31. Antiochus I. (Soter) inherited the Asiatic dominions of his father, and made war in Asia Minor against the native kings of Bithynia. One of these, Nicomedes, called to his assistance the Gauls, who were ravaging eastern Europe, and rewarded their services with a large territory in northern Phrygia, which was thence called Gala´tia. North-western Lydia was also wrested from Antiochus, and formed the kingdom of Per´gamus. From his only important victory over the Gauls, B. C. 275, the Syrian king derived his title Soter (the Deliverer); but his operations were usually unsuccessful, and his kingdom was much reduced both in wealth and power during his reign. He was defeated and slain near Ephesus, in a battle with the Gauls, B. C. 261.
32. Antiochus II. bore the blasphemous title of Theos (the God), but he showed himself less than a man by the weakness and licentiousness of his reign. He abandoned all affairs to worthless favorites, who were neither feared nor respected in the distant provinces, and two independent kingdoms sprang up unchecked in Parthia and Bactria, B. C. 255. The influence of his wife, Laodice, involved him in a war with Egypt. It was ended by the divorce of Laodice, and the marriage of Antiochus with Ber´eni´ce, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B. C. 260-252). On the death of Philadelphus, Antiochus sent away Berenice and took back Laodice; but she, doubting his constancy, murdered him to secure the kingdom for her son, Seleucus. Berenice and her infant son were also put to death.
33. Seleucus II. (Callini´cus) was first engaged in war with the king of Egypt, Ptolemy Euer´getes, who came to avenge the deaths of his sister and nephew. With the exception of part of Lydia and Phrygia, all Asia west of the Tigris, and even Susiana, Media, and Persia, submitted to the invader; but the severity of his exactions excited discontent, and a revolt in Egypt called him home, whereupon Callinicus regained his territories. Antiochus Hi´erax (the Hawk), a younger brother of the king, revolted at fourteen years of age, with the assistance of his uncle and a troop of Gauls. At the same time, Arsa´ces II., the Parthian king, gained great advantages in Upper Asia, and signally defeated Callinicus (B. C. 237), who led an expedition in person against him. The war between the brothers ended, B. C. 229, in the defeat of the rebellious prince. Seleucus died by a fall from his horse, B. C. 226.
Seleucus III. (Ceraunus) reigned only three years. In the midst of an expedition against Attalus, king of Pergamus, he was killed in a mutiny by some of his own officers.
34. Antiochus III., the Great, had an eventful reign of thirty-six years. Molo, his general, first revolted, and made himself master, one by one, of the countries east of the Euphrates, destroying all the armies sent against him. Antiochus at length defeated him, B. C. 220, and then made war upon Egypt for the recovery of Syria and Palestine, which had hitherto been held by Ptolemy. He was successful at first, but his defeat at Raph´ia robbed him of all his conquests, except Seleucia in Syria. Achæ´us, his cousin, and hitherto a faithful servant of Antiochus and his father, had meanwhile been driven into revolt by the false accusations of Hermi´as, the prime minister. He subjected to his control all the countries west of the Taurus. As soon as peace had been made with Egypt, the king of Syria marched against him, deprived him of all his possessions in one campaign, besieged him two years in Sardis, and finally captured and put him to death.
35. The Parthian king, Arsaces III., had taken up arms against Media. Antiochus led an army across the desert to Hecatom´pylos, the Parthian capital, which he captured; but the battle which followed was indecisive, and Arsaces remained independent, with the possession of Parthia and Hyrcania. The war against the Bactrian monarch had a similar result, Euthyde´mus retaining Bactria and Sogdiana. Antiochus penetrated India, and renewed the old alliance of Seleucus Nicator with the king of the upper Ganges. Wintering in Kerma´nia, the Syrian king made a naval expedition, the next year, against the piratical Arabs of the western shores of the Persian Gulf. On his return from his seven years’ absence in the East, Antiochus received the title of “Great,” by which he is known in history.
36. The same year, B. C. 205, Ptolemy Epiph´anes, a child of five years, succeeded his father in Egypt. Tempted by the unprotected state of the kingdom, Antiochus made a treaty with Philip of Macedon to divide the dominions of Ptolemy between them. Philip’s designs were interrupted by a war with Rome, the now powerful republic of the West. Antiochus carried on the contest with great energy, but with varying success, in Cœle-Syria and Palestine. By the decisive battle of Pa´neas, B. C. 198, he gained complete possession of those provinces; but desiring to prosecute his wars in another direction, he married his daughter Cleopatra to the young king of Egypt, and promised the conquered country as her dower.
37. He then overran Asia Minor, and crossing the Hellespont, seized the Thracian Chersonesus. The Romans, who had conquered Philip and were guardians of Ptolemy, now sent an embassy to Antiochus, requiring him to surrender all his conquests of territory belonging to either prince, B. C. 196. Antiochus indignantly rejected their interference, and prepared for war, with the aid of their great enemy, Hannibal, who had taken refuge at his court. In 192 B. C., he crossed into Greece and captured Chalcis; but he was signally defeated soon after by the Romans, at Thermopylæ, and compelled to withdraw from Europe. They followed him across the sea, and by two naval victories gained the western coast of Asia Minor. The two Scip´ios crossed the Hellespont and defeated Antiochus a fourth time, near Magnesia, in Lydia. He obtained peace only by surrendering all Asia Minor except Cilicia, with his navy and all his elephants, and by paying an enormous war indemnity. Twenty hostages were given for the payment, among whom was Antiochus Epiphanes, the king’s son. The king of Pergamus received the ceded provinces, and became a most formidable rival to Syria. To meet his engagements with the Romans, Antiochus plundered the temples of Asia, and in a commotion excited by this means in Elyma´is, he lost his life.
38. Seleucus IV. (Philop´ator) had a reign of eleven years, unmarked by important events. The kingdom was exhausted, and the Romans were ready to seize any exposed province at the least hostile movement of the Syrians. Heliodo´rus, the treasurer, at length murdered his master and assumed the crown; but his usurpation was cut short by the arrival of Antiochus Epiphanes, brother of the late king, who with the aid of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, established himself upon the throne.
39. Antiochus IV. had been thirteen years a hostage at Rome, and surprised his people by the Roman customs which he introduced. He made a four years’ war against Egypt, and had nearly conquered the country when the Romans interfered, and commanded him to give up all his conquests. He was forced to obey, but he vented his rage upon the Jews, whose temple he plundered and desecrated. They sprang to arms, under the leadership of Mat´tathi´as, the priest, and his brave son, Judas Maccabæ´us, and defeated the army sent to subdue them. Antiochus, who was now in the East, set forth in person to avenge this insult to his authority. On his way, he attempted to plunder the temple at Elymais, and was seized with a furious insanity, in which he died. Both Jews and Greeks believed his madness to be a judgment for his sacrilege.