Star-crossed son of Antiochus
II & his half-sister Laodice, who inherited the Seleucid throne
when his mother poisoned his father (246
BCE). In a series of
disastrous defeats by the forces of Ptolemy III he lost control of most of
the Seleucid empire including the ancestral capitols of Seleucia &
Antioch. He escaped capture by retreating to the interior of Asia Minor.
But by delegating control of western Asia Minor to his treacherous brother
Antiochus Hierax he lost that territory as well. Almost a decade after his
humiliating defeat by the forces of his own relatives at Ancyra (235
BCE)
he managed to rout his brother but, in a final humiliation, died in a fall
from his own horse.
References:
Josephus,
Against Apion
1.206-207.
Justin, Epitome
27.1-3.
Appian,
History
of Rome: Syrian Wars 11.66.
Other resources on line:
Perspective on the
World of Jesus 