ANTIOCHOS VII Euergetes 138BC Eros Cupid Isis Ancient Greek Seleucid Coin i47598

Item: i47598

Authentic Ancient

Greek Coin of:

The
Seleucid
Kingdom
 Antiochos
VII, Euergetes (Sidetes) –

Bronze 19mm (5.67 grams) Struck 138-129 B.C.
Reference: Sear 7098
Winged bust of
Eros
(Cupid)  right wreathed with myrtle.
Head-dress of
Isis
; on right, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ANTIOXOY; on left, EYEPΓETOY;

MH
monogram in left field, beneath, crescent and Seleucid date ΔOP (=174=138 B.C.)
—

Almost alone amongst the later Seleukid monarchs, ANtiochos
VII ruled with competence and integrity. He was the younger borther of Demetrios
II, and following the latter’s capture by the Parthians he seized power and
quickly disposed of the usurper Tryphon. He campaiged with success in Palestine
and Babylonia, but in 129 B.C. he was killed in battle against the Parthians.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Roman mythology
,

Cupid (Latin cupido,
meaning “desire”) is the god of desire, affection and
erotic

love. He is often portrayed as the son of the goddess
Venus
, with a father rarely mentioned. His
Greek counterpart
is

Eros. Cupid is also known in Latin as Amor (“Love”). The
Amores (plural) or amorini in the later terminology of
art history
are the equivalent of the Greek
Erotes
.

Although Eros appears in
Classical

Greek art
as a slender winged youth, during the
Hellenistic period
he was increasingly
portrayed as a chubby boy. During this time, his iconography acquired the bow
and arrow that remain a distinguishing attribute; a person, or even a deity, who
is shot by Cupid’s arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire. The Roman Cupid
retains these characteristics, which continue in the depiction of multiple
cupids in both
Roman art
and the later
classical tradition
of
Western art
.

Cupid’s ability to compel love and desire plays an instigating role in
several myths or literary scenarios. In
Vergil
‘s
Aeneid
, Cupid prompts
Dido
to fall in love with
Aeneas
, with tragic results.

Ovid makes Cupid the patron of love poets. Cupid is a central
character, however, in only the traditional tale of
Cupid and Psyche
, as told by
Apuleius
.

Cupid was a continuously popular figure in the
Middle Ages
, when under Christian influence he
often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love, and in the
Renaissance
, when a renewed interest in
classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings. In
contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown shooting his bow to inspire
romantic love, often as an icon of
Valentine’s Day
.

Legend

In the Roman version, Cupid was the son of Venus (goddess of hope) and Mars
(god of war).^[2][3]
In the Greek version he was named

Eros and seen as one of the
primordial gods
(though other myths exist as
well). Cupid was often depicted with wings, a bow, and a quiver of arrows. The
following story of
Cupid and Psyche
is almost identical in both
cultures; the most familiar version is found in the
Metamorphoses
of
Apuleius
. When Cupid’s mother Venus became
jealous of the princess
Psyche
, who was so beloved by her subjects that
they forgot to worship Venus, she ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with
the vilest thing in the world. While Cupid was sneaking into her room to shoot
Psyche with a golden arrow, he accidentally scratched himself with his own arrow
and fell deeply in love with her.

Following that, Cupid visited Psyche every night while she slept. Speaking to
her so that she could not see him, he told her to never try to see him. Psyche,
though, incited by her two older sisters who told her Cupid was sparcker [a
monster], tried to look at him and angered Cupid. When he left, she looked all
over the known world for him until at last Venus told her that she would help
her find Cupid if she did the tasks presented to her by Venus. Psyche agreed.
Psyche completed every task presented to her, each one harder than the last.
Finally, Venus had one task left – Psyche had to give Pluto a box containing
something Psyche was not to look at. Psyche’s curiosity got the best of her and
she looked in the box. Hidden within it was eternal sleep placed there by Venus.
Cupid was no longer angered by Psyche and brought her from her sleep. Jupiter,
the leader of the gods, gave Psyche the gift of immortality so that she could be
with him. Together they had a daughter,
Voluptas
, or
Hedone
, (meaning pleasure) and Psyche became a
goddess. Her name “Psyche” means “soul.”

