Antiochus IV Epiphanes (“God-Manifest”) was the eighth king of the Seleucid Empire, ruling from 175 to 164 BCE. The third and youngest son of Seleucid King Antiochus III Megas (“the Great”), Antiochus IV inherited the Seleucid throne after the death of his elder brother Seleucus IV Philopator (“Father-Loving”), though it was under ambitious circumstances. Antiochus tried to reignite Seleucid dominance in Asia and the Near East, though he was halted by the Romans. Antiochus is infamously known for his persecution of the Jews of Judaea and Samaria, which finally led to the Maccabean Revolt. Jewish tradition casts Antiochus IV as an evil character associated with the story of Hanukkah. Antiochus was the first Seleucid king to inscribe divine epithets on coins, conveying the ethos of his father Antiochus III who had made himself a living god. His eccentric behavior and erratic actions, along with his cruelty, led his contemporaries to call him Epimanes (“the Mad One”), a word play on his epithet Epiphanes.
Bust of Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Born circa 215 BCE, Antiochus was originally named Mithradates, but once he became king he assumed the royal name of Antiochus. His father, Antiochus III, was renowned throughout the east for his ambitious conquests and likeness to Alexander the Great. Though, Antiochus’ bid for the Greek world put the Roman Republic on guard, having recently defeated Carthage and “freed” the Greek city-states from Philip V of Macedon. Both the Romans and Antiochus III claimed to be defenders of the Greeks, however Antiochus’s ambitions were crippled by the fact that many of the Greek city-states preferred the overlordship of Romans. Antiochus’ continued aggressive policies provoked war from the Romans, in which the Romans subsequently humiliated Antiochus in battle, culminating in the Battle of Magnesia (190 BCE) where Antiochus was finally defeated. In 188 BCE the Peace of Apamea was signed, which obliged Antiochus to abandon Europe and relinquish a vast amount of his Asian territories. Also, a hostage was required of the Romans to ensure Antiochus’ good behavior. They chose his youngest son Mithradates to be a hostage at Rome, however, in 187 BCE his elder brother Seleucus IV inherited the Seleucid throne and his son, Demetrius, was chosen to be the hostage at Rome by 178 BCE.
Seleucus IV Philopator’s reign was hamstrung by the heavy war-indemnity forced by the Romans, compelling him to seek an ambitious policy. Seleucus began to collect taxes in order to pay the Romans, sending his chief minister Heliodorus to Jerusalem to seize the treasury of the Temple. However, once back from Jerusalem the minister Heliodorus assassinated Seleucus and usurped the Seleucid throne. Seleucus’ son Demetrius was still a hostage at Rome, though Heliodorus was ousted and executed by Mithradates, who now seized the throne and proclaimed himself Antiochus IV. Declaring himself co-ruler with Seleucus’ infant son Antiochus, Antiochus IV soon had the child killed so he could rule alone. Antiochus then married his elder sister Laodice IV, who had previously been married to Seleucus.
Antiochus continued the process of Hellenization, but to a much more enforced and aggressive degree. He re-established Babylon as a Greek community, who revered him as Soter (“the Savior”), and appointed a Hellenized Judaean priest named Jason as high priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, effectively having a Greek oversee the Jewish community. He soon replaced Jason with a priest named Menelaus, on the promise of greater tribute. To win Antiochus’ favor, the rival priests completed the Hellenization of Jerusalem, inducting aspects of Greek culture and building an Olympic gymnasium.
