“Then He [Antiochus III (223 B.C.E. – 187 B.C.E.)] shall turn His Face toward The Fort of His Own Land.

But He [Antiochus III (223 B.C.E. – 187 B.C.E)] shall stumble and fall, and not be found.”

Daniel 11:19.

In The Prophetic History of The Gentile Domination of The People of Daniel, The Jews, (which Daniel is given in The Third Year of Cyrus, The Great, 535 B.C.E. ,) Antiochus III appears in ten verses (Daniel 11:10b – 19.)

It is in this verse, Verse 19 of Chapter Eleven, that Antiochus III dies. His reign comes to a tragic end. N.B. This Prophetic History extends from Daniel 10:1 – 24 unto Daniel 11:1 – 45, a total of sixty-nine verses.

Daniel 10:1 – Daniel 11:45 is a prophecy of the period from 535 B.C.E. unto 135 C.E. It charts The Gentile Domination of The People of Daniel from Cyrus, ‘The Great’, The Founder of The Persian Empire, until The Defeat of The Bar Kokhba Rebellion in 135 B.C.E. by one of Rome’s greatest emperors, The Emperor Hadrian. It is Hadrian’s building of the Roman City, Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem which concludes the prophetic history proper (Daniel 11:45a).

It is Hadrian who accomplishes “The Scattering of The Holy People from The Land“(Daniel 12:7).

In The Post of Sunday, 10th March, 2024, Antiochus III’s defeat by The Roman Republic, under the Consul, Scipio Asiaticus, at The Battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C.E., was detailed.

The subsequent Treaty of Apamea signed by Antiochus III and The Roman Senate in 188 B.C.E. saw Antiochus III:

• forced to pay a heavy war indemnity
• agree to hand over the mighty Hannibal and other notable enemies of Rome from among his allies to Rome
• give his third son, Mithridates, to Rome as a political hostage
• agree to refuse passage and support to The Enemies of Rome
• promise to destroy all his fleet apart from ten ships and to disband his elephant corps
• give Rome 40, 500 modiuses of grain per year
• forced to abandon all the country north and west of The Taurus Mountains to the Kingdom of Pergamum, Rome’s ally, independent Greek states allied with Rome.

N.B. Hannibal took his own life rather than submit to his enemy, Rome.

After this treaty, Antiochus III retreated to his capital, Antioch in Syria. He then had to reassert his rule over the Eastern Provinces of his empire – in addition to paying the war indemnity to Rome.

One method of attaining wealth used by unscrupulous and covetous kings ( which Antiochus III had used in 210 B.C.E. in Ecbatanea,) was to pillage the temples of his vast empire. Antiochus III was assassinated pillaging a temple to the Persian god, Bel, at Elymais in the year 187 B.C.E. The worshippers at The Temple were so incensed at Antiochus III’s entrance into their temple – with his select soldiers – that they killed the mighty monarch.

It is tragically ironic that Antiochus was killed in this manner given his reverence and respect for The Temple at Jerusalem after The Battle of Panium in 198 B.C.E.

It is not for a mere chimpanzee to judge, but Antiochus III, after his daughter, Cleopatra I, refused to be disloyal to her husband, Ptolemy V and persuaded her husband to seek to ally Egypt with the burgeoning Roman Republic, was no longer the great king that even Rome honoured.

His:

• secret treaty with Philip V of Macedon to seize Egypt and Ptolemaic territories
• subsequent invasion of Thrace and Greece, against the counsel of the great Hannibal
• impulsive leading of the cavalry charge at The Battle of Magnesia
• plundering of a holy temple

are the actions of hubis and folly – or perhaps they are the actions of a man broken by grief.

Antiochus III’s heir, his first-born son, Antiochus (221 – 193 B.C.E.), the Crown Prince, and a accomplished warrior, had died in 193 B.C.E.

There is no sorrow equal to the grief of a father whose first-born son and heir is taken from him.

There is no sorrow equal to The Father of The Only Begotten Son Who gave His Beloved for The World.

Next Week: Daniel 11:20 Antiochus III’s Successor, Seleucus IV.