Portrayal

Caravaggio
‘s
Amor Vincit Omnia

In painting and sculpture, Cupid is often portrayed as a
nude
(or sometimes
diapered
) winged boy or baby (a
putto
) armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

On gems and other surviving pieces, Cupid is usually shown amusing himself
with adult play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts, catching a butterfly,
or flirting with a nymph
. He is often depicted with his mother (in
graphic arts, this is nearly always Venus), playing a horn. In other images, his
mother is depicted scolding or even spanking him due to his mischievous nature.
He is also shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler, perhaps in reference
to Virgil
‘s Omnia vincit amor or as
political satire
on wars for love or love as
war.

Cupid figures prominently in
ariel poetry
, lyrics and, of course,
elegiac
love and
metamorphic poetry
. In epic poetry, he is less
often invoked, but he does appear in
Virgil
‘s
Aeneid
changed into the shape of
Ascanius
inspiring
Dido’s
love. In later literature, Cupid is
frequently invoked as fickle, playful, and perverse. He is often depicted as
carrying two sets of arrows: one set gold, which inspire true love; and the
other lead-headed, which inspire erotic love.

The goddess Isis portrayed as a woman, wearing a headdress shaped
like a throne and with an Ankh in her hand

Isis (Ancient
Greek: Ἶσις, original
Egyptian
pronunciation more likely Aset)
is a goddess in
Ancient Egyptian

religious beliefs
, whose worship spread
throughout the
Greco-Roman world
. She was worshipped as the
ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the
friend of
slaves
,

sinners,
artisans
, and the downtrodden, and she listened
to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats, and rulers.Isis is often
depicted as the mother of
Horus
, the hawk-headed god of war and
protection (although in some traditions Horus’s mother was
Hathor
). Isis is also known as protector of the
dead and goddess of children.

The name Isis means “Throne”.Her headdress is a throne. As the
personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the
pharaoh’s power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne
she provided. Her
cult
was popular throughout Egypt, but her most
important
temples
were at Behbeit El-Hagar in the
Nile delta
, and, beginning in the reign with
Nectanebo I (380–362 BCE), on the island of
Philae
in Upper Egypt.

In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of
Geb,
god of the Earth, and
Nut
, goddess of the Sky, and she was born on
the fourth
intercalary day
. She married her brother,
Osiris
, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis
was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by
Set
. Using her magical skills, she restored his
body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the
earth by Set.

This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period. For example it
was believed that the
Nile River
flooded every year because of the
tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiris’s death and rebirth was
relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread
throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of
paganism
in the Christian era.The popular motif
of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, lived on in a Christianized context as
the popular image of Mary suckling the infant son Jesus from the fifth century
onward.
Etymology

, OR ,
Isis in hieroglyphs

The name Isis is the Greek version of her name, with a final -s
added to the original Egyptian form because of the grammatical requirements of
the Greek language (-s often being a marker of the
nominative case
in ancient Greek).

The Egyptian name was recorded as ỉs.t or
ȝs.t and meant “(She of the Throne”). The
true Egyptian pronunciation remains uncertain, however, because
hieroglyphs
do not indicate
vowels
. Based on recent studies which present
us with approximations based on contemporary languages (specifically, Greek) and
Coptic
evidence, the reconstructed
pronunciation of her name is *Usat

[*ˈʔyːsəʔ]
. Osiris’s name, *Usir
also starts with the throne glyph ʔs.^[7]

For convenience,
Egyptologists
arbitrarily choose to pronounce
her name as “ee-set”. Sometimes they may also say “ee-sa” because the final “t”
in her name was a feminine
suffix
, which is known to have been dropped in
speech
during the last stages of the Egyptian
and Greek languages.

