ANTIOCHOS II THEOS
(261-246 BC)
Antiochos II was born to his parents,
Antiochos I Soter
and Stratonike II, around 287 BC. Shortly after the execution of his
rebellious
brother, Seleukos, around 269 Antiochos II was officially associated
with
his father in the kingship and designated as heir to the throne.
At about the age of 24 the young king
took up the reigns
of power in his own right, beginning one of the more obscure periods of
Seleukid history. Despite a reputation for alcoholism and excessive
sensuality
in some quarters, Antiochos II showed distinctive vigour in his
dealings
with Ptolemaic Egypt. and the cities of Asia Minor. He continued to
wage
the war conducted by his father to dislodge the forces of Ptolemy II
from
coastal Asia Minor with a good deal of success. In 258 BC the king
managed
to remove Timarchos, the pro Egyptian tyrant of Miletos, and for this
great
service the Milesian civic body voted him the title of Theos
('God').

<>The fall of Miletos caused the Ptolemaic forces in nearby
Ephesos to mutiny and that city too was made over to the Seleukid
house.
These events made such a great impression on the Ionian Greeks that
hundreds
of years later, when Rome was the great world power, they still made
appeals
to the freedoms and liberties granted by Antiochos II Theos. Ephesos
also
gained the distinction of becoming a favourite headquarters for
Seleukid
kings and their families in the west.>
<>>
<>Outside of Asia Minor Antiochos II was also at work in
expanding the Seleukid Empire. He crossed into Europe at the head of an
army to reclaim the Thracian territory lost at the death of Seleukos I
Nikator and even managed to raise support among the local chieftains
for
the project. It is possible that the king may also have had designs on
the nearby port city of Byzantion.
>
<>By 253 BC Antiochos II had shown that the Seleukid house
was once again a strong power in the eastern Aegean and Mediterranean,
causing the proponents of war in Alexandria to reconsider their
position.
Ultimately a peace agreement was struck between the king and Ptolemy II
Philadelphos and the Second Syrian War was at last brought to a
conclusion.
As part of the treaty Antiochos gained a new wife of Ptolemaic stock,
although
he was already married to and had heirs by his first wife, Laodike. To
solve this slight difficulty, Antiochos divorced Laodike and married
his
new queen, Berenike in 252 on the Seleukid/Ptolemaic frontier in
Koile-Syria.
The knew queen was known as Phernophoros ('the Dowry-bringer')
because
of the immense wealth that she brought to her new husband from Egypt.
Territorial
concessions in Kilikia and Pamphylia may also have been part of her
great
dowry.
>
<>Although Berenike gave birth to an
heir, her marriage
to Antiochos II does not seem to have been especially happy. Laodike
was
not the sort of woman to brook rivals and by 246 she had brought
Antiochos
II back to her in Ephesos while Berenike and her child languished in
Antioch.
The decision to return to his first wife may have been fateful for the
king, for before the year was out he was dead. It was widely rumoured
that Laodike had poisoned him in an attempt to secure the succession
for
her children,
Seleukos II and
Antiochos
Hierax. The rumour gained credence by the events that
immediately
followed the death of Antiochos II. Agents of Laodike and Seleukos II
murdered
Berenike and her child, Antiochos, thereby destroying the tenuous peace
between Seleukid and
Ptolemy and igniting the disastrous Third Syrian War (246-241 BC), more
popularly known as the Laodikean War, after its main author.
>
A new and troubled age was ushered in.
Not only had a
bitter war with the Ptolemies broken out, but the policy of Antiochos
II
was doomed to come back to haunt his descendants. Although he had
increased
Seleukid authority in the western portions of the empire, the north and
east was crumbling away. In the late 250s BC Kappadokia and Bithynia
claimed
their independence with their own native rulers. Diodotos I, the satrap
of Baktria also led his provence out of the Seleukid sphere at about
this
time. The great empire of Seleukos I Nikator
was gradually slipping away.
View coins of Antiochos II
Theos.
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