suddenly attacked and seized by Pharnaces, the son and successor of Mithridates. This was rapidly followed by fresh conquests along the northern coasts, till even Heraclea felt itself insecure. Pharnaces was thought to cherish large designs of aggression. He had found an ally in Mithridates, the "satrap" of Lesser Armenia,1 Asia Minor was at once divided into two camps. Eumenes, Ariarathes, and even Prusias II of Bithynia-the allies of Rome-took up arms in defence of the status quo. All these developments on either side of the Aegean had been watched by the Seleucid court. An incidental notice shows us that Seleucus IV, if debarred from active interference in the west, was at any rate concerned to maintain close diplomatic relations with the states of Greece. Polybius describes a meeting of the Achaean Assembly held in the year following Seleucus' accession, at which his ambassadors presented themselves to renew the amity subsisting between the Achaeans and the Seleucid house, and to offer them a present of ten ships of war 2 (in the year 187-186). The amity was renewed but the ships declined. It is only the deficiency of our records, no doubt, which prevents us from seeing similar embassies at work to sound their master's name in the ear of the other Greek states. There could be no question that the sympathies of the house of Seleucus were with the antagonists of Rome. And as the anti-Roman movement defined itself more and more in the years following Magnesia, it was not an impossible contingency that Seleucus might compromise his neutrality. When the war between Pharnaces and the other three kings broke out in Asia Minor (183-179), Seleucus seemed at one moment about to intervene on the anti-Roman side. He 1 What the relations of this Mithridates were (1) to the Seleucid King, (2) to Artaxias, we do not know. Although called satrap, he appears to act with Pharnaces as an independent power. That he is identical with Mithridates, the nephew of Antiochus III, as Reinach (Mithridate, p. 41, note) thinks probable, appears to me unlikely, since so far from saying that Antiochus put in this nephew as dynast, Polybius expressly says that he rejected the advice of his friends to do so (ò dè Baσiλeùs ToÚтWV μèv ovdevì πpoσéoxe), Polyb. viii. 25. The name Mithridates was, of course, as common among the Irânians of that age as the corresponding Apollonius among the Greeks. 2 Were these ten ships which the Seleucid court might no longer keep after the Peace of Apamea? 3 Polyb. xxii. 10, 4; 12, 13; Diod. xxix. 17. marched with a considerable force towards the passes of the Taurus, but his nerve failed before he had taken the decisive step. He suffered Pharnaces to go down unaided before Eumenes and his allies. It was about this time that Titus Flamininus came in the quality of ambassador to the Seleucid court, and we may connect his presence there with the abortive schemes of Seleucus,2 The hopes of all in the Greek world who wished to be rid of the Roman incubus were fixed, as has just been said, upon Macedonia, and in Perseus, who succeeded his father Philip in 179, it may have seemed that the hour had brought the man. Macedonia had armed to the teeth, and Perseus worked unremittingly at amassing all the means of victory. There was, of course, no overt hostility to Rome, but everybody knew for what cause Perseus stood. It was therefore significant of the general temper in the eastern Mediterranean when Seleucus Philopator made haste, upon the accession of Perseus, to press upon him the hand of his daughter Laodice, and when the Rhodians escorted the new queen of Macedonia with a great display of their ships.3 It was perhaps in consequence of the suspicions which were entertained of Seleucus in Rome that his brother Antiochus, who had been kept since 189 as a hostage, was exchanged before 175 for his son Demetrius. The name Demetrius, we may stop to notice, now appears for the first time alongside of Seleucus and Antiochus in the Seleucid family. It was, of course, a declaration of its consanguinity with the house of Antigonus through Stratonice, the daughter of the great Demetrius. The adoption of the name by the Seleucid house might have two objects. It might be intended as a mark of friendship to their cousin in Macedonia at an 1 Diod. xxix. 24. 2 He was dispatched from Rome as ambassador to Prusias and Seleucus in 183, Polyb. xxiii. 5. It was on this visit to Prusias that he contrived the death of Hannibal, who was still living under the protection of the Bithynian king. 3 Liv. xlii. 12; Polyb. xxv. 4, 8; Michel, No. 1298. 4 App. Syr. 45, Eus. I. p. 253. I do not know that there is anything to date this exchange by, except that in the year of Seleucus' death (176-175) Antiochus was living at Athens. Appian speaks certainly as if the residence of Antiochus at Athens was a brief one on his way to Syria, but since he apparently took a part in Athenian public life, it is possible that it was really longer. PLATE III 1. OROPHERNES OF CAPPADOCIA, 2. ÁRIARATHES V EUSEBES PHILOPATOR, OF CAPPADOCIA, 3. ALEXANDER (BALAS). 4. DEMETRIUS II NICATOR (young). 5. DEMETRIUS II NICATOR (after his return from Parthia). 6. ANTIOCHUS VI DIONYSUS. 7. TRYPHON. 8. THE NATIONAL MACEDONIAN HELMET ON THE COINS OF TRYPHON, 9. ALEXANDER (ZABINAS). IO. ANTIOCHUS VII EUERGETES (SIDETES). II. THE SAME. |