برچسب: Historical

Hubris – Twilight of the Hellenistic World takes one to three players twenty-two centuries back in time to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. This period is often little known, obscured by the great epopees of Alexander the Great (that preceded it), Hannibal (that took place simultaneously) or Julius Caesar (that followed it). It was nonetheless pivotal to world history.
Let’s explore it a little bit…

The situation in 220 BCE

In 220 BCE, the Greek and Macedonian world forged by Alexander and his Successors is still essentially the predominant region of the Western World, and is dominated by three great dynasties descended from the most successful of the Successors: in Macedon the Antigonids, heirs to Antigonos Monophtalmos (‘the One-Eyed’) and his no less famous son Demetrios Poliorketes (‘the Besieger’); in Egypt the Lagids or Ptolemies, heirs to Ptolemaios (I) Sôter (‘the Saviour’); and in Syria and Babylonia the Seleucids, heirs to Seleukos (I) Nikator (‘the Victorious’). The fortunes of these dynasties have been very contrasted however in recent years.

Macedon, still barely recovered from the exertions and manpower drain consecutive to the great conquests and establishing of the new Macedonian kingdoms in the East, has been beset by the growing assertiveness of new leagues of Greek cities in Aitolia and Achaia, and the relentless pressure of barbarians on its northern borders. However, under the masterful leadership of Antigonos III Dôsôn (‘the Caretaker’), the kingdom has been able to secure its borders and, leveraging the threat of a resurgent Sparta under king Kleomenes III, build an alliance with the Achaian League in the Peloponnese and reestablish Macedonian hegemony in Greece. Dôsôn however died abruptly shortly after his great victory at Sellasia against Kleomenes, leaving the throne to an untested youth, his nephew Philippos (V).

In contrast, the power of the Lagids has grown continuously over the past half-century, leveraging the prodigious wealth of Egypt into a far-reaching sea empire, controlling the seas all the way to the straits between Europe and Asia through a network of bases and the largest navy of its day. On land, the approaches to the Delta are secured by a strong glacis in Koile Syria (modern Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and southern Syria) and the great fortress of Pelousion on the easternmost mouth of the Nile. Through its diplomats and mercenaries, Egyptian gold is everywhere, more powerful than armies. The third king Ptolemaios (Evergetes – ‘the Benefactor’) has recently died though after a long and successful reign, leaving the throne to his young son Ptolemaios IV Philopator (‘who loves his father’), who is reputed to care more about his pleasures and luxuries than military glory…

Finally, the Seleucids rule theoretically over the largest of the successor kingdoms, from Asia Minor (Western Turkey) to modern Iran, but brutal family rivalries and centrifugal tendencies among subject peoples have been dogging them for decades. Only three years earlier, their young king Seleukos III Keraunos (‘Thunderbolt’) has been assassinated while campaigning in Asia Minor against the upstart king Attalos II of Pergamon, precipitating yet another crisis. The army tried to proclaim his cousin Achaios, who was with him, king, but he preferred to support the younger brother of Seleukos, Antiochos, who was acting as viceroy in Babylonia. Not all major officers agreed with him though, with the governor of the Upper Satrapies (Iran), Molon, proclaiming himself king upon hearing the news. The early years of Antiochos III’s reign were thus dominated by the simultaneous struggles against the usurper Molon, the encroachments of Attalos and, to top things off, a war launched unwisely against Lagid Koile Syria under the dangerous influence of his Chief Minister Hermeias. Three years later, Molon has been eliminated, Asia Minor secured by Achaios, and Hermeias disposed of. However, Antiochos and Achaios have now fallen out, with the latter eventually claiming the royal diadem in Asia Minor. And the war with Egypt is still dragging on with not much to show for it…

The Fourth Syrian War and the battle of Raphia

In 219, Antiochos manages to pull off a brilliant stunt, subverting several high-ranking Lagid officers, including the disgruntled governor of Koile Syria, Theodotos, who had thwarted his 221 invasion. With several major cities opening their gates to his army, Antiochos quickly ousts the new Ptolemaic commander, Nikolaos, and proceeds to subdue all Ptolemaic territories east of the Sinai, precipitating a major crisis for Ptolemaios IV, who was relying on the strong defenses of the satrapy and is not ready to meet Antiochos’s army in the field.

