SELEUKID KINGDOM Alexander II Zabinas 128BC Ancient Greek Coin Dionysus i45092

  
Item: i45092 Authentic Ancient Coin of. Greek Seleukid Kingdom Alexander II Zabinas - Reigned: 128-123 B. Bronze 19mm (6.91 grams) Antioch mint, struck circa 128-123 B.

4.82, 16; HGC 9, 1161; SC 2229 His diademed head right. Either side of young Dionysos standing left, holding kantharos and thyrsos; in field to left, S and Seleucid date. Claiming to be an adopted son of Alexander Balas, Zebina rebelled against Demetrios II with the backing of Ptolemy VII of Egypt.

Five years later he was defeated by the forces of Cleopatra and her son Antiochos VIII. Dionysus Bacchus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology.

His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany , "the god that comes, " and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults.

He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion , and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. Dionysus was the last god to be accepted into Mt. He was the youngest and the only one to have a mortal mother His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. He is an example of a dying god. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or man-womanish. In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and bearded satyrs with erect penises. Some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music.

The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed to be the cult model for the human followers of his Dionysian Mysteries.

In his Thracian mysteries, he wears the bassaris or fox -skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods. He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey.

It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. His cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele , thus semi-divine or heroic : and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter , thus both fully divine, part- chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios or Zalmoxis. The dio- element has been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios). The earliest attested form of the name is Mycenaean Greek di-wo-nu-so, written in Linear B syllabic script, found on two tablets at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the 12th or 13th century BC. In Aeolia, besides other variants.

Prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures , and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name of Zeus. Is associated with Mount Nysa , the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads), but according to Pherecydes of Syros. Was an archaic word for tree. The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree , and some of his bynames exhibit this, such as.

"He in the tree" or. " Peters suggests the original meaning as "he who runs among the trees, " or that of a "runner in the woods. " Janda (2010) accepts the etymology but proposes the more cosmological interpretation of "he who impels the (world-)tree. " This interpretation explains how Nysa could have been re-interpreted from a meaning of "tree to the name of a mountain: the axis mundi of Indo-European mythology is represented both as a world-tree and as a world-mountain.

In the Greek pantheon , Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios , a Thracian / Phrygian deity. In the Roman pantheon , Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus. Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a mortal woman, Semele , the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes , and his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus' wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant.

Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood.

Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed. Therefore he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals, however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria , where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimetor (of two mothers) associated with his being twice-born.

In the Cretan version of the same story, which Diodorus Siculus follows, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone , the queen of the Greek underworld. Diodorus' sources equivocally identified the mother as Demeter. A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys.

It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his rightful sceptre. Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by Athena , Rhea , or Demeter.

Zeus used the heart to recreate him in his thigh , hence he was again the twice-born. Other versions claim that Zeus recreated him in the womb of Semele, or gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her. The rebirth in both versions of the story is the primary reason why Dionysus was worshipped in mystery religions , as his death and rebirth were events of mystical reverence. This narrative was apparently used in several Greek and Roman cults, and variants of it are found in Callimachus and Nonnus , who refer to this Dionysus with the title Zagreus , and also in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans, is alluded to by Plato in his Phaedo (69d) in which Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path.

Late Neo-Platonists such as Damascius explore the implications of this at length. Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles , (Archaeological Museum of Olympia). According to the myth Zeus gave the infant Dionysus into the charge of Hermes.

One version of the story is that Hermes took the boy to King Athamas and his wife Ino , Dionysus' aunt. Hermes bade the couple raise the boy as a girl, to hide him from Hera's wrath. Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain- nymphs of Nysa , who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care Zeus rewarded them by placing them as the Hyades among the stars (see Hyades star cluster). Other versions have Zeus giving him to Rhea, or to Persephone to raise in the Underworld, away from Hera. Alternatively, he was raised by Maro. Dionysus in Greek mythology is a god of foreign origin, and while Mount Nysa is a mythological location, it is invariably set far away to the east or to the south. The Homeric hymn to Dionysus places it far from Phoenicia, near to the Egyptian stream. Others placed it in Anatolia, or in Libya ('away in the west beside a great ocean'), in Ethiopia (Herodotus), or Arabia (Diodorus Siculus). As it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt ; and as for Pan , the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth.

