Antiochus the Great

by Michael J. Taylor

206 BC:

  P. Scipio expels Carthaginians from Spain

  206 BC:

  Aetolians make peace with Philip V

  205 BC:

  Romans make peace with Philip V

  204 BC:

  P. Scipio invades Africa

  202 BC:

  Battle of Zama: P. Scipio defeats Hannibal

  204? BC:

  Death of Ptolemy IV

  202 BC:

  Riots in Alexandria, murder of regent Agathocles

  201 BC:

  End of 2nd Punic War

  200 BC:

  Start of 2nd Macedonian War between Rome and Macedon

  200? BC:

  Death of Euthydemos I in Bactria

  197 BC:

  Battle of Cynoscephalae: Flamininus defeats Philip V

  197 BC:

  Death of Attalus I, Eumenes II becomes king of Pergamon

  196 BC:

  Flamininus declares ‘freedom for the Greeks’ at Corinth

  196 BC:

  Teos makes asylia agreement with Rome

  195 BC:

  War between Rome and Nabis of Sparta

  195 BC:

  Hannibal suffet in Carthage, subsequently exiled and flees to Tyre

  189 BC:

  Manlius Vulso campaigns against the Galatians

  187 BC:

  Trial of the Scipio brothers in Rome on charges of extortion

  Notes

  Chapter 1

  1. Aphergis, Royal Economy: 57 (population), 201 (military strength), 251 (revenues).

  2. Strabo 16.2.10.

  3. Kuhrt and Sherwin-White, From Samarkhand to Sardis A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire (UC Press, 1993). This remains the essential overview of the Seleucid Empire. Their optimistic vision of the Seleucid Empire put forward in this monograph is not universally shared. Wolski, Jozef, Seleucid and Arsacid Studies (Polish Academy of Science, 2003) presents a far more negative view of the extent and benevolence of Seleucid power, while Lerner, Jeffery The Impact of Seleucid Decline on the Eastern Iranian Plateau (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999) emphasizes the collapse of Seleucid power following the reign of Antiochus III.

  4. Thapar, Romila, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (Oxford, 1997 {1961}), 255–257.

  5. Library of Antioch: Suda s.v. Euphorion. Gladiatorial Games: Livy 41.20, who reports that the games were initially unpopular due to their violence, but that the crowds of Antioch soon developed a taste for them.

  6. Ma, John, Antiochus III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (Oxford University Press, 1999), 28–52.

  7. For an old fashioned narrative of Seleucid dynastic history, see Bevan, E.R., The House of Seleucus (Edward Arnold, 1902). Grainger, John, Seleukos Nikator (Routledge, 1990) provides a scholarly biography of the dynasty’s founder. For an overview of the political developments of the Hellenistic world: Rostovetzeff, SEHHW, 1–73, Green, Peter, From Actium to Alexander: The Evolution of the Hellenistic World, Berkeley (UC Berkeley Press, 1990), Shipley, Graham, The Greek World After Alexander: 323–30 BC (Routledge, 2000) and Walbank, Frank. The Hellenistic World, Revised Edition (Harvard, 1993).

  8. Ptolemy I, founder of the last dynasty of Egypt and biographer of Alexander the Great. For a biography, see Ellis, Walter, Ptolemy of Egypt (Routledge, 1994); an old fashioned narrative of the dynasty is provided by Bevan, Edwyn, House of Ptolemy: A History of Hellenistic Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Argonaut, 1927).

  9. These eight years of internecine war are compellingly narrated by Romm, James Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire (Knopf, 2011).

  10. For a complete biography of this important successor see Billows, Richard, Antigonus One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State (University of California Press, 1990).

  11. On the Seleucid anchor: Antela-Bernardez, Borja, ‘The Anchor and the Crown. Seleucos’ use of the “Anchor” Coin Type in 305 BC’, Athenaeum: Studi di letteratura e Storia, January, 2009. Anchor on a siege bullet: UC Berkeley Excavation Report, Tel Dor. Area F (1992), available online at: www.arf.berkeley.edu/projects/teldor/reports/index.htm.

  12. Diodorus Siculus 19.90.

  13. Strabo 15.2.9.

  14. Justin 15.2.5, Jacoby, FGrH 155, 1.6, Diodorus 19.105.4. The exact date of the event is uncertain.

  15. Gruen, Erich. ‘The Coronation of the Diadochoi’, in Eadie and Ober (eds.) The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester Starr (University Press of America, 1985), pp. 253–271.

  16. On Lysimachus, an often ignored successor. Lund, Helen, Lysimachus: A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship (Routledge, 1992).

  17. Battle of Ipsus and aftermath: Plutarch, Demetrias, 29–30. Griffith, G.T., The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World (Cambridge University Press, 1935), 54–56.