Principal
features of the cult

Origins

 

Isis depicted with outstretched wings (wall painting, c. 1360 BCE)

Most Egyptian deities were first worshipped by very local cults, and they
retained those local centres of worship even as their popularity spread, so that
most major cities and towns in Egypt were known as the home of a particular
deity. The origins of the cult of Isis are uncertain, but it is believed that
she was originally an independent and popular deity in
predynastic
times, prior to 3100 BCE, at
Sebennytos
in the Nile delta.^[3]

The first written references to Isis date back to the
Fifth dynasty of Egypt
. Based on the
association of her name with the throne, some early Egyptologists believed that
Isis’s original function was that of throne-mother.^{[citation
needed]} However, more recent scholarship suggests
that aspects of that role came later by association. In many African tribes, the
throne is known as the mother of the king, and that concept fits well
with either theory, possibly giving insight into the thinking of ancient
Egyptians.

Classical Egyptian
period

During the
Old Kingdom
period, Isis was represented as the
wife or assistant to the deceased pharaoh. Thus she had a funerary association,
her name appearing over eighty times in the pharaoh’s funeral texts (the
Pyramid Texts
). This association with the
pharaoh’s wife is consistent with the role of Isis as the spouse of Horus, the
god associated with the pharaoh as his protector, and then later as the
deification of the pharaoh himself.

But in addition, Isis was also represented as the mother of the “four suns of
Horus”, the four deities who protected the
canopic jars
containing the pharaoh’s internal
organs. More specifically, Isis was viewed as the protector of the
liver
-jar-deity,
Imsety
.^[8]
By the
Middle Kingdom
period, as the funeral texts
began to be used by members of Egyptian society other than the royal family, the
role of Isis as protector also grew, to include the protection of nobles and
even commoners.^{[citation
needed]}

Isis nursing Horus (Louvre)

By the
New Kingdom
period, the role of Isis as a
mother deity had displaced that of the spouse. She was seen as the mother of the
pharaoh, and was often depicted breastfeeding the pharaoh. It is theorized that
this displacement happened through the merging of cults from the various cult
centers as Egyptian religion became more standardized.^{[citation
needed]} When the cult of
Ra
rose to prominence, with its cult center at
Heliopolis
, Ra was identified with the similar
deity, Horus. But Hathor had been paired with Ra in some regions, as the mother
of the god. Since Isis was paired with Horus, and Horus was identified with Ra,
Isis began to be merged with Hathor as Isis-Hathor. By merging with
Hathor, Isis became the mother of Horus, as well as his wife. Eventually the
mother role displaced the role of spouse. Thus, the role of spouse to Isis was
open and in the Heliopolis pantheon, Isis became the wife of Osiris and the
mother of Horus/Ra. This reconciliation of themes led to the evolution of the
myth of Isis and Osiris
.^[8]

Temples and priesthood

Little information on Egyptian rituals for Isis survives; however, it is
clear there were both priests and priestesses officiating at her cult throughout
its history. By the Greco-Roman era, many of them were considered
healers
, and were said to have other special
powers, including dream interpretation and the ability to control the
weather
, which they did by braiding or not
combing their hair.^{[citation
needed]} The latter was believed because the
Egyptians considered knots
to have magical powers.

The cult of Isis and Osiris continued up until the 6th century CE on the
island of Philae in Upper Nile. The
Theodosian decree
(in about 380 CE) to destroy
all pagan temples was not enforced there until the time of
Justinian
. This toleration was due to an old
treaty made between the Blemyes-Nobadae and the emperor
Diocletian
. Every year they visited Elephantine
and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the
Blemyes for
oracular
purposes before returning it.
Justinian sent Narses
to destroy the sanctuaries, with the
priests being arrested and the divine images taken to Constantinople.^[9]
Philae
was the last of the ancient Egyptian
temples to be closed.

Iconography

Associations

Due to the association between knots and magical power, a symbol of Isis was
the tiet or tyet
(meaning welfare/life),
also called the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis, or the
Blood
of Isis, which is shown to the right.
In many respects the tyet resembles an

ankh, except that its arms point downward, and when used as such,
seems to represent the idea of
eternal life
or
resurrection
. The meaning of Blood of Isis
is more obscure, but the tyet often was used as a funerary
amulet
made of red

wood,
stone
, or
glass
, so this may simply have been a
description of the appearance of the materials used.