It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge. The Bibliotheca seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa. When Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Cybele , better known to the Greeks as Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India , which is said to have lasted several years.

Returning in triumph he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it e. North African Roman mosaic: Panther-Dionysus scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, except for Acoetes , the helmsman. One of the Homeric hymns recounts how, while disguised as a mortal sitting beside the seashore, a few sailors spotted him, believing he was a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail him far away to sell for ransom or into slavery. They tried to bind him with ropes, but no type of rope could hold him.

Dionysus turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear on board, killing those he came into contact with. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes , who recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start. In a similar story, Dionysus desired to sail from Icaria to Naxos.

However, when the god was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad and, leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins. Once, Dionysus found his old school master and foster father, Silenus , missing.

The old man had been drinking, and had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants, who carried him to their king (alternatively, he passed out in Midas' rose garden). Midas recognized him, and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs.

On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wanted. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.

Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table.

Then he found that his bread, meat, daughter and wine turned to gold. Upset, Midas strove to divest himself of his power (the Midas Touch); he hated the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard and consented; he told Midas to wash in the river Pactolus.

He did so, and when he touched the waters the power passed into them, and the river sands changed into gold. This was an etiological myth that explained why the sands of the Pactolus were rich in gold. Euripides composed a tragedy about the destructive nature of Dionysus in The Bacchae.

Since Euripides wrote this play while in the court of King Archelaus of Macedon , some scholars believe that the cult of Dionysus was malicious in Macedon but benign in Athens. Dionysus wants to exact revenge on Pentheus and the women of Thebes (his aunts Agave , Ino and Autonoe) for not believing his mother Semele's claims of being impregnated by Zeus, and for denying Dionysus's divinity (and therefore not worshiping him).

Dionysus slowly drives Pentheus mad, lures him to the woods of Mount Cithaeron , and then convinces him to spy/peek on the Maenads (female worshippers of Dionysus, who often experienced divine ecstasy). The Maenads are in an insane frenzy when Pentheus sees them (earlier in the play they had ripped apart a herd of cattle), and they catch him but mistake him for a wild animal. Pentheus is torn to shreds, and his mother (Agave, one of the Maenads), not recognizing her own son because of her madness, brutally tears his limbs off as he begs for his life.

As a result of their acts the women are banished from Thebes, ensuring Dionysus's revenge. When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned all the followers[Maenads] of Dionysus; the god fled, taking refuge with Thetis , and sent a drought which stirred the people into revolt. Dionysus then made King Lycurgus insane, having him slice his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus.

An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive, so his people had him drawn and quartered ; with Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse. This story was told in Homer's epic, Iliad 6.136-7. In an alternative version, sometimes shown in art, Lycurgus tried to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and restrained him, eventually killing him. A better-known story is that of his descent to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, whom he placed among the stars. Dionysus feared for his mother, whom he had not seen since birth. He bypassed the god of death, known as Thanatos, thus successfully returning Semele to Mount Olympus. Out of the twelve Olympians, he was of the few that could restore the deceased from the underworld back to life.

He made the descent from a reputedly bottomless pool on the coast of the Argolid near the prehistoric site of Lerna. He was guided by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so in order to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned a phallus from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.

This story survives in full only in Christian sources whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology. It appears to have served as an explanation of the secret objects that were revealed in the Dionysian Mysteries. Another myth according to Nonnus involves Ampelos , a satyr , who was loved by Dionysus.

Foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed in an accident riding a bull maddened by the sting of an Ate's gadfly. The Fates granted Ampelos a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.

Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaur Chiron. According to Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, Dionysius was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations. Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian , at the National Gallery in London. When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he passed out.

A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanes in his comedy The Frogs. Dionysus, as patron of the Athenian dramatic festival, the Dionysia, wants to bring back to life one of the great tragedians. After a competition Aeschylus is chosen in preference to Euripides.

When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but he committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, he had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus. Psalacantha , a nymph, failed at winning the love of Dionysus as his main love interest at the moment was Ariadne, and ended up being changed into a plant. Callirrhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned Coresus , a priest of Dionysus, who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (see Maenad).

