General Notes

[2280151.ged]
Birth: in c. 287 BC 1
Death: in 246 BC 1
Event: Ancestor M
Event: Ruled 261 BC - 246 BC, Seleucid King of Syria 1
Note:
Antiochus II THEOS (b. c. 287 BC--d. 246), king of the Seleucid dominions
in the Middle East, who succeeded his father, Antiochus I, in 261 BC and
spent much of his reign at war with Egypt, recovering much territory in
Anatolia.
Finding a willing ally in Antigonus, ruler of Macedonia, who had suffered
at the hands of Ptolemy II of Egypt, Antiochus waged the Second Syrian
War (259-255) against Ptolemy to avenge his father's losses. While
Antigonus defeated the Egyptian fleet at sea, Antiochus reconquered much
of Anatolia, including the cities of Miletus and Ephesus, and also the
Phoenician coast.
In Miletus, Antiochus overthrew a tyrant after he recaptured the city,
and the citizens worshiped him as a god in thanksgiving. He later
organized an empire-wide cult, as suggested by his epithet, Theos (God).
He also established the freedom of the other Ionian cities. Further, he
continued his predecessors' policies of encouraging the foundation of
cities in his realm.
For unknown reasons, around 253, Antiochus dismissed his first queen,
Laodice, and married Ptolemy's daughter Berenice. At his death in 246, a
civil war erupted between the two queens. He was succeeded by his son
Seleucus II, while another son, Antiochus Hierax, established himself in
western Anatolia.
The primary source in English of knowledge about the members of the
Seleucid dynast is Edwin Robert Bevan's The House of Seleucus, 2 vol.
(1902; reprinted 1966).