A Manual of Ancient HistoryThalheimer, M. E. (Mary Elsie)
History
A Manual of Ancient History
Thalheimer, M. E. (Mary Elsie)
History, Ancient
=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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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