Antiochus I Soter  [324-261 BCE; died of battle wounds]

Son of Seleucus I & co-regent of eastern provinces (Armenia, Mesopotamia & Persia) from 292-281 BCE.  No sooner had he inherited control of the western provinces (281 BCE), than Gallic invasions of Asia Minor forced him to form an alliance with his rival Antigonus II of Macedonia. His decisive defeat of the marauding nomads in 275 BCE and his policy of settling them in central Galatia led the Ionian city states of western Asia Minor to celebrate him as a divine savior (Greek: soter). He founded several new Hellenic cities in Asia Minor & encouraged immigration of native Greeks to counteract Celtic culture.  Likewise he founded Greek cities in Persia & Mesopotamia, & encouraged a renaissance of Babylonian culture as a bastion against Parthian expansionism. In his preoccupation with pacifying the eastern provinces, however, he lost control of the west coast of Asia Minor & Phoenicia to Ptolemy II of Egypt (273 BCE). This encouraged Pergamum to challenge his control of northwestern Asia Minor. He died soon after suffering a disastrous defeat at the hands of Pergamum's forces (262 BCE).

 References: Josephus, War 7.43.
                   Appian, History of Rome: Syrian Wars 10.59-60, 11.65.
                   Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.7.3.

Other resources on line:

Antiochus I was the first of the Seleucids to issue coins bearing his own portrait.  The iconography of the reverse side of this silver tetradrachma became standard for most coins minted by later Seleucid rulers.  It portrays Apollo with bow & arrow seated on a phallic stone with the words Basileos Antiochou ["of King Antiochou"] inscribed at right angles (with top at right). While the portrait on the face of later coins changed with each monarch, the pattern on the reverse side seldom varied.

Perspective on the World of Jesus

Copyright © 1999-2023 by Mahlon H. Smith
All rights reserved.

an American Theological Library Association Selected Religion Website
OCLC catalog no.: 62046512