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The Seleucid Empire – a Royal Wedding, a Bactrian Revolt, & a Parthian Invasion

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The Seleucid Empire – a Royal Wedding, a Bactrian Revolt, & a Parthian Invasion 056: The Seleucid Empire – A Royal Wedding, A Bactrian Revolt, & A Parthian Invasion Over 25 episodes ago, we covered the reigns of the first two kings of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus I Nicator and his son Antiochus I Soter. Despite some setbacks, the empire was easily one of the most powerful states in the known world, only to be really challenged by its Egyptian rivals of the House of Ptolemy. From 281 onwards, Antiochus continued his father’s program of urbanization and city-building throughout the Near East and Central Asia, while successfully dealing with threats like marauding Celts in Asia Minor and Ptolemaic incursions into Syria. The last years of Antiochus’ reign did not go over quite so smoothly however, as a defeat inflicted by a subordinate official Eumenes of Pergamon contributed to the king’s death in 261 and left the situation of Asia Minor up in the air.1 But it has been argued that the wind had long been taken out of Antiochus’ sails when he was forced to execute his son and joint- ruler Seleucus sometime around the year 267.2 The details are murky and virtually non-existent, but it is possible that Seleucus was becoming impatient at the prospect of ruling the empire on his own – he had been a joint-king for well over 13 years, the longest of any known Seleucid monarch.3 Therefore, upon the king’s death, it would be left to his youngest and last surviving son Antiochus II to assume the diadem.4 It seems that this wasn’t a universally accepted move, as there appears to be a disturbance in Babylonia around the same time as his coronation involving someone named Seleucus.5 It could be an imposter pretending to be his dead brother or merely a rebellious official. Like the rest of Antiochus’ reign though, it is poorly documented and unfortunately not much can be said about it. But what would it be if the crowning of a new Seleucid king didn’t immediately lead to another war with the Ptolemaic ruler, Ptolemy II Philadelphus? From what we know about the Second Syrian War, its origins were linked to Antiochus’ capture of the city of Miletus on the island of Samos and the execution of its tyrant Timarchus in 259, for which he was given the epithet Theos or “Divine” by its citizens.6 This seems reasonably innocuous, but the issue was that both Miletus and its mainland neighbor of Ephesus were under Ptolemy’s jurisdiction, until his ambitious official Timarchus and stepson Ptolemy Epigonus seized both cities in rebellion.7 Epigonus had already been killed and Ephesus restored to Ptolemy, but Antiochus’ intervention was seen as a hostile takeover of what was supposed to be a Ptolemaic- controlled city. Again, like the First Syrian War, the account is fragmentary and is barely coherent.8 It appears that Ptolemy made some gains in Syria during the initial years of the conflict – the abandonment of the Seleucid Era calendrical system by the Phoenician island-city of Arados suggests a changeup of the pro- Seleucid government, and a hoard of Ptolemaic coins dating to this period have been discovered near 1 Strabo, Geography, 13.4.2 2 Pompeius Trogus, Prologues, 26; Grainger, J.D. “The Rise of the Seleukid Empire, 323-223 BC” Pg. 168 3 For an analysis of Antiochus I and Seleucus’ joint kingship, see Holton, J.R. “The Ideology of Seleukid Joint Kingship: The Case of Seleukos, Son of Antiochos I” in “The Seleukid Empire, 281-222 BC: War Within the Family” Pgs. 107-118; Grainger, J.D. “The Rise of the Seleukid Empire, 323-223 BC” Pg. 159 4 CM4 King’s List, Obv. 9-11 (Livius.org) 5 Babylonian Astronomical Diary -261 (Link) 6 Appian, Syrian Wars, 65; Frontinus, Stratagems, 9.10; OGIS 226 7 Frontinus, Stratagems, 2.10; Pompeius Trogus, Prologues, 26 8 A complete treatment is found in Grainger, J.D. “The Syrian Wars” Pgs. 117-136 Antioch – but was driven out as quickly as they had arrived.9 Antiochus had been able to make several diplomatic moves in the meanwhile to turn the tide of the war to his advantage. One of them was his successful alliance with Rhodes, a traditional ally of the Ptolemies that was invaluable in its role as a port for the Egyptian naval hegemony, and the Rhodian fleet was able to best Philadelphus in a naval engagement around 258.10 Another was a marriage between Antiochus’ daughter Stratonice and Ariarathes III, an Iranian king whose family ruled over Cappadocia in eastern Turkey.11 This is the first time that the Seleucid dynasty allowed one of its princesses to marry into the local Iranian nobility, which received a considerable gain to their prestige and legitimacy as a local