When we last left the Seleucid kingdom, Antiochus II, the third ruler of the Seleucid house, had just died suddenly, at the age of 40, in 246BC, at Ephesus in Asia Minor. Contemporary opinion was that his first wife Laodice, unwilling to take the chance for a future reconciliation Antiochus and his second wife Berenice, and the consequent disinheritance of her children, took matters into her own hands with poison. Whatever the true cause of his demise, Antiochus II left two bitterly hostile wives each with a claimant for the throne under their control, ensconced in different parts of the Seleucid kingdom.

Laodice held a firm grip on Asia Minor, with her two sons Seleucus (in his early teens) and Antiochus (age eight). Berenice, meanwhile, with her infant son (the result, she believed, of her drinking great quantities of Nile river water imported specially and at great expense for her, due to its reputation for promoting fertility) remained in Syria. Her position was supported tacitly by the might of her brother, head of the Ptolemaic kingdom. There was no love lost between the two rivals, and tensions soon escalated into a civil war afler the death of Antiochus II.

Berenice had her infant son proclaimed king in Antioch once word of Antiochus II's demise reached her. Laodice acted with equal swiftness, proclaiming Seleucus king as Seleucus II in Ephesus. The civil war that followed was a contest between the forces of the Seleucid kingdom, which were solidly behind Laodice, and the might of Egypt supporting Berenice.

Laodice struck quickly, in order to forestall any assistance from Egypt reaching Berenice. A certain Caeneus, a chief magistrate in Antioch, acted on her instructions by kidnapping Berenice's infant son. Berenice, enraged, mounted a chariot and grabbed a spear, and headed off toward a house rumored to house the infant. Caeneus met her on the way - her spear missed, but a follow up stone dispatched him. Despite a hostile mob around the house, she stormed in to recapture her son. Unfortunately, other magistrates of Laodice's part had already made off with him.

Though they managed to retain control of the infant, Berenice appealed to the mob as a supplicant and generated such indignation that she was allowed to retire to a defensible position in the royal palace at Daphne with her Galatian guardsmen.

Ptolemy III Intervenes

Tbe situation looked promising for Berenice at this time. In Egypt, a young, vigorous Ptolemy III ascended the throne, resolved the internal disputes which had been distracting his kingdom and prepared to intervene on Berenice's behalf. At the same time a number of the disaffected Greek cities across the Seleucid realm declared for Berenice, and dispatched contingents toward Antioch.

Laodice, who had been busy consolidating her hold on Asia Minor, was now desperate. Once again she resorted to subterfuge. Berenice's physician, Aristarchus, was bought off and in a careless moment cut her down. Her ladies concealed her death in order to buy further time for Ptolemy III to arrive.

Ptolemy III stormed into the weakened and divided kingdom like a thunderclap. Following the traditional strategy of his house, and using his great naval might, he quickly recovered the coastal areas of Cilicia, and Antiochus II's conquests in Thrace. In Asia Minor Ptolemaic power pushes further inland from the coastal cities.

Taking advantage of the uncertainty regarding the fate of Berenice, he then descended on Seleucia (the port of Antioch) in Syria, and thence on to Antioch itself. In both places he is received by Berenice's adherents with open arms. He then raided as far as the Euphrates, but was not strong enough to challenge the authority of Laodice in Asia Minor inland of the reach of his fleets.

After such a heady triumph, he returned to Egypt, leaving governance of his new realms in the hands of satraps.

The Rise of Seleucus II

By this time Seleucus II had reached manhood, and began to emerge from behind the shadow of his mother. He lead his armies south from Asia Minor in several attempts to retake Syria. Rebuffed for the moment, he gathered a large armada in one of the few remaining harbors in Asia Minor still loyal to the Seleucid house, but it was destroyed by storms as soon as he set to sea. Circumstances began to work to his advantage as well. The fiction of the survival of Berenice and her infant son had been clearly laid to rest, and the Ptolemaic forces in Syria were more and more seen as conquerors rather than liberators. Seleucus II persevered, and by 141 BC had succeeded in recovering all but a few coastal cities of Syria.

Seleucus II then proceeded to contest Palestine with the Ptolemaic forces. In a large battle in Palestine, he was beaten and his army destroyed. Retiring to Antioch, in desperation he dispatched a plea to his younger brother Antiochus, now called Hierax (the hawk), governing with their mother in Asia Minor, to cross the Taurus River to assist him. In his desperation he offered to recognize his brother's suzerainty in Asia Minor.

The court at Sardis agreed, and Antiochus Hierax's army marched for Syria. The news of his march was sufficient to convince Ptolemy III to conclude a ten-year peace with Seleucus II rather than follow up on his recent victory.

