Antiochus III the Great Antiochus III the Great ( ; c . 241 – 187 BC , ruled 222 – 187 BC ) was a Seleucid Greek king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire . He ruled over the region of Syria and western Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BC . Rising to the throne at the age of eighteen in 223 BC , his early campaigns against the Ptolemaic Kingdom were unsuccessful , but in the following years Antiochus gained several military victories . His traditional designation , " the Great " , reflects an epithet he briefly assumed . He also assumed the title " " Basileus Megas " " ( which is Greek for " Great King " ) , the traditional title of the Persian kings . Declaring himself the " champion of Greek freedom against Roman domination " , Antiochus III waged a war against the Roman Republic in mainland Greece in autumn of 192 BC only to be defeated . Biography . Background and early career . Antiochus III was a member of the Greek Seleucid dynasty . He was the son of king Seleucus II and Laodice II and was born in 242 BC near Susa in Iran . Antiochus succeeded his brother Seleucus III as the king of the Seleucid Empire . Antiochus III inherited a disorganized state . Not only had Asia Minor become detached , but the easternmost provinces had broken away , Bactria under the Greek Diodotus of Bactria , and Parthia under the nomad chieftain Arsaces . Soon after Antiochus ' s accession , Media and Persis revolted under their governors , the brothers Molon and Alexander . The young king , under the baneful influence of the minister Hermeias , headed an attack on Ptolemaic Syria instead of going in person to face the rebels . The attack against Egypt of the Ptolemies proved a fiasco , and the generals sent against Molon and Alexander met with disaster . Only in Asia Minor , where the king ' s cousin , Achaeus , represented the Seleucid cause , did its prestige recover , driving the Pergamene power back to its earlier limits . In 221 BC Antiochus at last went east , and the rebellion of Molon and Alexander collapsed which Polybios attributes in part to his following the advice of Zeuxis rather than Hermeias . The submission of Lesser Media , which had asserted its independence under Artabazanes , followed . Antiochus rid himself of Hermeias by assassination and returned to Syria ( 220 BC ) . Meanwhile Achaeus himself had revolted and assumed the title of king in Asia Minor . Since , however , his power was not well enough grounded to allow an attack on Syria , Antiochus considered that he might leave Achaeus for the present and renew his attempt on Ptolemaic Syria . Early wars against other Hellenistic rulers . The campaigns of 219 BC and 218 BC carried the Seleucid armies almost to the confines of Ptolemaic Kingdom , but in 217 BC Ptolemy IV defeated Antiochus at the Battle of Raphia . This defeat nullified all Antiochus ' s successes and compelled him to withdraw north of the Lebanon . In 216 BC Antiochus ' army marched into western Anatolia to suppress the local rebellion led by Antiochus ' own cousin Achaeus , and had by 214 BC driven him from the field into Sardis . Capturing Achaeus , Antiochus had him executed . The citadel managed to hold out until 213 BC under Achaeus ' widow Laodice who surrendered later . Having thus recovered the central part of Asia Minor ( for the Seleucid government had perforce to tolerate the dynasties in Pergamon , Bithynia and Cappadocia ) Antiochus turned to recovering the outlying provinces of the north and east . He obliged Xerxes of Armenia to acknowledge his supremacy in 212 BC . In 209 BC Antiochus invaded Parthia , occupied the capital Hecatompylos and pushed forward into Hyrcania . The Parthian king Arsaces II apparently successfully sued for peace . Bactrian campaign and Indian expedition . Year 209 BC saw Antiochus in Bactria , where the Greco - Bactrian king Euthydemus I had supplanted the original rebel . Antiochus again met with success . Euthydemus was defeated by Antiochus at the Battle of the Arius but after sustaining a famous siege in his capital Bactra ( " Balkh " ) , he obtained an honourable peace by which Antiochus promised Euthydemus ' son Demetrius the hand of one of his daughters . Antiochus next , following in the steps of Alexander , crossed into the Kabul valley , reaching the realm of Indian king Sophagasenus and returned west by way of Seistan and Kerman ( 206 / 5 ) . According to Polybius : Persia and Coele Syria campaigns . From Seleucia on the Tigris he led a short expedition down the Persian Gulf against the Gerrha eans of the Arabian coast ( 205 BC / 204 BC ) . Antiochus seemed to have restored the Seleucid empire in the east , which earned him the title of " the Great " ( Antiochos Megas ) . In 205 / 204 BC the infant Ptolemy V Epiphanes succeeded to the Egyptian throne , and Antiochus is said ( notably by Polybios ) to have concluded a secret pact with Philip V of Macedon for the partition of the Ptolemaic possessions . Under the terms of this pact , Macedon were to receive Egypt ' s possessions around the Aegean Sea and Cyrene , while Antiochus would annex Cyprus and Egypt . Once more Antiochus attacked the Ptolemaic province of Coele Syria and Phoenicia , and by 199 BC he seems to have had possession of it before the Aetolian leader Scopas recovered it for Ptolemy . But that recovery proved brief , for in 198 BC Antiochus defeated Scopas at the Battle of Panium , near the sources of the Jordan , a battle which marks the end of Ptolemaic rule in Judea . War against Rome and death . Antiochus then moved to Asia Minor , by land and by sea , to secure the coast towns which belonged to the remnants of Ptolemaic overseas dominions and the independent Greek cities . This enterprise earned him the antagonism of the Roman Republic , since Smyrna and Lampsacus appealed to the republic of the west , and the tension grew after Antiochus had in 196 BC established a footing in Thrace . The evacuation of Greece by the Romans gave Antiochus his opportunity , and he now had the fugitive Hannibal at his court to urge him on . In 192 BC Antiochus invaded Greece with a 10 , 000 man army , and was elected the commander in chief of the Aetolian League . In 191 BC , however , the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed him at Thermopylae , forcing him to withdraw to Asia Minor . The Romans followed up their success by invading Anatolia , and the decisive victory of Scipio Asiaticus at Magnesia ad Sipylum ( 190 BC ) , following the defeat of Hannibal at sea off Side , delivered Asia Minor into their hands . By the Treaty of Apamea ( 188 BC ) the Seleucid king abandoned all the country north of the Taurus , which the Roman Republic distributed amongst its local allies . As a consequence of this blow to the Seleucid power , the outlying provinces of the empire , recovered by Antiochus , reasserted their independence . Antiochus mounted a fresh eastern expedition in Luristan , where he died while pillaging a temple of Bel at Elymaïs , Persia , in 187 BC . Family . In 222 BC , Antiochus III married Princess Laodice of Pontus , a daughter of King Mithridates II of Pontus and Princess Laodice of the Seleucid Empire . The couple were first cousins through their mutual grandfather , Antiochus II Theos . Antiochus and Laodice had eight children ( three sons and five daughters ) : Laodice III died in about 191 BC . Later that year , Antiochus III remarried to Euboea of Chalcis . They had no children . Antiochus and the Jews . Antiochus III resettled 2000 Jewish families from Babylonia into the Hellenistic Anatolian regions of Lydia and Phrygia . He is not the king who oppressed Judea and was resisted by the Maccabees in the Jewish story of Hanukkah ; rather , that was his son , Antiochus IV . On the contrary , Josephus portrays him as friendly towards the Jews and cognizant of their loyalty to him ( see Antiquities , chapter 3 , sections 3 - 4 ) , in stark contrast to the attitude of his son . In fact , Antiochus III lowered taxes and let the Jews live , as Josephus puts it , " according to the law of their forefathers . " Cultural portrayals . The caroline era play " Believe as You List " is centered around Antiochus resistance to the Romans after the Battle of Thermopylae . The play was originally about Sebastian of Portugal surviving the Battle of Alcazar and returning , trying to gather support to return to the throne . This first version was censored for being considered " subversive " because it portrayed Sebastian being deposed , its comments in favor of an Anglo - Spanish alliance and possible pro - Catholicism , which led to the final version changing to the story of Antiochus ( which led to historical inaccuracy in exaggerating his defeat at that phase in history to fit the earlier text ) , turning Spaniards into Romans and the Catholic eremite into a Stoic philosopher .