Soter (reigned B.C. 280-261), the son of Selencus I., the founder of the Syrian kingdom of the Seleucidae. He married his stepmother Stratonicé, with whom he had fallen violently in love, and whom his father surrendered to him. He fell in battle against the Gauls in 261.
Theos (B.C. 261-246), son and successor of the preceding. The Milesians gave him his surname of Θεός because he delivered them from their tyrant, Timarchus. He carried on war with Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, which was brought to a close by his putting away his wife Laodicé, and marrying Berenicé, the daughter of Ptolemy. After the death of Ptolemy he recalled Laodicé, but, in revenge for the insult she had received, she caused Antiochus and Berenicé to be murdered. He was succeeded by his son Seleucus Callinicus. His younger son, Antiochus Hierax, also assumed the crown, and carried on war some years with his brother. (See Berenicé.)
The Great (B.C. 223-187), son and successor of Seleucus Callinicus. He carried on war against Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt, in order to obtain Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, but was obliged to cede these provinces to Ptolemy, in consequence of his defeat at the battle of Raphia, near Gaza, in 217. He was afterwards engaged for seven years (212- 205) in an attempt to regain the eastern provinces of Asia, which had revolted during the reign of Antiochus II.; but, though he met with great success, he found it hopeless to effect the subjugation of the Parthian and Bactrian kingdoms, and accordingly concluded a peace with them. In 198 he conquered Palestine and Coele-Syria, which he afterwards gave as a dowry with his daughter Cleopatra upon her marriage with Ptolemy Epiphanes. He afterwards became involved in hostilities with the Romans, and was urged by Hannibal,
who arrived at his court, to invade Italy without loss of time; but Antiochus did not follow his advice. In 192 he crossed over into Greece; and in 191 he was defeated by the Romans at Thermopylae, and compelled to return to Asia. In 190 he was again defeated by the Romans under L. Scipio, at Mount Sipylus, near Magnesia, and compelled to sue for peace, which was granted in 188, on condition of his ceding all his dominions east of Mount Taurus, and paying 15,000 Euboic talents. In order to raise the money to pay the Romans, he attacked a wealthy temple in Elymais, but was killed by the people of the place (187 B.C.). He
Epiphănes (B.C. 175-164), son of Antiochus III., succeeded his brother Seleucus Philopator in 175. He carried on war against Egypt (171-168) with great success; and he was preparing to lay siege to Alexandria in 168, when the Romans compelled him to retire. He endeavoured to root out the Jewish religion and to introduce the worship of the Greek divinities; but this attempt led to a rising of the Jewish people under Mattathias and his heroic sons, the Maccabees, which Antiochus was unable to put down. He attempted to plunder a temple in Elymais in 164, but was repulsed, and died shortly afterwards in a state of raving madness, which the Jews and the Greeks equally attributed to his sacrilegious crimes. His subjects gave him the name of Epimanes ("the madman"), in parody of Epiphanes.
Eupator (B.C. 164-162), son and successor of Epiphanes, was nine years old at his father's death. He was dethroned and put to death by Demetrius Soter, the son of Seleucus Philopator.
Theos, son of Alexander Balas. He was brought forward as a claimant to the crown in 144, against Demetrius Nicator, by Tryphon, but he was murdered by the latter, who ascended the throne himself in 142.
Sidētes (B.C. 137-128), so called from Sidé in Pamphylia, where he was brought up, younger son of Demetrius Soter, succeeded Tryphon. He was defeated and slain in battle by the Parthians in 128.
Grypus, or Hook-nosed (B.C. 125-96), second son of Demetrius Nicator and Cleopatra. He carried on war for some years with his halfbrother, Antiochus Cyzicenus. At length, in 112, the two brothers agreed to share the kingdom between them,-Antiochus Cyzicenus having Coele-Syria and Phœnicia, and Antiochus Grypus the remainder of the provinces. Grypus was assassinated in 96.
Cyzicēnus, from Cyzicus, where he was brought up, brother of Grypus, reigned over Coele-Syria and Phœnicia from 112 to 96, but fell in battle in 95 against Seleucus Epiphanes, son of Grypus.
Eusĕbes, son of Cyzicenus, defeated Seleucus Epiphanes, and maintained the throne against the brothers of Seleucus. He succeeded his father in 95.
Epiphănes, son of Grypus and brother of Seleucus Epiphanes. He carried on war against Eusebes, but was defeated by the latter, and drowned in the river Orontes.
Dionȳsus, brother of the preceding, held the crown for a short time, but fell in battle against Aretas, king of the Arabians. The Syrians, worn out with the civil broils of the Seleucidae, offered the kingdom to Tigranes, king of Armenia, who united Syria to his own dominions in 83, and held it till his defeat by the Romans in 69.
Asiatĭcus, son of Eusebes, became king of Syria on the defeat of Tigranes by Lucullus in 69; but he was deprived of it in 65 by Pompey, who reduced Syria to a Roman province. In this year the Seleucidae ceased to reign.
Read More
Antiochus I Soter (Greek: Αντίοχος Α' Σωτήρ, i.e. Antiochus the Savior, unknown - 261 BC), was a king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. He reigned from 281 BC - 261 BC.
Antiochus I was half Persian, his mother Apama being one of the eastern princesses whom Alexander the Great had given as wives to his generals in 324 BC. In 294 BC, prior to the death of his father Seleucus I, Antiochus married his stepmother, Stratonice, daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes. His elderly father reportedly instigated the marriage after discovering that his son was in danger of dying of lovesickness. Stratonice bore five children to Antiochus: Seleucus, Laodice, Antiochus II Theos, who was to succeed his father as king (Seleucus having been executed for rebellion); Apama II, married to Magas, king of Cyrene; and Stratonice of Macedon.
On the assassination of his father in 281 BC, the task of holding together the empire was a formidable one. A revolt in Syria broke out almost immediately. Antiochus was soon compelled to make peace with his father's murderer, Ptolemy Keraunos, apparently abandoning Macedonia and Thrace. In Anatolia he was unable to reduce Bithynia or the Persian dynasties that ruled in Cappadocia.
In 278 BC the Gauls broke into Anatolia, and a victory that Antiochus won over these hordes is said to have been the origin of his title of Soter (Gr. for "saviour").
At the end of 275 BC the question of Coele-Syria, which had been open between the houses of Seleucus and Ptolemy since the partition of 301 BC, led to hostilities (the First Syrian War). It had been continuously in Ptolemaic occupation, but the house of Seleucus maintained its claim. War did not materially change the outlines of the two kingdoms, though frontier cities like Damascus and the coast districts of Asia Minor might change hands.
On March 27th 268 BC Antiochus I laid the foundation for the Ezida Temple in Borsippa.[1] His eldest son Seleucus had ruled in the east as viceroy from 275 BC(?) till 268/267 BC; Antiochus put his son to death in the latter year on the charge of rebellion. Circa 262 BC Antiochus tried to break the growing power of Pergamum by force of arms, but suffered defeat near Sardis and died soon afterwards. He was succeeded in 261 BC by his second son Antiochus II Theos.[2]
Read More
