After all of his diligent work in Coele Syria came to naught in the aftermath of the battle of Raphia, Antiochus III again faced a very difficult situation. And again, the energetic king rallied himself and dived into the task ahead of him and the kingdom. Though he had quickly secured a one year truce with Ptolemy, the victorious Ptolemaic forces were a significant menace to his southern flank. In the north, looming large, was the figure of his uncle Achaeus, ready to swoop down and claim the entire throne of the kingdom.

His assets were few. His army had been severely handled at Raphia, and large garrisons were tied down in the east maintaining his hold on that vast area. His treasury had been muchly depleted by the constant campaigning of the past several years.

The young king seems never to have hesitated on his course. The lack of the resources of Asia Minor had cost the kingdom victory at Raphia, they must be returned to the fold and the threat from Achaeus dealt with. Throughout the winter of 217BC to 216BC, he rebuilt, drilled and trained his remaining forces, to be ready for an assault on Achaeus the following spring.

Achaeus had not been stagnant awaiting the inevitable attention of his nephew. After the death of his brother, Seleucus III, he had continued the campaign against Attalus of Pergamum, taking back all of the territory lost in previous years and confining Attalus to the narrow coastal strip around his city. From the site of his court in Sardis, Achaeus could look out over a very strong position in Asia Minor. Why then, in the dark days following Raphia, did he not descend into Syria to claim the entire kingdom?

The answer probably lies in two parts. One of the constant threads of Seleucid history is the very strong sense of loyalty shown, right up to the last gasps of the empire, to the leader recognized by the core of the army as the legitimate heir to the Seleucid legacy. It was to this, more than any tactical genius, that Antiochus III owed his crushing victory over Molon, and the specter of it hung over Achaeus whenever his thoughts turned to an invasion of Syria.

Challenges

To compound the loyalty problem, Achaeus still faced dangerous challenges to his position in Asia Minor. Attalus of Pergamum was ever dangerous, and maintained solid loyalty from most of the Greek cities. Prusias, the king of Bithynia, was hostile to both Pergamum and Sardis, as were most of the other petty chieftains of the area.

During Antiochus III's campaign against Coele Syria in the summer of 218BC, Achaeus launched an offensive against the hill tribes in the southern reached of Asia Minor. These tribes had long been a nuisance to the civilized areas, and by subduing them Achaeus could further strengthen his hold on Asia Minor.

Achaeus used as a pretext another of the interminable disputes between the Pisidian mountain states of this area. Selge, the most powerful of these states, was besieging Pednelissus. In desperation, Pednelissus appealed to Achaeus for assistance.

Achaeus promptly sent his general, Garsyeris, along with a significant force, to the relief of the city. At the same time, he organized a coalition of the enemies of Selge, including several other Pisidian mountain states and the Greek city of Aspendus. Garsyeris, in a series of sharp struggles, forced his way through the hills and relieved the siege. Straightaway, he marched on the lay siege to Selge itself, and sent word to Achaeus.

Achaeus began negotiations, while preparing to sieze the city by sudden assault. Several Selgians were enlisted to betray their city, and the assault came within a hair's breadth of succeeding. Startled by their near escape, the Selgians came to terms, paying a heavy fine and releasing all of their Pednelissian prisoners.

By this stroke Achaeus had established himself as the clear power in Pamphylia. He proceeded to subdue the entire area and bring it under his allegiance.

No Idle Enemies

Achaeus' enemies were not idle while he was occupied. The ever dangerous Attalus immediately siezed the opportunity and, recruiting a newly arrived band of Galatians, issued from Pergamum. This move quickly demonstrated how shallow the hold of Achaeus was on western Asia Minor. The Greek cities immediately rallied to Attalus, and as he moved deeper into Achaeus' realm, the fortress of Didyma-Teiche was delivered to him by its commander, Themistocles. It was only the fortuitous appearance, on September 1, 218BC, of a full eclipse, which prevented the total loss of western Asia Minor.

