‘But His [Seleucus II’s] Sons shall be stirred up,

And shall assemble A Multitude of Great Forces:

And One [Ptolemy 1V] shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through:

Then shall He [Antiochus III] return, and be stirred up [ again], even to His fortress” (Daniel 11:10)

Seleucus II had two sons:

• Seleucus III who ruled for two years from 225 B.C.E. – 223 B.C.E.
• Antiochus III who ruled for thirty six years from 223 B.C.E. – 187 B.C.E

It is the second of these two sons, Antiochus III, Antiochus The Great, who dominates the next nine verses in Daniel 11:11 – 19. Verse 10 focuses on the first years of his long and intriguing reign.

It was under Antiochus III that:

• The Jewish People – living in the region of Coele-Syria – came out from under the Ptolemaic reign in 198 B.C.E. at The Battle of Panium (Verse 16 ) and became subject unto The Seleucid Empire for the first time – essentially since Alexander The Great who had taken the region in 332 B.C.E.. One of the causes of contention between The Seleucid Empire and The Ptolemaic Empire was Coele-Syria. Antigonus Monopthalmus and his son, Demetrius, had been defeated at The Battle of Ipsus (3O1 B.C.E.) and Seleucus I had been given Coele-Syria as spoils of the battle. Seleucus I had not pressed his claim because of his friendship with Ptolemy I but the descendants of both monarchs had pressed those claims and continued to do in The Six Syrian Wars;
• The Battle of Raphia (217 B.C.E.), one of the largest battles of The Hellenistic Era took place, (Verse 11) and Antiochus was defeated;
• The Egyptian native population rose up against The Ptolemaic Pharoahs partly because Ptolemy 1V, contrary to the policy of his forbears, had authorized the training of native Egyptians to defeat Antiochus at The Battle of Raphia (Verse 12)
• The Roman Republic, becoming more and more powerful in The Mediterranean Basis since its legendary beginning in 753 B.C.E. formed an alliance with Egypt (Verse 17b).
• The Battle of Magnesia (190 B.C.E.). (Verse 18) saw the end of Seleucid power in Asia Minor.

Daniel 11:10 charts the history of the sons of Seleucus II when the empire was under the sway of Seleucus III’s chief minister, Hermias, whose influence was all-powerful when Seleucus III reigned and when Antiochus III ascended the throne at only nineteen years of age. (Hermias may have been responsible in part for the assassination of Seleucus III.) His advice to the young Antiochus III seems to have been motivated by a desire for even more personal power. It was Hermias who advised Antiochus to advance against The Ptolemaic Kingdom at the beginning of his reign when Antiochus III was defeated by Ptolemy IV at The Battle of Raphia.

Hermias, Seleucus III’s chief minister, having attained power, had no intention of relinquishing it when Antiochus III ascended The Seleucid Throne. Upon the birth of Antiochus III’s first-born son, Antiochus UV, Hermias determined to rid himself of Antiochus III that he might rule as regent under the name of Antiochus’s infant son.

It was not until Antiochus III had taken the advice of Zeuxis, in opposition to Hermias, that Antiochus III began to consolidate his rule over the Eastern provinces of his empire. It was Antiochus III’s physician, Apollophanes, who warned his king that Hermias coveted absolute power, and with other trusted friends, a plan was devised to assassinate the chief minister in 220 B.C.E.

Truly ‘In The Multitude of Counsellors purposes are established’ (Proverbs 15:22)

Co-Co, The Chimpanzee Schoolmaster, acknowledged Antiochus III’s greatness, but lamented three tragic aspects of his character:

• at The Battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C.E. Antiochus acted rashly in pursuing the Roman cavalry, leaving his infantry flank vulnerable. N.B. He had done this at The Battle of Raphia, but Co-Co excused him at that battle because Antiochus III had only been a young monarch at that time;
• Antiochus III ignored the advice of one of the greatest military commanders in history when he embarked upon the conquering of Greece rather than Rome;
• Antiochus III was prepared to hand over the great commander to Rome as one of the conditions for The Peace Treaty of Apamea.

Of course, the great commander to whom Co-Co was referring was the mighty Hannibal (247 B.C.E. – 183/181 B.C.E.) If Antiochus III had heeded the advice of Hannibal and united the Greek world against the burgeoning Roman Republic, perhaps the Italian barbarians would have been defeated.

The tragedy of The Hellenistic Age was that after the death of Alexander The Great in 323 B.C.E., Macedonian/Greek commanders fought against each other instead of against the city of Rome the ultimate common enemy of them all. Ultimately, Rome with its advanced military tactics and the iron discipline of its legions conquered the known world and instituted, under the great Octavian, the ‘Pax Romana’ , the Roman Peace.

Co-Co used to ponder whether The Greeks were ever truly conquered, despite the many battles leading up to the final defeat of The Greeks at The Battle of Corinth in 146 B.C.E. No Roman after that conquest considered himself cultured unless he knew the Greek language and had mastered Greek philosophy and political thought.

The Greek ideal of democracy is still exalted two thousand years after The Supposed Fall of Greece in 146 B.C.E.

Next Week: Daniel 11:11.