  18. Plutarch, Demetrias 30.1 ὥσπερ μέγα σῶμα κατακόπτοντες.

  19. For a ‘biography’ of Antioch see Downey, Glanville, A History of Antioch in Syria: from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest (Princeton University Press, 1961).

  20. John Malalas 8.201.

  21. On the city-building program of Seleucus I, see Grainger, John, The Cities of Seleukid Syria (Clarendon Press, 1990).

  22. Polybius 5.67.4–10.

  23. Grainger, John, A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer (Brill, 1997), 9–13.

  24. Demetrias’ fortunes temporarily improved, as he seized power in Macedonia in 294 BC.

  25. On this very important point for understanding Hellenistic dynastic politics, see Ogden, Daniel Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death: The Hellenistic Dynasties (Duckworth: Classical Press of Wales, 1997).

  26. Retold romantically in the Second Sophistic by Lucian, De Dea Syria, 17–18; Appian, Syrian Wars, 60–61.

  27. Grainger, Prosopography, 67.

  28. Last days of Demetrias: Plutarch, Demetrias, 46–50.

  29. Deaths of Lysimachus and Seleucus: Appian, 62–64. Gallic Invasion: Justin 24.4–8, Pausanias 1.4.1.

  30. Suda, s.v. Simonides, which provides one of the few mentions of elephants.

  31. Pausanias, 10.22.4. On Hellenistic propaganda concerning Guals, see Strootman, Rolf. ‘Kings Against Celts: Deliverance from Barbarians as a Theme in Hellenistic Royal Propoganda’, The Manipulative Mode: Political Propaganda in Antiquity (Mnemosyne Supplement) (Brill, 2005), pp. 101–141.

  32. Grainger, Syrian Wars is the most in depth study of this long series of conflicts.

  33. Grainger, Prosopography, 13–15.

  34. Trogus, Prologue, 26, John of Antioch fr. 55 (Jacoby FHG iv, p 558.) Ogden, Polygamy, 125.

  35. Polyaenus 8.50. Ogden, Polygamy, 124

  36. The ‘Laodice Dossier’, OGIS 224; Austin #173; Aphergis, Royal Economy: 315; Wells RC 18.

  37. Seleucus II: Grainger, Prosopography, 60–63.

  38. FGrH 160 (Austin, # 266.).

  39. Lerner, Jeffery, The Impact of Seleucid Decline on the Eastern Iranian Plateau (Steiner Verlag, 1999), 13–43.

  40. Strabo 13.4.2.

  41. Polybius 5.90.

  42. Grainger, Prosopography, 63.

  43. The so-called ‘Seleucus III chronicle’, provides an intriguing hint that Antiochus III may have originally had a different name prior to his accession. The chronical reports that the king’s brother named Ly[sias?] is in the city overseeing a judicial case. Antiochus III is the only attested brother of Seleucus III, and he is known to have been in Babylon at this time. It is possible therefore, that Antiochus III went by another name, until he succeeded to the throne and adopted a dynastic name (Seleucus III himself was originally named Alexander). See commentary by Bert van der Spek on the website: www.livius.org.

  44. On the epithets of Hellenistic kings, Van Nueffelen, Peter, ‘The Name Game: Hellenistic Historians and Royal Epithets’ in Faces of Hellenism (Van Nueffelen, ed.) (Peeters, 2009).

  45. The Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138) seems to have been a pivotal figure in the return of bearded faces to ancient Mediter
ranean fashion.

  46. Ma, Asia Minor, 272–273. It is unclear when it became common to refer to Alexander as ‘the Great’. Our earliest reference to Alexander the Great in fact comes from a Roman play by Plautus, which refers to Alexandrus Magnus. (Mostellaria, Act 3, Scene 2, ln 88). However, it is unclear whether this should be seen as a Roman invention, or rather a reflection of contemporary Hellenistic practice. (Pace Beard, ‘Alexander: How Great’, New York Review of Books, Oct. 27, 2011, who suggests that ‘the Great’ is a Roman coinage).

  47. From the funeral inscription of Darius I at Naqs-i-Rustam, translation by R.T. Hallock. For the use of the term by Antiochus III, see Ma, Asia Minor, 273–276.

  48. These ratios are based upon the price edict of Diocletian, but were likely valid for much of antiquity.

  49. For comparison to the Roman cursus publicus, see Ramsay, A.M., ‘The Speed of the Roman Imperial Post’, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 15 (1925).

  50. Grainger, Prosopography, 811, 814 (s.v.satrap/strategos). The precise relationship between strategoi and eparchoi is unclear.

  51. On satrapies and strategoi, see Carsana Chiara, Le Dirigenze Cittadine Nello Stato Seleucidico, (Bibloteca di Athenaeum, 1996), pp. 15–28.