Attalus' Galatians, who were already grumbling about the march, and the labor of having to drag their women and children along with them in wagons, interpreted the eclipse as a terrible omen and insisted on returning to Europe.

When Achaeus returned from the Pisidian hills he resumed his struggle with Attalus, but the balance of power had shifted. Though he continued to struggle against Attalus, he was unable to regain his dominance over the area.

It was while Achaeus' attention was focused to the west and at Pergamum that Antiochus finally struck at this uncle. In the summer of 216 B.C., he led his rebuilt army across the Taurus. Achaeus cast about for allies, but only succeeded in retaining Ptolemaic Egypt, but Ptolemy IV never stirred throughout the campaign to assist him. Antiochus, on the other hand, got eager cooperation from Attalus, fatally weakening Achaeus in a two front war.

Armies Meet

The two armies met in eastern Asia Minor, and Achaeus was driven from the field. By 214BC, all that remained of his kingdom was the capital of Sardis, and Antiochus had it under a close siege.

Sardis was considered virtually impregnable, and successions of the Seleucid house had continually revised and expanded its fortifications. Antiochus settled down to starve the defenders out.

A sharp-eyed Cretan in his army, Lagoras, was not satisfied and found a potential weakness in the defense. He noted that the wall above a particular ravine, where the city emptied its garbage, was habitually where birds who came to pick at the garbage settled, and must therefore be unguarded. Taking a picked force of the hypaspistai drawn from Aetolian hillmen, they scaled the wall here and managed to open a gate for an assaulting force. The city quickly fell and Achaeus was driven back into the citadel.

Things were looking dark for Achaeus, but he still had value to the Ptolemaic court as a threat to be used against Antiochus. Accordingly, they enlisted a Cretan, Bolis, to attempt a rescue of Achaeus, in cooperation with Cretan mercenaries serving in Antiochus' forces.

The Cretans, though, saw easier profit in delivering Achaeus to Antiochus. Pretending to be agents of Ptolemy, they lured him into an escape attempt, and then delivered him alive to Antiochus. As with Molon, Antiochus kept to the Persian tradition, and had him mutilated, beheaded, and then crucified. Very quickly thereafter, the citadel surrendered, and Antiochus was again master of the whole of his ancestors' empire.

With the resolution of the problem with Achaeus, and the temporary accomodation with Attalus of Pergamum, Antiochus III felt secure enough to return to the east, and address the problems which had cropped up there since his last eastern expedition following the resolution of Molon's revolt.

His immediate target was Xerxes of Arsamosata, in Armenia, who had ceased paying tribute to the Seleucid king. In 212BC, Antiochus led his forces east into Armenia, and laid siege to Arsamosata. Early in the siege Xerxes escaped into the surrounding hills, but as it dragged on he began to fear that the fall of his capital would mean the end of his rule, and offered a parley with Antiochus. Rather than stringing Xerxes up when he was in his power, Antiochus chose to resume the Seleucid house's traditional policy of alliance with the houses ruling those areas around the eastern core of the empire. The arrears of tribute required was reduced to 300 talents, 1,000 horses and 1,000 mules, and Xerxes was wed to Antiochus' sister, Antiochis.

Following this success, Antiochus resumed his eastern march to deal with the two major powers abutting the eastern edge of his empire, the Arsacid dynasty in Parthia and the Greek kingdom of Bactria.

In 210BC the army descended the Euphrates by boat, and by the summer of 209BC Antiochus had pushed as far as Media. It was here, in Ecbatana, that for the first time the Seleucid house took part in an activity which would become a theme during its decline; the spoilation of temples. In this case, the temple of Anaitis was stripped of the gold plating of its columns and the silver bricks of its floors, yielding Antiochus III 4,000 talents.