The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her. Acis , a Sicilian youth, was sometimes said to be Dionysus' son. Alexander II Zabinas, ruler of the Greek Seleucid kingdom , was a counter-king who emerged in the chaos following the Seleucidian loss of Mesopotamia to the Parthians. Zabinas was a false Seleucid who claimed to be an adoptive son of Antiochus VII Sidetes , but in fact seems to have been the son of an Egyptian merchant named Protarchus. Antioch , Apamea , and several other cities, disgusted with the tyranny of Demetrius, acknowledged the authority of Alexander.

He was used as a pawn by the Egyptian king Ptolemy VIII Tryphon , who introduced Zabinas as a means of getting to the legitimate Seleucid king Demetrius II , who supported his sister Cleopatra II against him in the complicated dynastic feuds of the latter Hellenistic dynasties. Zabinas managed to defeat Demetrius II, who fled to Tyre and was killed there, and thereafter ruled parts of Syria (128 BC-123 BC), but soon ran out of Egyptian support and was in his turn was defeated by Demetrius' son Antiochus VIII Grypus.

Zabinas fled to the Seleucid capital Antiochia , where he plundered several temples. He is said to have joked about melting down a statuette of the goddess of victory Nike which was held in the hand of a Zeus statue, saying "Zeus has given me Victory".

Enraged by his impiety the Antiochenes cast Zabinas out of the city. He soon fell into the hands of robbers, who delivered him up to Antiochus, by whom he was put to death, in 122 BC.

For reasons unknown, Alexander II was the only late Seleucid not to use epithets on his coins. Several of his coins are extant. Antiochus VIII Grypus and Cleopatra Thea. The Seleucid Empire was a.

State that was created out of the eastern conquests of. At the height of its power, it included central. The founder of the Seleucid Empire.

The Seleucid Empire was a major center of. Which maintained the preeminence of.

Political elite dominated, mostly in the urban areas. Population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by emigration from.

Seleucid expansion into Egypt was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the. Much of the eastern part of the empire was conquered by the. In the mid-2nd century BC, yet the Seleucid kings continued to rule a. And their ultimate overthrow by the.

(Minted 290-280 BC) was the first indigenous Seleucid satrap to be appointed. Partition of Alexander's empire.

Under its last Achaemenid dynast. Within a short time-frame and died young, leaving an expansive empire of partly Hellenised culture without an adult heir. The empire was put under the authority of a regent in the person of. In 323 BC, and the territories were divided between Alexander's generals, who thereby became. Jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire.

A former general and the satrap of. Was the first to challenge the new system; this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemy's revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the. Who had been "Commander-in-Chief of the camp" under Perdiccas since 323 BC but helped to assassinate him later, received.

And from that point continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. In 312 BC, the year used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. He ruled not only Babylonia, but the entire enormous eastern part of Alexander's empire.

Always lying in wait for the neighboring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in council, he [Seleucus] acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia,'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander, as far as the river Indus, so that the boundaries of his empire were the most extensive in Asia after that of Alexander. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus. He reached an agreement with. In which he exchanged his eastern territories for a considerable force of 500.

Which would play a decisive role at. The Indians occupy [in part] some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. In consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. In 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern.

In the latter area he founded a new capital at. A city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at. Seleucus' empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at. In 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia.

He hoped further to take control of Lysimachus' lands in Europe - primarily. Itself, but was assassinated by. Was left with an enormous realm consisting of nearly all of the Asian portions of the Empire, but faced with. Nevertheless, even before Seleucus' death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids.

It is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants (Pliny, Natural History VI, 22.4). Mainstream scholarship asserts that Chandragupta received vast territory, sealed in a treaty, west of the Indus, including the. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the. Are known as far as.

He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. It is generally thought that Chandragupta married. A gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500. A military asset which would play a decisive role at the. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador. At the Mauryan court at. Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandragupta's reign, which have been partly preserved to us through. As having sent an ambassador named. Other territories lost before Seleucus' death were. In the south-east of the Iranian plateau, and, to the north of this. On the west bank of the. Antiochus I (reigned 281-261 BC) and his son and successor. (reigned 261-246 BC) were faced with challenges in the west, including repeated wars with. Invasion of Asia Minor - distracting attention from holding the eastern portions of the Empire together. Towards the end of Antiochus II's reign, various provinces simultaneously asserted their independence, such as. Territory, asserted independence in around 245 BC, although the exact date is far from certain, to form the. This kingdom was characterized by a rich.

