sefi;g:v. - A Kabbalist walks into a bar, and the

SELEUCIDE SELEUCIDE
Syrian suzerainty over Judaea was fully asserted.
Next occurred the final attempt of the Seleucidae to
overthrow the formidable Parthian power which had
wrested from them so much of their eastern possessions.
In 130 B.C. Antiochus undertook an expedition against the
Parthians. His brother Demetrius was still in their hands,
having twice been recaptured when he attempted escape. Three
victories gave the Syrian king the possession of Babylonia, and
brought to his standard all the peoples who had been reduced
under the Parthian yoke.4 Phraates opened negotiations with
Antiochus to amuse him, while he prepared once more to try
his fortune in the field (Diod. 35 IS); more effective still was the
stroke by which Demetrius was at last released from captivity
in order to cause the withdrawal of the Syrian forces. In the
next collision with the Parthian trcops Antiochus fell, bravely
fighting (Appian, Syr. 68; Justin, 38 IO). His entire army was
cut to pieces.
The Parthian king, having thus won the victory by
arms, keenly regretted having set Demetrius at liberty
16. Demetrius (see 5 14), and tried to recapture him,
He tried next to undo his
(second
II., Nicator hut failed.
reign, work by sending into Syria a second
129-126 B,C.). pretender, a son of Antiochus, the late
king, Seleucus by name, who had fallen
into his hands. This also proved of no avail. Demetrius,
however, did not long enjoy his change of fortune.
1 'In Sida urbe educatus, quapropter Sidetes utique vocahatur'
(Eus. Chron. 1255). On his coins Antiochus VII. calls
himself Euergetes, which was, therefore, his true official title.
Jos. Ant. xiii. 7 I calls him &njp.
2 On his coins Tryphon calls himself BauiAoLs ahoKp&op,
which no other Syrian ruler does.
3 This Anticchus was not hostile to the Jewish faith, and for
his tolerance was called EusebCs (' pious '), Jos. Ant. xiii. 8 2.
4 For these victories Antiochus received the title Great
(Dittenb. Sylkp,ll) 244 and 245, BalrrA\ioc pcydhov 'AWL~XW,
cp Justin, 38 10 : ' Magnus haheri ccepit ').
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See ANTIOCHUS, 5.
He was induced to enter into war with Egypt on behalf
of Cleopatra XI., sister-wife of Ptolemy Physcon,' and
his own mother-in-law, who had taken refuge in Syria.
The war with which he was thus threatened Physcon
evaded by setting up Alexander Zabinas, a pretended
son of Alexander I. Bala, to claim the Syrian throne.*
Supported hy a strong Egyptian army the pretender invaded
Syria, where several cities fell away from Demetrius The
decisive battle was fought in 125 B.C. near Damascus, and
Demetrius was defeated. He fled to Ptolemais to his wife
Cleopatra, who refused to receive him and when he tried to
enter Tyre, had him murdered (Justid, 39 i, Appiau, Syr. 68,
Jos. Ant. xiii. 9 3).
Little is known of the rule of Alexander 11. ; but one
authority at least passes a favourable verdict8 He
lllexander entered into friendly relations with
by Phraates 11. as Arsaces Philopator Epiphanes Philhellen
(reigned 136-127 B.c.). It seemed hetter to this monarch to
retain Demetrius in order to he able to use him in case of
threatening circumstances.
Whilst Demetrius was a captive in the hands of the
Parthians (see above, § 14) his younger brother Antio-
16, Bntiochus chus Sidetes, who owed his surname to
vII., sidetes the fact that he had been brought up at
(138-129 B.C.). Side in Pamphylia (see SI DE),^ asserted
his claims to the kingdom of Syria
(I MRCC. 15 13 ). He was now sixteen years old. His
attempt succeeded, perhaps chiefly because he was joined
by queen Cleopatra Thea, who, enraged at the union of
Demetrius with the daughter of the Parthian king,
went over to the side of Antiochus, and surrendered to
him the strong tower of Seleucia, near Antioch, which
Hyrcanus, influenced largely, no doubt,
during all these years she had held for Demetrius.