However, his canny Chief Minister, Sosibios, achieves marvels. On the one hand, he initiates peace proceedings with Antiochos to gain his king time. On the other, he brings all the mercenary generals and troops that he can find to Egypt and undertakes an unprecedented measure by training a native Egyptian phalanx to supplement the small royal army.

Thus reinforced, Sosibios abruptly ends the diplomatic talks the next year and Ptolemaios marches across the Sinai with his new army to face Antiochos at Raphia in 217 in what remained the largest battle of the age: 75,000 Ptolemaic troops (with 73 African war elephants) facing 68,000 Seleucid troops (with 102 Indian war elephants). Antiochos’s impetuous cavalry charge on his right wing quickly crushes Ptolemaios’s left wing while the latter’s African elephants prove no match for the larger Indian elephants. However, Antiochos fails to maintain control of the pursuit and Ptolemaios can rally his center and, victorious on his right wing, rout the Seleucid army. Antiochos must concede defeat and give back all his gains in Koile Syria. He will be back…

Philippos and the Aitolians

At the same time that Antiochos is trying for Koile Syria, Philippos V finds his rule challenged by these eternal enemies of Macedon, the Aitolian League and Sparta, under their new king Lykourgos. The young king proves equal to the task, demonstrating an untiring activity from Thessaly where Aitolian bands are raiding, down to the Southern Peloponnese, where he crushes Sparta as his uncle had done a few years before. Most of the action however is concentrated in western Greece and the central Peloponnese, where Philippos has to bolster his Achaian and Acarnanian allies against repeated Aitolian inroads.

Philippos spends most of his time in the Peloponnese, strengthening his relationship with the old Achaian strategos Aratos, long a resolute adversary of Macedon, and his son. This angers a number of senior Macedonian officials, led by his Chief Minister Apelles. Eventually, the tension boils over into open confrontation, when the Macedonian army comes to the edge of mutiny over spoils of war, and is only resolved with Philippos eliminating Apelles and his clique in 218.

The following year, after a campaign on the northern border of Macedon where Dardanian tribes were threatening, Philippos captures Phtiotic Thebes, the key Aitolian strongpoint in southern Thessaly, empties it and installs a Macedonian colony. He then takes ship again to relieve Aitolian pressure on Achaia, threatening another key Aitolian place in Naupaktos, where a peace conference encouraged by Ptolemaios IV finally succeeds in bringing the war to an end.

Shortly thereafter, Philippos finds himself at odds with his erstwhile ally the Illyrian warlord Scerdilaidas and builds a fleet to operate in the Adriatic. However this brings him into contact with a newcoming power: the Republic of Rome.

Rome enters the Scene

In 229-228, an upsurge of piracy under Queen Teuta led Rome, fresh off its victory over Carthage in the First Punic War, to intervene in Illyria, installing a protectorate around the city of Apollonia. Ten years later, Demetrios of Pharos, an Illyrian Greek whom Rome had placed to control the area, proves too ambitious and Roman forces cross the Adriatic again to oust him. He quickly finds refuge at the court of Philippos, becoming one of his main advisors. For the time being however, Philippos dares not add another enemy to an already long list and stays his hand in Illyria.

The situation changes dramatically however during the following years when Hannibal Barca, leading a Carthaginian army from Spain, invades Italy from Gaul, igniting the Second Punic War. He then proceeds to win a stunning string of victories against Rome on Italian soil. After his great victory at Cannae, he appears poised to defeat the upstart Latin republic. In 215, Philippos concludes an alliance with Hannibal where both parties agree to work together against Rome. However, before he can strike in Illyria, Philippos is compelled to hasten to the Peloponnese again where the Messenians are challenging Macedonian hegemony.

In 214, Philippos sails to the Adriatic and moves against Apollonia. The Roman answer, despite the ongoing war with Hannibal, is swift and decisive, defeating Philippos’s army who must burn his ships and withdraw over the mountains into Makedonia. Over the next few years, as Rome is unable to field a significant army across the sea, Philippos establishes his domination over the Illyrian interior but is unable to capture Apollonia.

The situation changes again though in 211 when Rome makes agreements with the Aitolians, Pergamon, Spartan and Skerdilaidas. Soon, with the support of the Roman navy and limited legionary forces, Philippos and his allies find themselves hard pressed everywhere. He manages still to beat the Aitolians and Attalos of Pergamon so badly that they refuse to face him in the field for the rest of the war, and slowly strengthens his positions before carrying the war to the Aitolian heartland, sacking their federal sanctuary at Thermon, while the new Achaian strategos Philopoemen crushes the Spartans at the battle of Mantinea.

