General Notes

[2280151.ged]
Birth: in 324 BC 1
Death: in 262 - 261 BC 1
Event: Ancestor M
Event: Ruled 281 - 261 BC, Seleucid King of Syria 1
Event: Ruled 292 - 281 BC, Seleucid King of Eastern Syria 1
Note:
Antiochus I SOTER (b. 324 BC--d. 262/261), king of the Seleucid kingdom
of Syria, who ruled about 292-281 BC in the east and 281-261 over the
whole kingdom. Under great external pressures, he consolidated his
kingdom and encouraged the founding of cities.
Antiochus was the son of Seleucus I, founder of the Seleucid kingdom, and
his Sogdian queen, Apama. When an invasion of nomads threatened the
eastern possessions of his father's realm (between the Caspian and Aral
seas and the Indian Ocean), Antiochus was appointed king (292). He
restored some of the damage caused by the invaders and rebuilt three
cities. Because his father still had interest in expanding the eastern
trade, Antiochus dispatched a noted geographer and general to explore the
environs of the Caspian Sea.
In 294 a sensational scandal occurred at the court of Seleucus I.
Antiochus, his son by Apama, fell in love with his beautiful stepmother,
Stratonice, and his unrequited passion affected his health. Seleucus gave
him Stratonice, assigned him as commander in chief to the upper
satrapies, and appointed him co-regent.
After his father's assassination in 281, Antiochus succeeded to the
entire realm, but he was immediately beset by revolts in Syria (probably
instigated by Egypt), by independence movements in northern Anatolia, and
by a war led by Antigonus II Gonatas, ruler of the Greek cities and
Macedonia. In 279, after the Gauls invaded Greece and almost ruined
Antigonus, he and Antiochus signed a pact promising not to interfere with
one another's territory. The next year, however, 20,000 Gauls crossed
into Asia Minor, and the independent states in the northern part
recruited them to harass Antiochus. He was preoccupied with the
pacification of Syria until 275, when, utilizing Indian elephants brought
from the east, he defeated the Gauls, who were afterward settled by their
allies in Phrygia to make it a buffer state. The Ionian city-states that
Antiochus had spared from the Gauls' ravages hailed him as a god and
named him Soter ("Saviour"). In 275 the alliance with Antigonus, now
fully in possession of Macedonia, was cemented by marriage to Antiochus'
half sister.
Following the Gallic incursions in Greece, Antiochus encouraged Greek
immigration to his realm and established many new cities in Asia Minor to
serve as counterweights to the Gauls. He built other cities in Iran to
forestall the Parthian threat to his eastern frontier, and he probably
fostered a revival of Babylonian culture and religion to counteract
Persian influence. At Babylon he rebuilt the ancient Esagila shrine,
although he moved the city's populace to a great Seleucid city a short
distance away on the Tigris River.
The aggressions of Ptolemy II of Egypt caused continuous friction with
Antiochus. In 279 he lost Miletus, in southwestern Asia Minor, and in 276
the Egyptians invaded northern Syria. But Antiochus defeated his
opponent, repelled him, and secured an alliance with the Egyptian ruler's
half brother who ruled Cyrene. After Ptolemy married the energetic
Arsinoe II, however, the war turned against the Seleucids, and about
273-272, Phoenicia and the coast of Asia Minor were lost to Egypt.
The continuous troubles in the west caused Seleucid control in the far
eastern part of the empire to weaken. In 280 Antiochus made his eldest
son king in the east, but he proved incompetent. Between 266 and 261
Antiochus was drawn into a war with Pergamum, and in 262 he suffered a
defeat and lost additional territory. Soon afterward he died, leaving his
son Antiochus II as successor.