ruling power. Such a move is likely due to the Seleucid interest in maintaining control of Anatolia, an argument that is strengthened by the fact that another of Antiochus’ daughters was married to the Iranian ruler Mithridates II of Pontus about a decade afterwards.12 For some five years the war raged on in Syria, Asia Minor, and the Aegean Sea. In 253/252, a general peace would be imposed and bring an end to the conflict. It would be sealed with a marriage between Antiochus and Berenice, a daughter of Ptolemy II. This was and continues to be seen as a highly significant event that resulted in serious consequences for the Seleucids, but has been interpreted in a multitude of perspectives. In an elaborate procession, Ptolemy escorted Berenice to the eastern edge of the Nile Delta at the city of Pelusium before transferring her to one of his officials in order to give her away to the Seleucid king at the border.13 With the bride came the dowry, a veritable dragon’s hoard of silver and gold that earned her the nickname Phernophoros, “Berenice the dowry bringer”.14 It is traditionally thought that this marriage was a diplomatic victory for Ptolemy – one of the conditions was allegedly the repudiation and divorce of Antiochus’ first wife Laodice I. In so doing this Berenice would become the primary wife. Ptolemy is said to have kept a vested interest in his daughter’s well-being, at one point sending her water from the Nile to assist with her pregnancy.15 Barring the obvious like fatherly love, it is little wonder why he would be so concerned: any children produced of that union could potentially be seen as the main heirs to the Seleucid throne, and by extension allow for claims by the Ptolemies. Compared to such an imperial figure like Berenice, Laodice possessed a lesser pedigree as the descendant of a seemingly unimportant Anatolian landowner – more on that in the next episode.16 Combine this with the delivery of an enormous amount of Egyptian wealth that was to be his dowry (or bribe), the choice was obvious for Antiochus. This is why this marriage was seen as something of a poison pill for the Seleucids, as the repudiation of Laodice is seen as the unintentional catalyst for several years of strife within the Seleucid dynasty. To the author of the Book of Daniel, the marriage of 9 Rey-Coquais, J.P. “Arados et sa Peree” (Paris, 1974); Davesne, A. ‘Le Trésor d’Aydincik 1974’, in M. Amandry and G. Le Rider (eds), Trésors et Circulation monétaire en Anatolie antique, Paris 1994, 37-43 10 Polyaenus, Stratagems, 5.18 11 Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 31.19.6 12 Eusebius, Chronicles, 1.251; There is no date for this marriage: Roller D.W. “Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World” Pg. 49 suggests that it had occurred prior to Antiochus II’s death, while Gabelko, O.L. “The Dynastic History of the Hellenistic Monarchies of Asia Minor” in “Mithridates VI and the Pontic Kingdom” Pg. 50 suggests that it took place afterwards. 13 PCairoZen II 5925; Porphyrius, Fragments, 43 14 Porphyrius, Fragments, 43 15 Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 2.45c 16 Eusebius, Chronicles, 251 the King of the North to the daughter of the King of the South ironically guaranteed further conflict for both despite its purpose to bind the two parties together as a peace treaty.17 Despite the rather pessimistic attitude towards the marriage, there is a fair amount of evidence that this was more of a diplomatic victory for Antiochus than Ptolemy. The incredibly large dowry accompanying Berenice is perhaps less a bribe, and more likely part of the indemnities for the 2nd Syrian War.18 Antiochus’ successes in the conflict had left Ptolemy II in the weakened position during the peace negotiations, as evidenced by Ptolemy’s inability to reclaim the territories that were snatched by the Seleucids.19 It certainly carried significance as the first marriage arranged between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid houses. Philadelphus may have felt pressured to do so since the Seleucids were proverbially (and literally) in bed with his rivals, like the Antigonids of Macedonia and Magas in nearby Cyrene. We must not also forget that for Hellenistic kings, polygamy was an acceptable practice and often politically expedient. Even if Ptolemy demanded it, Antiochus was not under any stipulation to divorce Laodice once Berenice arrived in Seleucid territory.20 In any case, it isn’t as if Antiochus was concerned about getting a younger wife to provide potential heirs - Laodice had already mothered multiple daughters and two teenaged sons named Seleucus and Antiochus. From surviving inscriptions and writings, it seems like neither Laodice nor her children lost any sort of prestige or standing from the marriage.
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