The star Sopdet
(Sirius)
is associated with Isis. The appearance of the star signified the advent of a
new year and Isis was likewise considered the goddess of rebirth and
reincarnation, and as a protector of the dead. The Book of the Dead outlines a
particular ritual that would protect the dead, enabling travel anywhere in the
underworld, and most of the titles Isis holds signify her as the goddess of
protection of the dead.

Probably due to assimilation with the goddess Aphrodite (Venus),
during the Roman period, the

rose was used in her worship. The demand for roses throughout the
empire turned rose production into an important industry.

Depictions

Isis nursing
Horus
, wearing the headdress of
Hathor
.

In art, originally Isis was pictured as a woman wearing a long sheath dress
and crowned with the
hieroglyphic
sign for a throne.
Sometimes she is depicted as holding a
lotus
, or, as a
sycamore
tree. One pharaoh,
Thutmose III
, is depicted in his tomb as
nursing from a sycamore tree that had a breast.

After she assimilated many of the roles of Hathor, Isis’s headdress is
replaced with that of Hathor: the horns of a cow on her head, with the solar
disk between them. Sometimes she also is represented as a cow, or a cow’s head.
Usually, however, she is depicted with her young child, Horus (the pharaoh),
with a
crown
, and a
vulture
. Occasionally she is represented as a
kite
flying above the body of Osiris or with
the dead Osiris across her lap as she worked her magic to bring him back to
life.

Most often Isis is seen holding only the generic

ankh sign and a simple staff, but in late images she is seen
sometimes with items usually associated only with Hathor, the sacred
sistrum
rattle and the fertility-bearing
menat

necklace
. In
The Book of Coming Forth By Day
Isis is
depicted standing on the prow of the
Solar Barque
with her arms outstretched.^[1]

Mythology

Sister-wife to Osiris

During the
Old Kingdom
period, the pantheons of individual
Egyptian cities varied by region. During the
5th dynasty
, Isis entered the pantheon of the
city of
Heliopolis
. She was represented as a daughter
of Nut and Geb, and sister to Osiris,
Nephthys
, and Set. The two sisters, Isis and
Nephthys, often were depicted on coffins, with wings outstretched, as protectors
against evil. As a funerary deity, she was associated with Osiris, lord of the
underworld, and was considered his wife.

Rare
terracotta
image of Isis lamenting
the loss of Osiris (eighteenth dynasty)
Musée du Louvre
,
Paris
.

A later myth, when the cult of Osiris gained more authority, tells the story
of Anubis
, the god of the underworld. The tale
describes how Nephthys was denied a child by Set and disguised herself as the
much more attractive Isis to seduce him. The plot failed, but Osiris now found
Nephthys very attractive, as he thought she was Isis. They
had sex
, resulting in the birth of Anubis.
Alternatively, Nephthys intentionally assumed the form of Isis in order to trick
Osiris into fathering her son.

In fear of Set’s retribution, Nephthys persuaded Isis to adopt Anubis, so
that Set would not find out and kill the child. The tale describes both why
Anubis is seen as an underworld deity (he becomes a son of Osiris), and why he
could not inherit Osiris’s position (he was not a legitimate heir in this new
birth scenario), neatly preserving Osiris’s position as lord of the underworld.
It should be remembered, however, that this new myth was only a later creation
of the Osirian cult who wanted to depict Set in an evil position, as the enemy
of Osiris.

The most extensive account of the Isis-Osiris story known today is Plutarch’s
Greek description written in the 1st century CE, usually known under its Latin
title De Iside et Osiride.^[11]

In that version, Set held a banquet for Osiris in which he brought in a
beautiful box and said that whoever could fit in the box perfectly would get to
keep it. Set had measured Osiris in his sleep and made sure that he was the only
one who could fit the box. Several tried to see whether they fit. Once it was
Osiris’s turn to see if he could fit in the box, Set closed the lid on him so
that the box was now a coffin for Osiris. Set flung the box in the Nile so that
it would drift far away. Isis went looking for the box so that Osiris could have
a proper burial. She found the box in a tree in
Byblos
, a city along the Phoenician coast, and
brought it back to Egypt, hiding it in a swamp. But Set went hunting that night
and found the box. Enraged, Set chopped Osiris’s body into fourteen pieces and
scattered them all over Egypt to ensure that Isis could never find Osiris again
for a proper burial.^[12][13]

