expansionist drive, Antiochus occupied parts of the
kingdom of Pergamum in 198 and in 197 Greek cities in Asia Minor. In
196 BC he crossed the Hellespont into Thrace, where he claimed
sovereignty over territory that had been won by Seleucus I in the year
281 BC. A war of harassment and diplomacy with Rome ensued. A number of
times the Romans sent ambassadors demanding that Antiochus stay out of
Europe and set free all the autonomous communities in Asia Minor. To
meet these demands would have meant the actual dissolution of the
western part of the Seleucid Empire, and Antiochus thus refused.
Tensions
with Rome increased further when the great Carthaginian general
Hannibal, who had fled from Carthage in the aftermath of defeat by the
Romans in the Second Punic War, found refuge with Antiochus in 195 BC
and became his adviser. Hannibal proposes to him a plan of attack
reminiscent of his campaigns in Spain. However each is trying to use
the other: Antiochus does not adopt Hannibal's plans. Antiochus offered
an alliance to Philip of Macedonia, whom he had previously forsaken,
but was rebuffed. Philip, Rhodes, Pergamum, and the Achaean League
joined Rome. Only the Aetolians, discontent with Rome's growing
influence in Greece, called upon Antiochus to be their liberator and
appointed him commander in chief of their league.
The Syrian War (192-188 BC)
Relying
on the Aeolian League, Antiochus crossed the Hellespont and landed in
Demetrias in the autumn of 192 with only 10,500 men and occupied
Euboea. But he found little support in central Greece. In 191 the
Romans, numbering more than 20,000, cut him off from his reinforcements
in Thrace and outflanked his position at the pass of Thermopylae (in
Greece). With the remainder of his troops Antiochus fled to Chalcis on
Euboea and from there by sea to Ephesus; his fleet was wiped out by the
combined naval forces of Rome, Rhodes, and Pergamum. Meeting no
resistance, the Roman army crossed the Hellespont in 190. Antiochus was
now eager to negotiate on the basis of Rome's previous demands, but the
Romans insisted that he first evacuate the region west of the Taurus
Mountains. When Antiochus refused, he was decisively defeated in the
Battle of Magnesia near Mt. Sipylus (January 190), where he fought with
a heterogeneous army of 70,000 men against an army of 30,000 Romans and
their allies led by Lucius and Cornelius Scipio (Africanus).
Although
he could have continued the war in the eastern provinces, he renounced
all claim to his conquests in Europe and in Asia Minor west of the
Taurus at the peace treaty of Apamea (188). He also was obliged to pay
an indemnity of 15,000 talents over a period of 12 years, surrender his
elephants and his fleet, and furnish hostages, including his son
Antiochus IV. His kingdom was now reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and
western Iran.
In 187 Antiochus was murdered in a Baal temple near Susa, where he was exacting tribute in order to obtain much needed revenue. |
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