Antiochus’ deprivation of military conquest and glory was offset by his policy of Hellenization, quickly becoming a known patron of Greek culture and society. Antiochus not only became a splendid benefactor of Greek temples across the Eastern Mediterranean, but also promoted the cult of the living Seleucid ruler, something implemented by his father Antiochus III. Antiochus gave himself the epithet Epiphanes – “God-Manifest”, legitimizing himself as a divine ruler, claiming to be Zeus in mortal guise. He would later give himself the epithet Nikephoros (“Bringer of Victory”), reflecting his success in war. True, it was Zeus Olympios (“the Olympian”) who Antiochus called forth with fevered imagination, building a new temple dedicated to Zeus in Athens and displaying the god on the reverse of his coins, something not done since the days of the Seleucus I Nicator (“the Victor”). Perhaps it is Zeus’ depiction as king of the Olympian gods that entertained Antiochus so much, and his claim to be the “mortal Zeus” is a result of such dreams of power and vanity. As the supreme god incarnate Antiochus became the patron to all religious facets and, most importantly, the Greek people of Asia.
Coin depicting Antiochus IV Epiphanes
In 170 BCE the guardians of the young pharaoh Ptolemy VI Philometor (“Mother-Loving”) demanded the territory of Coele-Syria be returned as a Ptolemaic possession, though Antiochus launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt, conquering all Ptolemaic territory with the exception of Alexandria. Though he did not capture Ptolemy VI, Antiochus essentially used the boy as a puppet ruler as he had basically conquered the Ptolemaic Kingdom. When Antiochus withdrew from Egypt, the Alexandrians chose Ptolemy VI’s brother, also named Ptolemy (Ptolemy VIII), as their king. The brothers ruled together peacefully, all under the heel of Antiochus. In 168 BCE Antiochus led a second assault on Egypt, intending on besieging Alexandria and claim the throne of the pharaoh as his own. Before he reached Alexandria he was stopped by an elderly Roman ambassador named Gaius Popillius Laenas. The Roman ambassador ordered Antiochus to withdraw his army from Ptolemaic Egypt or else face war with the Roman Republic. Antiochus said he would discuss the decision with his council, whereupon Popillius drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus demanding an answer to the Roman Senate before Antiochus crossed the line. Knowing the might of Rome and his possible delicate options, Antiochus said he would withdraw his army. Only then did Popillius decide to shake hands with Antiochus.
Angered and humbled by the Romans, Antiochus went to Jerusalem to find Menelaus and his supporters slaughtered by Jason and associates. Antiochus then sacked the city, venting his rage and desiring to completely remodel Jerusalem as a Hellenized city. Antiochus rebuilt Jerusalem as a Seleucid fortress, outlawing Jewish religious rite and traditions and ordered the worship of Zeus as the patron god of Jerusalem. The Jews initially refused, though Antiochus sent an army to enforce his rule, resulting in the massacre of many Jews. It is ironic, as the Jews of Judaea respected his father Antiochus III for the mild autonomy he granted to the Jews in terms of their laws and tribute. As detailed in the first book of the Maccabees:
“The wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus the Third of Syria, was a descendant of one of Alexander’s generals. Antiochus Epiphanes had been a hostage in Rome before he became king of Syria in the year 137. At that time there appeared in the land of Israel a group of traitorous Jews who had no regard for the Law and who had a bad influence on many of our people. They said, Let’s come to terms with the Gentiles, for our refusal to associate with them has brought us nothing but trouble. This proposal appealed to many people, and some of them became so enthusiastic about it that they went to the king and received from him permission to follow Gentile customs. They built in Jerusalem a stadium like those in the Greek cities. They had surgery performed to hide their circumcision, abandoned the holy covenant, started associating with Gentiles, and did all sorts of other evil things […] after the conquest of Egypt, Antiochus marched with a great army against the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. In his arrogance, he entered the Temple and took away the gold altar, the lampstand with all its equipment, the table for the bread offered to the Lord, the cups and bowls, the gold fire pans, the curtain, and the crowns. He also stripped all the gold from the front of the Temple and carried off the silver and gold and everything else of value, including all the treasures that he could find stored there. Then he took it all to his own country. He had also murdered many people and boasted arrogantly about it. There was great mourning everywhere in the land of Israel
[…] Antiochus now issued a decree that all nations in his empire should abandon their own customs and become one people. All the Gentiles and even many of the Israelites submitted to this decree. They adopted the official pagan religion, offered sacrifices to idols, and no longer observed the Sabbath. The king also sent messengers with a decree to Jerusalem and all the towns of Judaea, ordering the people to follow customs that were foreign to the country. He ordered them not to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or wine offerings in the Temple, and commanded them to treat Sabbaths and festivals as ordinary work days. They were even ordered to defile the Temple and the holy things in it. They were commanded to build pagan altars, temples, and shrines, and to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals there. They were forbidden to circumcise their sons and were required to make themselves ritually unclean in every way they could, so that they would forget the Law which the Lord had given through Moses and would disobey all its commands. The penalty for disobeying the king’s decree was death.”