Isis and her sister Nephthys went looking for these pieces, but could only
find thirteen of the fourteen. Fish had swallowed the last piece, his
phallus
, so Isis made him a new one with magic,
putting his body back together after which they conceived Horus. The number of
pieces is described on temple walls variously as fourteen and sixteen, and
occasionally
forty-two
, one for each
nome
or district.^[13]

Mother of Horus

Yet another set of late myths detail the adventures of Isis after the birth
of Osiris’s posthumous son,
Horus
. Isis was said to have given birth to
Horus at Khemmis, thought to be located on the Nile Delta.^[14]
Many dangers faced Horus after birth, and Isis fled with the newborn to escape
the wrath of
Set
, the murderer of her husband. In one
instance, Isis heals Horus from a lethal scorpion sting; she also performs other
miracles in relation to the
cippi
, or the plaques of Horus. Isis
protected and raised Horus until he was old enough to face Set, and
subsequently, became the pharaoh of Egypt.

Magic

It was said that Isis tricked
Ra
(i.e. Amun-Ra/Atum-Ra) into telling her his “secret name,” by
causing a
snake
to bite him, for which only Isis had the
cure. Knowing the secret name of a deity enabled one to have power of the deity.
The use of secret names became central in late Egyptian magic spells, and Isis
often is implored to “use the true name of Ra” in the performance of rituals. By
the late Egyptian historical period, after the occupations by the Greeks and the
Romans, Isis became the most important and most powerful deity of the Egyptian
pantheon because of her magical skills.
Magic
is central to the entire mythology of
Isis, arguably more so than any other Egyptian deity.

Isis had a central role in Egyptian magic spells and ritual, especially those
of protection and healing. In many spells, she also is completely merged even
with Horus, where invocations of Isis are supposed to involve Horus’s powers
automatically as well. In Egyptian history the image of a wounded Horus became a
standard feature of Isis’s healing spells, which typically invoked the curative
powers of the milk of Isis.

Greco-Roman world

Interpretatio graeca

Isis (seated right) welcoming the
Greek heroine

Io
as she is borne into Egypt on
the shoulders of the personified Nile, as depicted in a Roman wall
painting from
Pompeii

Using the comparative methodology known as
interpretatio graeca
, the Greek historian
Herodotus
(5th century BCE) described Isis by
comparison with the Greek goddess
Demeter
, whose
mysteries
at
Eleusis
offered initiates guidance in the
afterlife and a vision of rebirth. Herodotus says that Isis was the only goddess
worshiped by all Egyptians alike.^[16]

Terracotta figure of Isis-Aphrodite from
Ptolemaic Egypt

After the conquest of Egypt by
Alexander the Great
and the
Hellenization
of the Egyptian culture initiated
by
Ptolemy I Soter
, Isis became known as
Queen of Heaven
.^[17]
Other Mediterranean goddesses, such as Demeter,
Astarte
, and
Aphrodite
, became identified with Isis, as was
the Arabian goddess Al-Ozza or Al-Uzza  through a similarity of name, since
etymology was thought to reveal the essential or primordial nature of the thing
named.^[18]
An alabaster statue of Isis from the 3rd century BCE, found in
Ohrid
, in the
Republic of Macedonia
, is depicted on the
obverse
of the Macedonian 10
denars
banknote, issued in 1996.^[19]

Isis in the Roman
Empire

Roman Isis holding a sistrum and
oinochoe
and wearing a garment tied
with a characteristic knot, from the time of
Hadrian
(117–138 CE)

Tacitus
writes that after the
assassination of Julius Caesar
, a temple in
honour of Isis had been decreed, but was suspended by Augustus as part of his
program to restore
traditional Roman religion
. The emperor
Caligula
, however, was open to Eastern
religions, and the
Navigium Isidis
, a procession in honor of
Isis, was established in Rome during his reign.^[20]
According to the Jewish historian
Josephus
, Caligula donned female garb and took
part in the mysteries he instituted.
Vespasian
, along with
Titus
, practised
incubation
in the Roman
Iseum
.
Domitian
built another Iseum along with a
Serapeum
. In a
relief
on the
Arch of Trajan
, the emperor appears before Isis
and Horus, presenting them with votive offerings of wine.^[20]
Hadrian
decorated his villa at
Tibur
with Isiac scenes.
Galerius
regarded Isis as his protector.^[21]

