|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Antiochus I Biography ANTIOCHUS I SOTER (Gk. Antiochos S½t¶r, savior, deliverer). King of Syria, 281-261 B.C. The son of Seleucus I Nicator and Apama of Sogdiana. He was born in 324 B.C. fought at Ipsus in 301 against Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes, was associated with his father as ruler from 293, and became his successor after the murder of Seleucus by Ptolemy Ceraunus in 281. Stratonice, his father's wife, became his own consort, Seleucus giving her to him in view of their mutual affection. She was still living in 268. In addition to her he seems to have had for wife also a sister by the same name, daughter of Seleucus and Stratonice. In 275 he gained a decisive victory over the Gauls, who had invaded Asia Minor. But Appian is wrong in maintaining that he was given the surname Soter on this occasion. This seems to have been done only after his death. A cuneiform inscription of the year 269 enumerates all his titles, but does not give this one. On March 21, 268, he laid the foundations of the new Nabu temple at Borsippa. At the instigation of Magas of Cyrene, Antiochus declared war against Ptolemy II Philadelphus. He found an ally in Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia and Greece, but the war led to no decisive issue. He maintained with difficulty the integrity of the great empire his father had left him. Antioch, with its suburb Daphne, Seleucia with Ctesiphon, and Sardis were the three capitals of the kingdom. In the last years of his reign he endeavored in vain to prevent Eumenes of Pergamos from maintaining his independence. Antiochus fell upon the battle-field, slain, it is said, by a Gaul, though this statement may be due to a confusion with the end of Antiochus Hierax (q.v.). Consult: Norris, Annus et epochæ Syromacedonum (1689); Vaillant, Seleucidarum imperium (1732); Frölich, Annales regum et rerum Syria (1754); Thirlwall, History of Greece (1835-44); Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus (1836, 1877; Eng. trans., 1883-85); Th. Reinach, Trois royaumes d'Asie Mineure (1888); Babelon, Les rois de Syrie (1890); Wilcken, in Pauly Wissowa, Realencyklopädie (1899); Bevan, The House of Seleucus (1902); Niese, Geschichte der makedonischen Staaten (1893-1903) ; Bouché-Leclereq, Histoire des Seleucides (1913). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. I (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 712. |