This incident gives some insight into the already perilous state of the dynasty's finances. The act did tremendous long term harm to local support for the king, in a critical province bordering on dangerous enemies. The fact that Antiochus felt compelled to resort to this expedient, with such a rich and varied empire under his control, indicates that the formerly efficient administrative machine relied upon by his predecessors was losing its efficiency.

From Media, Antiochus set out across the barren lands separating Media from Parthia. The Parthian king, unable to match his strength, abandoned his capital of Hecatompylus and fell back toward Hyrcania. There was a great deal of skirmishing at the wells along the path of the army between the Parthian light horse and those of Antiochus, but the horsemen of Antiochus scattered the Parthians and the Seleucid army occupied the Parthian capital.

Pursuit

After a rest, Antiochus set off in pursuit toward Hyrcania. The route was mountainous, so he formed an advance guard of Aetolians under Diogenes, the satrap of Media, supported by 2,000 Cretans under Polyxenidas, a Rhodian exile. The heavy troops, under the command of Nicomedes of Cos and Nicolaus the Aetolian, followed. The passage was extremely difficult, strewn with deep gorges obstructed by large boulders and fallen trees. The light troops were critical to the advance, stealing up the heights to push the enemy light troops from their posts from which they could fire down into the gorges. Finally, reaching the summit, the enemy force stood, but the phalanx was more than a match for them, and the light troops infiltrated their rear, causing them to break.

The Seleucid army entered Hyrcania, and occupied Tambraca. They then proceded to besiege the chief city of Hyrcania, Sirynca. After a successful siege, the city surrendered. On this the Parthian king yielded, and payed a large tribute to Antiochus and entered into an alliance.

The following year, 209-208BC, Antiochus moved on Bactria. Euthydemus, the king of Bactria, camped his army along the river Arius, and sent out 10,000 of the excellent Bactrian light cavalry to block the fords to Antiochus. Antiochus marched swiftly to the river with a detachment of peltasts, light troops and cavalry. Reaching the river after nightfall, when the Bactrians had withdrawn most of their forces to camp, he crossed the river and made ready for battle.

At dawn the entire Bactrian host threw themselves on his position, attempting to push him back into the river. The king fought with his vanguard in the front rank, and succeeded in blunting the enemy charge. He had a horse killed under him, and sustained a blow to the face which knocked out several teeth. The Bactrians were beaten off with significant loss, and the remainder of the army came up and was able to cross the Arius uncontested. Euthydemus withdrew to his capital of Zariaspa.

Siege

Antiochus proceded to lay siege to Zariaspa, but it was a very strong place, and the siege dragged on for two years into the summer of 206BC. Both sides grew weary, and in the summer of 206BC an accomodation was reached. Antiochus confirmed Euthydemus as king of Bactria, and in return he surrendered all of his elephants to the Seleucid army and provisioned it for its march. Another alliance resulted, and the two houses were linked by the marriage of one of Antiochus' daughters to Demetrius, son of Euthydemus.

From Bactria, Antiochus marched south and entered India. The local king bowed before his might and paid tribute in elephants, provisions and treasure. The king then returned west by way of Arachosia, arriving in Babylon in the summer of 205BC. That year he mounted an expedition against the Arab tribes to the south, receiving yet more tribute.

This grand eastern expedition stands out as a monumental achievement for Antiochus III and the Seleucid dynasty. From its completion, Antiochus bore the title "Great King". He had shown great courage, military acumen and tremendous perseverance in completing it. The power and prestige of the Seleucid realm had never stood higher. The dream of all of the successors of Alexander, including the founder of the dynasty, of uniting the Greek world under one rule, seemed again a shimmering possibility.

Close

Underlying all of this, however, is evidence of a different sort. The financial and administrative health of the realm had been shown to be decaying, and the huge mountain of tribute collected by the expedition was only a temporary substitute for sound financial administration. And the influence the realm gained was based on alliances, which owed their creation to military might. A significant military setback, then, could undo all that had been accomplished. And, rising in the west, was a power bent on administering such a jolt to the Hellenistic world.

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