The religion of Isis thus spread throughout the
Roman Empire
during the formative centuries of
Christianity. Wall paintings and objects reveal her pervasive presence at
Pompeii
, preserved by the
eruption of Vesuvius
in 79 CE. In Rome, temples
were built and obelisks erected in her honour. In Greece, the cult of Isis was
introduced to traditional centres of worship in
Delos
,
Delphi
,
Eleusis
and
Athens
, as well as in northern Greece. Harbours
of Isis were to be found on the Arabian Sea and the Black Sea. Inscriptions show
followers in Gaul, Spain, Pannonia, Germany, Arabia, Asia Minor, Portugal and
many shrines even in Britain.^[22]
Tacitus interprets a goddess among the Germanic
Suebi
as
a form of Isis
whose symbol (signum) was
a ship.^[23]
Bruce Lincoln
regards the identity of this
Germanic goddess as “elusive.”^[24]

The Greek antiquarian
Plutarch
wrote a treatise on Isis and Osiris,^[25]
a major source for Imperial theology concerning Isis.^[11]
Plutarch describes Isis as “a goddess exceptionally wise and a lover of wisdom,
to whom, as her name at least seems to indicate, knowledge and understanding are
in the highest degree appropriate… .” The statue of Athena in
Sais
was identified with Isis, and according to
Plutarch was inscribed “I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my
robe no mortal has yet uncovered.”^[26]
At Sais, however, the patron goddess of the ancient cult was
Neith
, many of whose traits had begun to be
attributed to Isis during the Greek occupation.

The Roman writer
Apuleius
recorded aspects of the cult of Isis
in the 2nd century CE, including the Navigium Isidis, in his novel
The Golden Ass
. The protagonist Lucius
prays to Isis as Regina Caeli, “Queen of Heaven”:

You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the
universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of
time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the
ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods
and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens,
the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known
by countless names … the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and
worship call me by my true name…Queen Isis.^[27]

Ruins of the Temple of Isis in Delos

According to Apuleius, these other names include manifestations of the
goddess as
Ceres
, “the original nurturing parent”;
Heavenly Venus (Venus Caelestis); the “sister of
Phoebus
“, that is, Diana or
Artemis
as she is
worshipped at Ephesus
; or
Proserpina
(Greek
Persephone
) as the triple goddess of the
underworld.^[28]
From the middle Imperial period, the title Caelestis, “Heavenly” or
“Celestial”, is attached to several goddesses embodying aspects of a single,
supreme Heavenly Goddess. The Dea Caelestis was identified with the
constellation Virgo (the Virgin)
, who holds the
divine balance of justice
.

Greco-Roman temples

On the Greek island of
Delos
a
Doric
Temple of Isis was built on a high
over-looking hill at the beginning of the Roman period to venerate the familiar
trinity of Isis, the Alexandrian
Serapis
and
Harpocrates
. The creation of this temple is
significant as Delos is particularly known as the birthplace of the Greek gods
Artemis
and
Apollo
who had temples of their own on the
island long before the temple to Isis was built.

In the Roman Empire, a well-preserved example was discovered in
Pompeii
.The only sanctuary of Isis (fanum
Isidis) identified with certainty in
Roman Britain
is located in
Londinium
(present-day London).^[29]

Isis in black and white marble (Roman, 2nd century CE)

Late antiquity

The cult of Isis was part of the
syncretic
tendencies of religion in the
Greco-Roman world of
late antiquity
. The male first name “Isidore”
in Greek means “gift of Isis” (similar to “Theodore“,
“God’s gift”).

The Isis cult in Rome was a template for the Christian
Madonna
cult.