There are horrific punishments detailed in Hebrew scripture to show Antiochus’ evil character, his absolute power and will dedicated to Hellenism. As such, the Maccabean Revolt, as expressed in First and Second Maccabees, was a cause for national identity. The rebellion was led by Judas Maccabeus, a Jewish priest whose father, Mattathias, sparked national resistance. Antiochus sent an army to deal with the revolt, though the Jews’ use of guerrilla warfare halted the reconquest effort, and in the end the Jews of Judaea achieved independence from the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus did not seem so interested in the Jewish rebellion, as he intended to reconquer the northern and eastern provinces which had been subdued by his father, Antiochus III. In 166 BCE Antiochus returned in triumph to Antioch where he added to the splendor and magnificence of the city by virtue of his war spoils, though this was offset by the Maccabean Revolt. Knowing of Antiochus’ western problems, King Mithridates I of Parthia took advantage of this and seized the city of Herat, disrupting the trade route from the Greek world to India. Also, the Armenians had proclaimed independence since the death of Antiochus III, something that bothered Antiochus, as well as the other “independent” peoples who were previously under Seleucid sovereignty.
In 165 BCE Antiochus marched with a large army in order to punish and conquer the Parthians and Armenians, as well as the reconquest of his father’s empire. He left behind his young son Antiochus in Antioch, who Antiochus associated as his co-ruler and successor since 170 BCE, in the care of his mother. Antiochus first attacked the Armenians, who he succeeded in conquering, offering them the same request of servitude that his father had dealt. Antiochus then advanced on Persia to fight the Parthians, in which he gained initial success. Suddenly, in 164 BCE, Antiochus died from illness. Though, according to 2 Maccabees, he died in this manner:
“But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow. As soon as he ceased speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures – and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions. Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.”
“The Punishment of Antiochus” by Gustave Dore
His son, Antiochus V Eupator (“Good Father”), succeeded him, though his reign only lasted two years as the eldest son of Seleucus IV, Demetrius, escaped from Rome and returned to Syria and usurped the Seleucid throne. The downfall of the Seleucid Empire is often dated with the death of Antiochus IV, as the Seleucids decayed into claimants who ignited civil wars and were restricted to Syria, eventually becoming a simple buffer state that the other Mediterranean powers tolerated.
The legacy of Antiochus IV Epiphanes is of cruelty and vainglorious ambition. Certainly, his eccentric and vicious behavior made the offensive byname Epimanes ring so true. Antiochus is forever remembered as the evil king who persecuted the Jews, his name living on in Jewish writings only as an associate of cruel, inhumane barbarity against the Jewish people. Antiochus is portrayed as the “little horn” in the prophecy of Daniel: “Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and his sanctuary was thrown down. Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.” Interestingly, the Greeks of Asia praised Antiochus for his program of Hellenization and his dedication to Hellenism, as they surnamed his son and successor Eupator. Nevertheless, Antiochus IV was a cruel, conceited king whose grand ambitions did not make him so appreciated in history, looked upon as a monster for his evil deeds.
Recommended Reading:
The House of Seleucus, E.R. Bevan
1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees
Michael's Desk 