When Attalos, threatened at home by king Prusias of Bithynia, withdraws from Greece, the Aitolians beg Rome for a more significant involvement but the republic is unable to comply. The Aitolians then elect to make what peace they can with Philippos. The next year, Rome sends Sempronius in Illyria, but this is too little, too late, and as Philippos closes on Apollonia, Rome makes peace in turn, abandoning most of Illyria to Macedon with definite ill grace…

A new Alexander

Meanwhile, with his back secured by the peace sworn with Ptolemaios IV, Antiochos III wastes no time ending the uneasy truce which had been prevailing with his rebel cousin Achaios. After an arduous but systematic campaign, he has him penned in the great fortress of Sardeis in Lydia by 214. A lengthy siege begins, from which the ever resourceful Sosibios tries to extract Achaios through the agency of a pair of Cretan agents. However, as the Ancient Greeks were wont to say, one should never trust a Cretan, let alone two, and a double cross results in a hopeful Achaios falling in the hands of his cousin, who has him promptly executed.

Next, Antiochos, more intent than ever to restore the full extent of the kingdom created by his ancestor Seleukos, campaigns decisively in Armenia, imposing a more compliant satrap, before embarking on extensive preparations for a great expedition in the Upper Satrapies. In 210, he expertly forces the passes of the Elburz mountains into Hyrkania and Parthyene, and quickly forces the submission of the Parthian king Arsakes.

The following year, he triumphs on the Arios river of the heavy cavalry of king Euthydemos of Bactria, and soon has him besieged in another great fortress, that of Baktra. However, forcing Euthydemos’s surrender proves more difficult than expected, and after more than two years, Antiochos and Euthydemos come to an agreement, recognizing Antiochos’s at least nominal suzerainty, and providing him with cash, elephants and Kataphraktoi (armored cavalry).

Antiochos then, consciously emulating Alexander’s exploits during his Anabasis (‘Voyage in the high interior’), returns to the West by way of Karmania and the Persian Gulf, claiming for himself the glorious epithet ‘Megas’ (‘the Great’) hitherto only bestowed on Alexander…

The Lagid Collapse

Antiochos’s return to the Mediterranean shores may have been prompted by information that Ptolemaios IV’s health was failing, meaning that the peace sworn between the two kings after Raphia was about to expire. Ptolemaios dies in 204, his death kept a secret for several months as his successor is only 6 years old. A ferocious struggle at the Alexandrian court results, with Sosibios and his ally Agathokles eliminating the queen-mother Arsinoe and sending many potential rivals away. Sosibios himself dies shortly therafter, leaving Agathokles sole regent, a responsibility he would soon prove woefully inadequate at…

While Ptolemaic officials try frantically to forestall war by attempting to seal a marriage alliance with Philippos of Macedon, he and Antiochos ready for war. In desperation, the Ptolemaic court tries an appeal to Rome, denouncing a conspiracy of Macedon and Syria to dismantle the Lagid empire, but Rome is not yet sufficiently interested in the affairs of the East, and too busy anyway with the final stages of the struggle against Hannibal to care.

In 202, Philippos launches a campaign with a large army and fleet in the region of the Straits between Europe and Asia, capturing many Ptolemaic-held cities, while Antiochos marches along the desert road and captures Damaskos. Soon, the toxic nature of the Lagid court is demonstrated again as another governor of Koile Syria, Ptolemaios son of Thraseas (no known relationship to the ruling dynasty) defects to Antiochos. In 200, after more frantic recruiting of mercenaries and the recalling of overseas garrisons, a Ptolemaic army under the Aitolian condottiere Skopas counterattacks in Koile Syria, but is utterly defeated at the battle of Panion by Antiochos, ably seconded by his grown-up sons.

In the Aegean, Philippos’s successes alarm Rhodes and Pergamon, who oppose him at sea. In 201, after an indecisive naval battle near Chios, Philippos finds himself stranded in Karia, where his army is supplied by Zeuxis, the Seleucid viceroy in Sardeis. The following year, he threatens Pergamon itself and pursues his seizing of Ptolemaic strongholds on both sides of the Straits.