Tryphon was defeated and driven into the Phcenician town of sefi;g:v. by the desire to find support against
Dora, where he was besieged. Thence he escaped to Apamea,
Egypt, from which power he soon
but was again besieged, aud compelled to end his life by his own became estranged (Jos. Ant. xiii. 93). He was, in fact,
hand (I Macc. 15 1037 ; Strabo, 668 ; Jos. Ani. xiii. 7 2; Appian, not left to enjoy his usurped dignity long without
Sur. 6Q.2
Antiochus married Thea (' the objectionable but
rivals. Immediately upon the death of Demetrius II.,
evidently inevitable adjunct of the Syrian throne,'
Seleucus, the son of the murdered king, laid claim to
Holm, Grk. Hist. 4419). and acted very vigorously to
the throne, only to be murdered after a few months by
unite again the severed fragments of the Syrian kingdom
the infamous Cleopatra Thea, his mother, who was
(Justin, 361). First and foremost came the necessity
indignant that he should have taken such a step without
of dealing with Palestine, which in the turmoil of the
her, and without sharing the power with herself.
past few years had absorbed large tracts of Syrian
Cleopatra then put forward the second son of Demeterritory,
and attained an almost completely indetrius
11. as heir to the throne; his claim was also
pendent position, even entering into diplomatic relations ls. Antiochus supported by Egypt. Alexander 11.
with distant and, in part, hostile powers (I Macc.105gJ vIII., Grypus4 was defeated and fled to Antioch, and
121f. 14163 24). In 135 B.C. Antiochus invaded (12s-96 B,c.). then to Seleucia (Diod. Sic. 3528.
Judaea in person. Already, three years previously, the
lustin, 392). Finally he was captured
Syrian king had come into collision with the Jews,
and brought to Antiochus, who had him put to death.
who, under Judas and John Hyrcanus, inflicted a defeat
Thus from 125 B.C. Antiochus reigned, in association
upon his general CEXDEBBUS. After the assassination
with his mother, after the fashion common in Egypt.
of Simon and two of his sons by his son-in-law
Their joint reign lasted four years5
The queen-mother was thrown more and more into the shade,
Ptolemy, the son of Abubus (I Macc. 1611f.), John especially after the marriage of her son with Cleopatra Try-
Hyrcanus had become high priest and prince of Judza. phrena, given to him by her father Ptolemy Euergetes 11. as a
Upon the invasion by Antiochus he was shut up in the pkdge of Egyptian support, and also after 123 B.C. by the
victory gained over Alexander 11. (cp Justin 39 z : 'Cleopatra
citadel of Jerusalem for at least a year, and then forced cum huius [sc. Antiochi] quoque victoria infehorem dignitatem
to capitulate. The walls were destroyed, hostages juam factam doleret'). In 121 1i.c. she tried to poison him but
demanded, with five hundred talents indemnity, and was compelled instead to drink the draught herself (Apbian,
tribute for the cities which had been occupied by the syr. 69).
Maccabees (Diod. 341, Justin, 361, Jos. AnLxiii. 8 ~ ) . ~ For some years Antiochus Grypus reigned quietly,
and then there arose a claimant to the throne in the
person of his half-brother and cousin
19. Antiochus
Antiochus (IX.), son of Antiochus VII.
IX., Cyxicenus
Sidetes and Cleopatra Thea (see above,
(116-96 B.C.).
Ij 1.5). Antiochus owed his surname to
his having been brought up at Cyzicus (his title on his
coins is Philopator), whither his mother had sent him in
129 B.C. upon the return of Demetrius II., her second
husband, from his Parthian captivity (Jos. Anf. xiii. 101).
The poisoned cup with which his mother had made
him familiar was employed in vain by Grypus to remove
this rival. The attempt only precipitated the inevitable
struggle (116 B.c.). In the first important battle of
the war Grypus was victorious, and took Antioch.
where he found his own sister-in-law Cleopatra IV., sister
and divorced wife of Ptolemy Soter 11. (Lathyrus);
having been expelled from Egypt by her mother (;.e..
Cleopatra III., Physcon's niece and former wife, who
herself married Ptolemy Soter) Cleopatra had married
Antiochus Cyzicenus. By command of her sister, Try-
1 Ptolemy Euergetes II., or Physcon, reigned 146-117 B.C.
Or, according to another and more probable version (Justin,
59 I), he claimed to be an adoptive son of the dead Antiochus
VII. Sidetes. He was really an Egyptian, son of a merchant
called Protarchus though Jos. Ani. xiii. 9 3 calls him a genuine
pleucid. He alko gives the title as Zehinas. It is translated
slave ' (~yyopamhs) in Eus. Chron. 1257.
3 Diod. sic. 35 22 (34 45). $V yhp Irpp^OC Kai OV~VUJpOVtK&,
k r 6; ;v 7a;s 6prAiars rai iu sak ;vs&ur rrpoq6c. &v
a' LU 6ra4epivros h b 7i)v rroAASv $F&TO.
His titles are Epiphanes Philometor (!) Callinicus. The
name Grypus= ' hook-nose '-a feature conspicuous on his coins.
Grypus is, of course, not an official, hut a vulgar title.
6 Coins hear her portrait, with cornucopiae. Her titles are
Thea and Eneteria ('abundance ').
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