Unfortunately for the stability of the realm, the court at Sardis, presumably the ever power-clutching Laodice, seized on Seleucus II's weakness to claim authority over the whole of the realm, and the army marched toward Syria not as reinforcements but as an army of conquest.

Responding to the threat quickly, Seleucus II used all of his authority to scrape together a fresh army and set out to meet his brother. He was quick enough to catch Antiochus Hierax's army in Lydia, and defeated it. He pursued it back toward Sardis, defeating it again in another pitched battle. He pursued Hierax right up to the gates of Sardis, but this strongly held city served as a bastion for his cause.

Calling for allies from all quarters, Antiochus Hierax tempted Mithridates II of Pontus, who was married to their sister, to intervene in his favor. Mithridates II and a great host of Galatians brought Seleucus II to battle near Ancyra, and shattered his forces.

Seleucus II's losses numbered in excess of twenty thousand. Seleucus II himself barely escaped with his life, having to disguise himself as the armor bearer of Hamactyon, who commanded the royal squadron (the Compamions). His concubine, Mysta, also disguised herself among the serving women, and was sold into slavery and carried to Rhodes. The Rhodians, on friendly terms with Seleucus II, paid her price and returned her to him.

The battle of Ancyra shattered the power of Seleucus II in Asia Minor. Unfortunately, Antiochus Hierax had no comparable power to supplant him, the Galatian victors of Ancyra cooperated with his authority only so long as it pleased their interests. He alternately lead them on raids for "taxes", of which they kept the lion's share, or fled from their power, fighting them. Asia Minor lapsed into anarchy around him. Only the coastal areas held firmly by Ptolemaic forces were immune to the depredations of the Galatians.

Enter Attalus of Pergamum

Into this confused situation steps a new champion for the cause of Hellenism in the form of Attalus of Pergamum. He alone refused tribute to the Galatians, and fought a series of wars with them, defeating them in a great battle near Pergamum itself and then driving them back into the interior of Asia Minor whence they had come. In several of these battles, Antiochus Hierax fought alongside the Galatians. It is from this time that remarkable Pergamene statue "The Dying Gaul" dates.

To the Greeks of Asia Minor, Attalus supplanted the Seleucid house as the champion of Hellenism and civilization against the "barbarian" Galatians. The reputation of the Seleucids suffered greatly from their having loosed the Galatians on the land and that of Pergamum increased commensurably. This marked the beginning of the end of Seleucid control of Asia Minor.

Antiochus Hierax continued to rule the immediate area around Sardis as a Seleucid monarch, but was almost totally supported by the barbarian powers. He married a daughter of Ziaelus, King of Bythnia, and enjoyed close relatlions with Pontus and Armenia.

Pushed hard from the west, he turned east against his brother once again. Marching through friendly Armenia, he descended on Mesopotamia by trying to turn Seleucus' strategic flank. As he descended into the plains he was met and defeated by an army led by Achaeus, father in law of Seleucus, and his son Andromachus.

In desperation, he turned once more upon Attalus, and in a series of four battles in 228BC his forces were completely crushed. He fled from court to court, but none would offer him secure refuge. He finally met his end, fittingly, at the hands of a band of Galatian marauders.

Seleucus II had little time to enjoy the removal of Antiochus Hierax from the scene, for in 227BC he was killed in a fall from his horse. He was succeeded by his elder son Alexander, who assumed the throne as Seleucus III. Sending his younger brother Antiochus to rule the eastern provinces, he immediately addressed himself to the recovery of Asia Minor from Attalus.

In alliance with the Antigonid house of Macedon, he assembled a great army and campaigned against Attalus. The Macedonians under Antigonus Doson meanwhile descended on Caria and expelled the Ptolemaic garrisons there.

Before he was able to come to grips with Attalus, the life of Seleucus III was cut short, again it was suspected by poison, through a conspiracy between Nicanor, an officer of the guard, and Apaturius, a chieftain of the mercenary Galatians in his army. With this disaster piled atop the already weakened foundation of the empire, reeling under the blows of extended civil wars, the extinction of the house of Seleucus was a very real possibility, indeed likely. The successor to Seleucus III, however, was made of sterner stuff than many realized.

Guidelines for Recreating the Armies for the Tabletop

More Seleucid Army

Seleucid Army: Part 1
Seleucid Army: Part 2
Seleucid Army: Part 3
Seleucid Army: Part 4
Seleucid Army: Part 5
Seleucid Army: Part 6
Seleucid Army: Part 7
Seleucid Army: Part 8
Seleucid Army: Part 9
Seleucid Army: Part 10
Seleucid Army: Part 11

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