The Second Macedonian War and the battle of Kynoskephalai

However, with Hannibal’s defeat at Zama in 202, and the ensuing surrender of Carthage, Rome’s energies are freed to, at long last, turn East and settle accounts with the king of Macedon. Seizing the pretext of a dispute between Athens and Philippos, Rome declares war in 200, promptly landing a full consular army in Illyria. While the legions probe Macedonian defenses in the interior, the fleet joins with Rhodes’s and Pergamon’s and lays to waste the major Macedonian base of Chalkis on the island of Euboia, one of the so-called ‘Fetters of Greece’. Arriving too late on the scene, Philippos vents his anger on Athens, but is soon compelled to withdraw to Makedonia to prepare it for war, leaving Roman envoys ply the Greek cities and leagues for support.

The following year, the Roman general Galba tries a decisive thrust from Apollonia up the Aous valley into Upper Makedonia, but is frustrated by Philippos’s skilled defense of the passes. In 198, a new Roman consul, T. Quinctius Flamininus arrives in Greece with veterans and tries another route, this time from Epeiros, with similar results. Flamininus hence shifts his focus to Thessalia through the lands of the Aitolians, whose alliance he renews, making a show of “freeing” Greek cities from Macedonian garrisons.

In 197, Philippos, feeling the pressure of northern barbarians, and seeing his support among the Greeks become more fragile by the day, tries to force a decision and seeks a decisive battle. He finds it in an unexpected manner at Kynoskephalai in Thessalia, where a meeting skirmish escalates into a full-blown battle. While initially successful, the Macedonian army is ultimately undone by Roman tactical flexibility on the rough terrain of the Kynoskephalai ridge and routs.

At the ensuing peace negotiations, Rome refuses to destroy Macedon, as urged by the Aitolians, but forces it to relinquish all its garrisons in Greece as well as control of Thessalia, which had been Macedonian for 150 years, since Philippos II’s reign. Philippos must also pay a heavy war indemnity and deliver his second son, Demetrios, as hostage. Flamininus refuses to install Roman garrisons in place of the Macedonian, and within a year all Roman troops are gone from Greece.

The Syrian War and the battle of Magnesia

While Philippos was learning to his expense the extent of the new threat coming from the West, Antiochos was leading follow-up campaigns by land and by sea to round up the remaining Ptolemaic possessions along the coast of Asia Minor, up to Ionia. When Philippos, hard pressed by the Romans, withdrew from the Straits, Antiochos moved in and was soon campaigning across the straits in Thrake. Once more, he appeared bent on restoring the full extent of the dominion of his glorious ancestor Seleukos Nikator. Maybe he should have been mindful of Seleukos’s fate once he crossed into Europe…

As Antiochos is busy campaigning against the wild Thracian tribes and restoring the ruined Greek cities on the European shore, a Roman delegation meets him and delivers an ultimatum, asking him to withdraw from Europe and to free the Greek cities of Asia. Unsurprisingly, the Great King is not ready to listen to such pretentions from Italian barbarians, though he is careful to avoid an immediate clash. Roughly at the same time, envoys of the Aitolians, still resentful of what they see as Roman ingratitude, bring him enticing promises of a warm welcome should he cross to Greece, which the envoys describe as wary of foreign hegemony…

Eventually, the temptation proves too great and Antiochos, known for his daring ways, rolls the dice in 192, taking ship with a picked contingent to cross the Aegean and land in Central Greece. He soon finds that the Aitolians are not quite able to fulfill all their promises, but he is nonetheless able to establish himself in Euboia, Boiotia and Thessalia before the winter. He even tweaks Philippos’s noise by making a show of giving proper burial to the Macedonian dead at Kynoskephalai which had apparently been laying in the open since the battle. This results in Philippos throwing his lot with the Romans…

The following year, Consul Acilius Glabrio arrives in Thessalia with an army, and is joined by Philippos, who uses this opportunity to retrieve many places in Thessalia. Antiochos, still without his main body of troops delayed by storms in their crossing from Asia, withdraws to the famous pass of the Thermopylai. There, the Aitolians prove unable to protect the flanking routes in the mountain, dooming the Seleucid force to a fate not dissimilar to Leonidas’s three centuries ago. Antiochos is however able to escape and join his main army in Asia.

While the Romans proceed to punish the Aitolians for what they perceive as treachery, the Roman fleet, reinforced by Rhodian and Pergamene squadrons, faces off against the Seleucid navy to try to gain control of the Straits crossings. The Seleucid admiral Polyxenidas, himself a Rhodian, manages to hold off the coalition’s navies for a number of months, but eventually succumbs to superior numbers. A bizarre episode occurs during that period when the famous Hannibal, who had, after being compelled to flee Carthage, found refuge at Antiochos’s court, is tasked by Antiochos to arm and lead a reinforcing fleet from Phenicia, only to be intercepted and beaten back by the Rhodians, proving less of a genius at sea than on land.

