Children of Antiochus III
Antiochus the Younger
Eldest son and intended successor of Antiochus the Great. Born c. 220 BC. Crowned co-king prior to his father’s departure on his anabasis in 212 BC, he politely received a delegation from Magnesia on the Maeander requesting recognition of their Isopythian games. Commanded the right wing at the Battle of Panium. In 196 BC, he was married to his sister Laodice IV, in an attempt to mimic Ptolemaic royal incest. His sudden death in 193 BC interrupted negotiations with Roman envoys, and altered Antiochus III’s succession plans.1
Seleucus IV
Second son of Antiochus the Great. He commanded the Seleucid left at the Battle of Magnesia, and was made co-king shortly afterward, succeeding his father in 187 BC. His power was severely constrained by 1000 talent p.a. indemnity payments. He was murdered in 175 BC.
Antiochus IV
Assumed the dynastic name Antiochus upon the death of his older brother; John Grainger hypothesizes that prior to this his name was Mithradites. Following the Peace of Apamea, he spent a comfortable stint in Rome as a hostage, where he amused himself by attending gladiatorial games and aping Roman politicians during their electoral canvass. He returned upon the death of his brother in 175 BC, determined to rebuild Seleucid power. The illegal re-construction of a new war fleet likely dates to his reign, as well as aggressive attempts to reconstitute an effective army, including the formation of a ‘legion’ armed with Roman equipment. In 169–168 BC, he invaded Egypt, but withdrew under Roman diplomatic pressure. Humiliated, he reasserted his royal authority by sacking Jerusalem, which had been plagued by factional unrest. In 165 BC, he mustered a 45,000-man army at Daphne, prior to setting out on an Eastern anabasis, similar in ambitions to that of his father. He died while on this campaign, supposedly trying to sack an Elamite temple.2
Eldest daughter of Antiochus, she ultimately married all three of her brothers, mimicking the Ptolemaic custom of royal incest. Indeed, being married to Laodice marked a son as the designated successor: she first married Antiochus the Younger, then Seleucus IV, then Antiochus IV. Two of her children by different brothers became rival claimants to the throne: Antiochus V and Demetrias I, with the latter deposing and murdering the former.
Cleopatra ‘the Syrian’
Betrothed to Ptolemy V in 196 BC, part of the treaty that ended the Fifth Syrian War. The couple married three years later, likely to allow both parties time to reach pubescence. Following the death of her husband in 180 BC, she remained a powerful force in the Ptolemaic court, as the regent to the boy-king Ptolemy VI. She died in 176 BC. Her son assumed the title Philometer, ‘mother-loving’ in her honour, and Cleopatra became a Ptolemaic dynastic name for girls from here onwards, culminating in the famous Cleopatra VII, lover of Julius Caesar and wife of Mark Anthony.3
Antiochis
She was offered in marriage to Eumenes in 193 BC, but this alliance was rejected. She was eventually married to Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia, who provided a contingent of 2000 troops at Magnesia. She died in Antioch, but was buried in Cappadocia, possibly murdered by the regents of Antiochus V.4
Unnamed daughter
Offered to Demetrius I of Bactria during peace negotiations in 206. It is not known if the marriage was ever accomplished. If the nuptials never, in fact, occurred, it is possible that the offer involved one of the daughters listed above.5
Unnamed daughter
Born to Euboea in 191 BC. Both mother and child fled with Antiochus to Ephesus following the defeat at Thermopylae, and were packed off to Apamea following the disaster at Magnesia. The girl is attested in Babylon in 187 BC.6