  52. On the importance of merchants as sources of intelligence see Woolmer, Mark, ‘Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Spy? The Role of the Mercantile Community’, in Bragg, Hau and Macaulay-Lewis (eds) Beyond Battlefields (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

  53. On the image of Alexander in the Hellenistic World, Stewart, Andrew, Faces of Power: Alexander’s Images and Hellenistic Politics (UC Press, 1993).

  54. The so-called Chremonidean War.

  55. Populations estimates of Hellenistic Macedonia fluctutate between 300,000 and one million. I believe estimates closer to the lower end of this spectrum are closer, based largely on evidence of Macedonian military mobilizations, which as a rule of thumb seldom exceed 10 per cent of the total population. For a high estimate of Macedonian population, see Billows, Richard, Kings and Colonists: Aspects of Macedonian Imperialism (Brill, 1995), 7–8, although Billow’s estimate of one million is not nearly as high as Beloch’s improbable estimate of three to four million Macedonians.

  56. Philip’s mining revenues: Diodorus, 16.8. This numbers is likely rounded up to begin with, and must represent peak production in the reign of Philip V.

  57. 12,000: Strabo 17.1.13, 14,800: Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 15.1. It is unclear whether these figures have been converted to Attic talents, or remain in the somewhat lighter Ptolemaic standard (roughly 80 per cent of an Attic talent). For the workings of the Ptolemaic economy, based largely on papyrological evidence, Manning, J.G., The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305–30 BC (Princeton University Press, 2010).

  58. Fredricksmeyer, E.A., ‘The Origins of Alexander’s Royal Insignia’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 127 (1997) pp. 97–109.

  59. E.g. 2 Maccabees 3.38.

  60. E.g. Herodotus, 3.80, Polybius 6.7.

  61. Gruen, Erich, ‘The Coronation of the Diadochoi’ (op.cit.), 253–262.

  62. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 33.97.

  63. Polybius 2.25. The classic study remains Brunt, P.A., Italian Manpower (Oxford, 1971), also Schiedel Walter ‘Human Mobility in Roman Italy: The Free Population’, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 94, (2004). Both reflect the orthodoxy of the ‘low count’ of classical Italian population.

  64. Aristotle, Politics, 2.11.

  65. Polybius 6.11–18.

  66. Polybius 5.104.10 νῦν ἀπὸ τῆς ἑσπέρας νέφη προσδέξηται.

  67. Gruen, Hellenistic World, 359–373.

  68. Surus: Pliny, Natural History, 8.11, Plautus, Pseudolus, 1215. Indian elephants, with their distinctive ‘batwing’ ears also appear on Hannibal’s coins.

  69. Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 25.3.

  70. Grainger, Roman War, 11; Gruen, Hellenistic World, 612–613.

  71. Dmitriev, Sviatoslav, The Greek Slogan of Freedom and Early Roman Politics in Greece (Oxford, 2011), 112–141.

  72. Polybius 5.88–90.

  73. On Greek ‘federal’ states J.A.O. Larsen Greek Federal States (Oxford 1968) is dated but worth reading, see also Mackil, Emily, Creating a Common Polity: Religion, Economy, and Politics in the Making of a Greek Koinon (University of California Press, 2013). On the Aetolians, Grainger, John. League of the Aotolians (Brill, 1999) and Scholten, Joseph, The Politics of Plunder: The Aitolians and their Koinon in the Early Hellenistic Era (UC Press, 2000).

  74. An overview of literary sources for the Seleucid Empire is provided by Edson, Charles, ‘Imperium Macedonicum. The Seleucid Empire and the Literary Evidence’, Classical Philology, Vol. 53, No. 3 (1958), pp. 153–170.

  75. The bibliography on Polybius is vast. The essential commentary remains F.W. Walbank, Historical Commentary on Polybius, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1957). Worthwhile monographs include F.W. Walbank, Polybius (University of California Press, 1990), Arthur Eckstein, Moral Vision in the Histories of Polybius (UC Press, 1995) and Craig Champion, Cultural Politics in Polybius’ Histories (UC Press, 2004).

  76. An English translation of Plutarch is available online at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/home.html, courtesy of William Thayer.

  77. An English translation of Appian is available online at www.livius.org, courtesy of Jona Lendering. For Appian and the Seleucids, see Marasco, Gabriele, Appiano e La Storia dei Seleucidi (Florence: Giorgio Pasquali Institute of Classical Philology, 1982).

  78. The text of Justin with an English translation is available online at www.forumromanum.org, courtesy of David Camden.

  79. Royal letters are collected and translated in Wells, Bradford, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period: A Study in Greek Epigraphy (Ares, 1974 {London, 1934]). The best epigraphic study of Antiochus III is Ma, John, Antiochus III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (Oxford, 1999).