With the crossings to Asia secured, a reinforced Roman army led nominally by Consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio, brother to Hannibal’s nemesis Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, who accompanies his brother as ‘advisor’, crosses in 190 from Thrake and relieves their ally king Eumenes II of Pergamon who was besieged in his high citadel. The allied army then moves South to Lydia where Antiochos awaits them on a field of his own choosing at Magnesia-near-the-Sipylon with an army drawn from his entire empire, totaling 72,000 men as well as elephants and even scythed chariots to oppose the Scipios’ 25,000 Romans and Pergamenes. Antiochos’s elite phalanx and heavy Kataphraktoi cavalry are initially successful, putting an entire legion to flight, but his unorthodox deployment of his elephants, mixed with the phalanx, eventually backfires, and Eumenes is able to force a decision on his wing, precipitating the rout of the vast Seleucid host. Recognizing his defeat, Antiochos agrees in 188 at the Peace of Apameia to evacuate all Asia Minor West of the Taurus mountains, which is promptly divided by Rome between his Pergamene and Rhodian allies.

Troubled successions

The following year, Antiochos is killed in a military adventure in Elymais in western Iran where he was trying to seize the treasures of a local sanctuary, probably to face the crushing war indemnities imposed by Rome. His eldest son, also named Antiochos, having disappeared under foggy circumstances some years before, he is succeeded by his second son Seleukos IV Philopator, while his third son Mithradates, renamed Antiochos after the death of his eldest brother, is hostage in Rome.

In Macedon, Philippos’s second son Demetrios has been released as a reward to his father’s good behavior during the war with Antiochos, but retains upon his return to the court at Pella strong ties to his new Roman friends. Soon, the Macedonian court splits between followers of Philippos’s eldest son Perseus, who favors confrontation with Rome, and those of the youngest son Demetrios, who preaches amity. The old king is torn but a conspiracy by Demetrios is uncovered and Philippos has his son killed. However, the whole affair is soon revealed to be a plot by Perseus. Heartbroken, Philippos considers disowning Perseus in favour of his cousin Antigonos, a relative of Dôsôn, but he dies before he can make it a reality. Perseus then moves swiftly to secure his hold on the throne, and soon engages into a major diplomatic effort to restore Macedonian standing in Greece.

In Egypt, the reign of young king Ptolemaios V has been marred by repeated coups to secure the regency and an enduring native rebellion in Upper Egypt, with native pharaohs ruling in Thebes, the old capital, for many years. It is only in 186 that Ankhwennefer, the last of these native pharaohs is captured by Komanos, a Galatian general in Lagid employ, completing the reconquest of Upper Egypt, though sporadic rebellions will keep popping up in the Delta for years.

In 180, Ptolemaios V is assassinated by courtiers who apparently feared that he was planning to confiscate their properties to finance a new Syrian War to recover Koile Syria. His widow Kleopatra (I) Syra, daughter of Antiochos III, becomes regent for their 6-years old son Ptolemaios VI Philometor (‘who loves his mother’), but dies in 176, prompting a new period of instability at the top of the Lagid kingdom.

That same year, Antiochos is replaced as hostage in Rome by Demetrios, the oldest son of Seleukos IV. With the support of Eumenes II of Pergamon, Antiochos soon seeks to destabilize the rule of his brother, who is assassinated the following year by his minister Heliodoros. A confused and bloody sequence of events in Antioch sees Antiochos prevailing as Antiochos IV Epiphanes (‘God manifest’).

The Third Macedonian War and the battle of Pydna

In Greece, the resurgence of Macedon under Perseus raises some disquiet in Rome, fed by the activism of king Eumenes II of Pergamon, who is worried that the young Macedonian king might seek in Asia Minor the aggrandizement denied to him in Greece by Roman guarantee of the Greek cities. Tensions ramp up after Eumenes escapes a possibly criminal rockslide while traveling through Delphi on his way back from Rome. Perseus’s envoys in Rome are unable to get heard, and when Roman troops are freed from an ongoing conflict in Spain, Rome proceeds to isolate Macedon diplomatically before declaring war on a flimsy pretext in 171.

