A Class-Book of New Testament HistoryMaclear, G. F. (George Frederick)
History
A Class-Book of New Testament History
Maclear, G. F. (George Frederick)
Bible. New Testament -- History of Biblical events
Antiochus, who had bestowed upon them so many privileges, did not long
enjoy the fruits of his victory. His chief ally in the late campaign
had been Philip of Macedon, who, at the conclusion of the third war
against Carthage, found himself attacked by the forces of the great
Republic of the West now commencing its conquest of the world. Deserted
by his friend Antiochus, whose aid he might reasonably have expected,
he was forced after three campaigns to sue for peace, and the Romans
became supreme in Macedonia and Greece, B.C. 197.
Five years afterwards Antiochus found _his_ turn was come to feel the
weight of the same all-conquering arms. In the year B.C. 192 he crossed
over into Greece on the invitation of the Ætolians, and under the
expectation of a general rising of the Greeks ventured on a campaign
with Rome, entrenching himself at Thermopylæ[18]. But in the following
year the consul M. Acilius Glabrio attacked him in his entrenchments,
and speedily put his whole army to flight. Thereupon the Syrian king
hastened back to Asia, and employed himself in collecting a vast host
from all parts of his dominions, wherewith to prosecute the campaign,
which his friend Hannibal truly warned him was close at hand. In
B.C. 190 the Romans, under Scipio Africanus and his brother Scipio
Asiaticus, crossed the Hellespont, and Antiochus confronted them in the
neighbourhood of Magnesia[19], at the foot of Mount Sipylus. His motley
hosts, though aided by numerous elephants and the Macedonian phalanx,
were utterly unable to resist the terrible Roman legions. Defeated with
a loss of 50,000 men, the haughty Syrian was constrained to sue for
peace. The conditions exacted by the conquerors were the death-blow of
the Syrian empire. Antiochus was forced to cede all his dominions in
Asia Minor west of Mount Taurus; to surrender all his ships of war, and
retain no more than 10 merchant vessels; to keep no elephants; to raise
no mercenaries in any of the countries allied with Rome; to pay down
2500 Euboic talents at once, and 12,000 more by instalments of 1000
a year; and to deliver up Hannibal and other enemies of Rome who had
taken refuge in his dominions.
Beaten, baffled, and disgraced, the Syrian monarch returned to his
capital. The hard conditions of peace were approved by the senate
B.C. 188, and to raise the heavy tribute, which threatened to exhaust
all the resources of his empire, he resolved to plunder the temples
throughout his dominions. The first attack it was agreed should be
made on that of Elymais, situated at the meeting-point of the caravan
routes which connected Media with Persia and Susiana. But the guards
of the temple, aided by the hardy mountaineers of the district, made a
vigorous defence of their shrine, and Antiochus was slain, B.C. 187[20]
(Dan. xi. 19).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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