  80. Collected in Sachs, Alfred and Hunger, Herbert, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylon (Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1988).

  81. Seleucid coins: Newell, E.T., The Coinage of the eastern Seleucid Mints from Seleucus I to Antiochus III (American Numismatic Society, 1938) and The Coinage of the western Seleucid Mints from Seleucus I to Antiochus III (American Numismatic Society, 1941).

  Chapter 2

  1. BM 35603. Text and English translation by Bert Van Der Spek can be found on: www.livius.org, s.v. ‘Babylonian Kinglist from the Hellenistic Period’.

  2. On Antiochus’ birth and accession: Schmitt, Hatto H., ‘Untersuchungen Zur Geschichte Antiochos’des Grossen und seiner Zeit’, Historia, vol 6. 1964; 1–7. Fifty years old in 191: Polybius 20.8.1 (Athenaeus 10.439); Diodorus 29.2.1.

  3. Polybius 5.40.5, Schmitt, 108–109.

  4. Grainger Syrian Wars, 183, postulates that Molon and Alexander were in fact sent to replace Antiochus as governors of the upper satrapies; in all likelihood they already held their posts, but assumed new prominence once Antiochus left Babylon. Polybius 5.41.1.

  5. Strootman, Rolf. ‘Hellenistic Court Society: Seleukid Imperial Court Under Antiochus The Great, 2230187 BCE.’ (in Duindam, et al., 2011), 73.

  6. Polybius 4.48 1–12; Grainger, John, A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer (Brill, 1997), 5 (Achaeus).

  7. The continuation of Macedonian polygamy in Hellenistic dynasties is argued by Daniel Ogden, Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death (Duckworth, 1999).

  8. The constant recycling of royal names is a source of frequent consternation to students of Hellenistic history.

  9. Polybius 5.43.1–3.

  10. Polybius 5.43.7 καταπλαγέντες.

  11. Theodotus’ future service: Spearheading into the Biqua Valley, Polybius 5.59.2 and commanding the main phalanx at Raphia, Polybius 5.79.5. Both these subsequent endeavours also ended in failure. He does not appear to hold major commands after 217 BC.

  12. Polybius 5.45.4.

  13. The X
enoitas debacle: Polybius 5.45.4–5.49.16.

  14. Polybius 5.46.7.

  15. Polybius 5–45.7–5.46.6.

  16. Polybius 5.49.

  17. Polybius 5.50.8.

  18. Polybius 5.50.

  19. Polybius 5.51–52.

  20. The battle narrative: Polybius 5.52.4–5.54.5, cf. Bar Kochba, Seleucid Army, 117–123.

  21. Polybius 5.54. 1–7.

  22. Polybius 5.54.8 δοὺς δεξιὰν.

  23. Wolski, 1999: 64–65.

  24. Polybius 5.54.11; Aphergis, Royal Economy, 250.

  25. Polybius 5.54.12. Grainger, Prosopography, 87.

  26. Polybius 5.55.1–10.

  27. The fall of Hermeias: Polybius 5.56. 1–15.

  28. Grabowski, ‘Achaeus, the Ptolemies and the Fourth Syrian War’, Electrum, 2010: 116.

  29. Achaeus’ rebellion: Polybius 5.57.1–8. Coinage of Achaeus: Newell, Coinage of the Western Seleucid Mints, (American Numismatic Society, 1977) 267–270.

  30. Polybius 5.53.3. Grainger, Prosopography, 81.

  31. Recapture of Seleucia Pieria: Polybius 5.59–60.

  32. Polybius 5.61.6

  33. Polybius 5.40.1–3.

  34. Campaign in Koile Syria: Polybius 5.61.3–5.63.1

  Chapter 3

  1. For the Seleucid Army, see Bar Kochba, Seleucid Army, passim, and Bickerman, Institutions, 51–105

  2. Polybius 18.29.2: 14 cubits; Markle, M.M. ‘The Macedonian Sarissa, Spear, and Related Armor’, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 81, No. 3 (1977) pp. 323–339.

  3. On the Macedonian shield, see Markle, M.M. ‘A Shield Monument from Veria and the Chronology of Macedonian Shield Types,’ Hesperia, Vol. 1999, also Anderson, J.K. ‘Shields Eight Palms Width’, California Studies in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 9 (1976). pp. 1–6.

  4. Web resource: Greg Aldrete’s ‘Linothorax project’: http://www.uwgb.edu/aldreteg/Linothorax.html

  5. The loci classici for the Macedonian style Phalanx are Polybius 18.28–18.30.5, and Asclepiodotus Tactica 1–5.

  6. AJ 12.147.