However, decades of relative peace appear to have blunted the sharp edge of the Roman military machine, and the initial campaign by consul Publius Licinius Crassus in Thessalia meets near disaster at the hands of Perseus’s renewed army at the battle of Kallinikos. Perseus does not press his advantage, hoping for a peaceful settlement, but Rome will have nothing short of complete surrender. In 170, with the southern routes into Makedonia secured by Perseus, the new consul, A. Hostilius Mancinus, tries to force his way up the Aous valley, but is repulsed twice with heavy losses.

Impatience mounts in Rome, and the consul for 169, Marcus Philippus, takes care to reinforce and train his army before trying the Thessalian passes again, without more success. The following year, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, son of the consul killed at Cannae in 216, takes command and finally, through a freakish turn of events, manages to turn Perseus’s positions, leading to a decisive battle at Pydna. Again, initial success of the phalanx proves unsustainable, and Perseus must surrender.

This time, Rome proves unforgiving and dissolves the centuries-old Macedonian kingdom, breaking it up into four impotent republics. Perseus and his family are brought in chains to Rome to be exhibited at Aemilius’s triumph, and the last Antigonids then disappear from history…

The Sixth Syrian War and the Day of Eleusis

Meanwhile, the chronic instability of the Lagid court has reached new heights, with Ptolemaios VI’s younger brother, later known as Ptolemaios (VIII) Physkon (‘the Fat-bellied’) pushing for a share of power, splitting the court into two rival factions. The Ptolemaic court looks to a new war in Syria to restore a sense of unity, but in late 170, Antiochos IV, himself eager for glory to cement his rule, steals a march on the Ptolemaic army and crushes it in the Sinai. He then seizes Pelousion, the key to Egypt by ruse (or treason?), and immediately moves on the Delta.

A new coup puts Komanos, the victor of Ankhwennefer, and another general, Kineas, in power in Alexandria, while both rival Ptolemies enter negotiations with Antiochos, trying to make their case. Eventually, Ptolemaios VI recognizes Antiochos as his overlord, who grants him control of the territory under his control in Egypt. At the news, the populace in Alexandria rises in anger, proclaiming the younger Ptolemaios as sole king. While Antiochos blockades the city, Ptolemaios sends envoys to Rome pleading for help. Unable to capture the city before the winter, Antiochos returns to Syria to winter, leaving Ptolemaios VI in charge in the old capital of Memphis. However, Philometor promptly negotiates a reconciliation with his brother.

In the spring of 168, Antiochos sends a naval expedition to attack the Ptolemaic island of Kypros, destroying the Ptolemaic fleet and seizing the island, betrayed – once more – by its Ptolemaic governor. Meanwhile, Antiochos reenters Egypt with fire and sword and soon establishes a tight siege of Alexandria. After the Antigonids, the end of another Successor dynasty appears certain, when a Roman delegation headed by Caius Popilius Laenas, a friend of Antiochos’s from his time as a hostage in Rome, lands to meet the king on the beach of Eleusis, a suburb of Alexandria. As Antiochos walks to greet him, Popilius, reminding him of the recent fate of Perseus’s kingdom, demands he immediately evacuate all of Egypt. Taken aback, Antiochos tries to play for time, but Popilius draws with his stick a circle in the sand around the feet of the king, demanding an answer before he leaves this circle. Aghast, Antiochos submits and agrees to withdraw, putting an end to the war, and, beyond it, to the last hope of a Hellenistic kingdom standing up to Rome…

The agony of the Seleucid kingdom, fallen prey to unending dynastic struggles and progressively deprived of its rich Iranian and Mesopotamian provinces by the increasingly assertive power of the Parthians under king Mithradates I, would be prolongated until 63 when Pompey the Great deposed the last Seleucid pretenders, now reduced to squabble over Syria itself, as part of his campaign in the East. The kingdom of the Ptolemies would last 33 more years until its last queen, the famous Kleopatra VII Philopator, committed suicide after the failure of her bid to restore the grandeur of her kingdom through her alliance with Marcus Aurelius, but apart for this last flareup, it had become effectively a Roman vassal since this fateful day at Eleusis in 168…

Now that you have read through this overview of the history of the twilight decades of the Hellenistic kingdoms, you have surely realized that the actions of individual kings, generals and diplomats are driving the narrative of the period. Accordingly, Hubris’s game engine is built around these leaders, as I am going to present in the next installment of these Histories…

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