Culture, and was to continue its domination of Bactria until around 125 BC, when it was overrun by the invasion of northern nomads. One of the Greco-Bactrian kings. Invaded India around 180 BC to form the.

Kingdom, lasting until around AD 20. The Seleucid satrap of Parthia, named. First claimed independence, in a parallel to the secession of his Bactrian neighbour. Soon after however, a Parthian tribal chief called. Territory around 238 BC to form the. The starting point of the powerful. By the time Antiochus II's son. Came to the throne around 246 BC, the Seleucids seemed to be at a low ebb indeed. Seleucus II was soon dramatically defeated in the. And then had to fight a civil war against his own brother. Taking advantage of this distraction, Bactria and Parthia seceded from the empire. In Asia Minor too, the Seleucid dynasty seemed to be losing control - Gauls had fully established themselves in. Semi-independent semi-Hellenized kingdoms had sprung up in. In the west was asserting its independence under the.

A revival would begin when Seleucus II's younger son. Took the throne in 223 BC. Although initially unsuccessful in the. Against Egypt, which led to a defeat at the.

(217 BC), Antiochus would prove himself to be the greatest of the Seleucid rulers after Seleucus I himself. He spent the next ten years on his. Through the eastern parts of his domain and restoring rebellious vassals like Parthia and. To at least nominal obedience.

And even emulated Alexander with an expedition into India where he met with king. "He (Antiochus) crossed the Caucasus and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him". The situation now looked propitious for another western campaign. Then made a pact to divide the Ptolemaic possessions outside of Egypt, and in the.

(198 BC) definitively transferred these holdings from the Ptolemies to the Seleucids. Antiochus appeared, at the least, to have restored the Seleucid Kingdom to glory.

Expansion into Greece and War with Rome. Defeat by Rome in 197 BC, Antiochus saw the opportunity for expansion into Greece itself. And making an alliance with the disgruntled. Antiochus launched an invasion across the. With his huge army he was intent upon establishing the Seleucid empire as the foremost power in the Hellenic world but these plans put the empire on a collision course with the new superpower of the Mediterranean, the.

Antiochus's forces were resoundingly defeated and he was compelled to make peace and sign the. In (188 BC), the main clause of which saw the Seleucids agree to pay a large indemnity, retreat from. And to never again attempt to expand Seleucid territory west of the. Rome's allies in the war, were given the former Seleucid lands in Anatolia.

Roman power, Parthia and Judea. The reign of his son and successor. (187-175 BC) was largely spent in attempts to pay the large indemnity, and Seleucus was ultimately assassinated by his minister.

He attempted to restore Seleucid power and prestige with a successful war against the old enemy. Which met with initial success as the Seleucids defeated and drove the Egyptian army back to. As the king planned on how to conclude the war, he was informed that Roman commissioners, led by the. Were near and requesting a meeting with the Seleucid king. Antiochus agreed, but when they met and Antiochos held out his hand in friendship, Popilius placed in his hand the tablets on which was written the decree of the senate and telling him to read it.

When the king said that he would call his friends into council and consider what he ought to do, Popilius drew a circle in the sand around the king's feet with the stick he was carrying and said, Before you step out of that circle give me a reply to lay before the senate. " For a few moments he hesitated, astounded at such a peremptory order, and at last replied, "I will do what the senate thinks right. He then chose to withdraw rather than set the empire to war with Rome again.

The latter part of his reign saw a further disintegration of the Empire despite his best efforts. Weakened economically, militarily and by loss of prestige, the Empire became vulnerable to rebels in the eastern areas of the empire, who began to further undermine the empire while the Parthians moved into the power vacuum to take over the old Persian lands.

Antiochus' aggressive Hellenizing (or de-Judaizing) activities provoked a full scale armed rebellion in. Efforts to deal with both the Parthians and the Jews as well as retain control of the provinces at the same time proved beyond the weakened empire's power. Antiochus died during a military expedition against the Parthians in 164 BC.

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