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[Daniel
Ch.11: Pre-Written History of Kings]
V.
A Tireless Warrior (11:10-19)
DAN
11:10 But his sons shall be stirred up
After the death of Seleucus II and the expiration of the truce of 240,
Seleucus III "Ceraunus" expended three years of his short reign
waging wars in Asia Minor. Upon his death, the army summoned Antiochus III
"the Great" to the Seleucid throne. Antiochus the Great, who was
then a teenager, started a long 37-year regal career characterized as
"one of unwearied warfare."
DAN
11:10 Shall assemble a multitude of great forces...and overflow
In 221, Antiochus the Great advanced westward and crushed the rebellion of
Molon and Alexander. Letting Achaeus' insurrection in Asia Minor simmer,
Antiochus prepared to attack Egypt in three major campaigns.
Antiochus gathered an army of 72,000 soldiers, 6,000 horses, and 102
elephants and took the Egyptian fortresses of Seleucia, Tyre, Ptolemais,
and colonies in north Syria. The First Egyptian Cmapaign had begun.
DAN
11:11 Shall he return...even to his fortress.
While besieging the fortress of Dora, Antiochus was bamboozled into a
four-month winter truce and retired to Seleucia (or Ptolemais).
DAN
11:11 And the king of the south shall be moved with choler
The Spring of 218 found Antiochus the Great in Palestine picking off the
fortresses of Sidon and Gaza in the Second Egyptian Campaign. This finally
provoked the indolent Ptolemy IV "Philopater." Ptolemy
Philopater, a dilettante-voluptuary, is credited with slaying his father,
mother, and brother, marrying his sister Arsinoe, falling madly in love
with a lute-player Agathoclea, and starting the Ptolemaic kingdom in a
spiraling decline.
DAN
11:11 He shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude
shall be given into his hand.
Ptolemy Philopater personally led his 73,000 men, 5,000 cavalry, and 73
elephants to Raphia. Antiochus the Great, losing 10,000 men, 300 cavalry,
4,000 prisoners, and 5 elephants, fled through the desert.
DAN
11:12 He shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be
strengthened by it.
The victorious Ptolemy however was satisfied only to make peace with the
Seleucid and returned to Egypt. This gave Antiochus another chance to
attack Egypt in later years.
DAN
11:13 For the king of the north shall return
After his death at Raphia (214), Antiochus the Great headed eastward in a
long expedition (212-204), following the footsteps of Alexander the Great
into India and then down the Persian Gulf to the Arabian coast. Then with
a much seasoned army, a supply of Indian elephants, the support of Philip
of Macedon, several Egyptian insurrections in the air, and a weak infant
king Ptolemy V "Epiphanes" in Egypt, he prepared to attack inthe
Third Egyptian Campaign (198).
DAN
11:14 There shall many stand up against the king of the south
The arming of Egypt for the battle of Raphia led to a series of native
revolts in Egypt for the next 30 years. The rebel stronghold was Lycopolis.
DAN
11:15 So the king of the north shall...cast up a mount
In the Third Egyptian Campaign, the Egyptian general Scopas met Antiochus
the Great in Palestine. Antiochus sent Scopas fleeing from Paneas into the
fortress of Sidon with a decimated army of 10,000. Sidon was forthwith
besieged.
DAN
11:15 The arms of the south shall not withstand
When three ranking Egyptian generals (Eropus, Menocles, and Hamoxenus)
could not lift the siege of Sidon, Scopas surrendered.
DAN
11:16 He shall stand in the glorious land
Antiochus the Great became the undisputed conqueror of Palestine.
Henceforth, the land of Judea was to remain under the Seleucidae until its
brief independence in 142 under Simon Maccabees.
DAN
11:17 Upright ones with him...give him the daughter of women
The treaty of 198 following the victory at Paneas gave Coele-Syria and
Palestine to the Seleucids. It also provided for a political marriage
between the conqueror's daughter Cleopatra and the defeated seven-year-old
Ptolemy Epiphanes. Ptolemy and Cleopatra were married at Raphia (193),
with Coele-Syria and Palestine promised her as dowry.
DAN
11:17 But she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.
The couple apparently were happily married. When the bride's father was
routed at Thermopylae (191) and then soundly defeated at Magnesus (190),
Cleopatra joined her husband in sending congratulations to the Roman
senate!
DAN
11:18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles
Right after the treaty of 198, Antiochus the Great continued to advance
along the Mediterranean coastline, and by the Summer of 197, the coast of
Asia Minor was subjugated under him. In the Spring of 197, Antiochus
conquered Macedon, Hellas, and Thrace, and became vocally reproachful of
the Romans.
DAN
11:18 A prince...shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease
Rome went into action. After a series of victories led by the Roman
general Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, the Romans saddled Alexander the Great
with the peace treaty of Apamea (188).
DAN
11:19 He shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
In 187, this tireless Seleucid warrior was killed trying to plunder the
temple of Belus (or Jove) in Elymais by night.
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