Eros, in

Greek mythology

, was the

primordial god

of sexual love and beauty. He
was also worshipped as a fertility deity. His

Roman

counterpart was

Cupid
(“desire”), also known as Amor (“love”).
In some myths, he was the son of the deities

Aphrodite

and Ares
, but according to Plato’s

Symposium

, he was conceived by Poros (Plenty)
and Penia (Poverty) at Aphrodite’s birthday. Like

Dionysus
, he was sometimes referred to as
Eleutherios,
“the liberator”.

Antiochus VII Euergetes, nicknamed Sidetes

(from Side
), ruler

of the

Hellenistic

Seleucid Empire

, reigned from 138 to 129 BC. He was the last Seleucid king

of any stature.

The brother of

Demetrius II

, Antiochus was elevated after Demetrius’ capture by the

Parthians
. He

married

Cleopatra Thea

, who had been the wife of Demetrius. Their offspring was

Antiochus IX

, who thus became both half-brother and cousin to

Seleucus V

and

Antiochus VIII

.

Sidetes defeated the usurper

Tryphon

at

Dora

^[1]

and laid siege to

Jerusalem

in 134. According to

Josephus

the Hasmonean

king John Hyrcanus

opened King

David
‘s sepulchre

and removed three thousand talents, which he then paid Antiochus to spare the

city. Sidetes then attacked the Parthians, supported by a body of Jews under

Hyrcanus, and briefly took back

Mesopotamia

,

Babylonia

and Media
before

being ambushed and killed by

Phraates II

. His brother

Demetrius II

had by then been released, but the Seleucid realm was now

restricted to Syria
.

The
Seleucid Empire (/dɨˈluːsɪs/;
from
Greek
: Σελεύκεια,
Seleúkeia) was a
Hellenistic
state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty
founded by
Seleucus I Nicator
following the division of
the empire created by
Alexander the Great
. Seleucus received
Babylonia
and, from there, expanded his
dominions to include much of Alexander’s
near eastern
territories. At the height of its
power, it included central
Anatolia
, the
Levant
,
Mesopotamia
,
Kuwait
,
Persia
,
Afghanistan
,
Turkmenistan
, and northwest parts of
India
.

The Seleucid Empire was a major center of
Hellenistic
culture that maintained the
preeminence of
Greek
customs where a Greek-Macedonian
political elite dominated, mostly in the urban areas. The Greek population of
the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by emigration from
Greece
. Seleucid expansion into
Anatolia
and Greece was abruptly halted after
decisive defeats
at the hands of the
Roman army
. Their attempts to defeat their old
enemy
Ptolemaic Egypt
were frustrated by Roman
demands. Much of the eastern part of the empire was conquered by the
Parthians
under
Mithridates I of Parthia
in the mid-2nd century
BC, yet the Seleucid kings continued to rule a
rump state
from
Syria
until the invasion by
Armenian
king
Tigranes the Great
and their ultimate overthrow
by the Roman
general
Pompey
.

History

Partition
of Alexander’s empire

Alexander
conquered the
Persian Empire
under its last Achaemenid
dynast, Darius III
, 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
Perdiccas
in 323 BC, and the territories were
divided between Alexander’s generals, who thereby became
satraps
, at the
Partition of Babylon
in 323 BC.

Rise of Seleucus

Coin of
Seleucus I Nicator

The Kingdoms of the
Diadochi
circa 303 BC

Alexander’s generals (the
Diadochi
) jostled for supremacy over parts of
his empire.
Ptolemy
, a former general and the satrap of
Egypt
, 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
Partition of Triparadisus
in 320 BC.
Seleucus
, who had been “Commander-in-Chief of
the camp” under Perdiccas since 323 BC but helped to assassinate him later,
received Babylonia
and, from that point, continued to
expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in
Babylon
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.”

— Appian
, The Syrian Wars

Seleucus
went as far as
India
, where, after
two years of war
, he reached an agreement with
Chandragupta Maurya
, in which he exchanged his
eastern territories for a considerable force of 500
war elephants
, which would play a decisive role
at
Ipsus
(301 BC).

“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. But
Seleucus Nicator
gave them to
Sandrocottus
in consequence of a marriage
contract, and received in return five hundred elephants.”

—Strabo, Geographica

Westward expansion

Following his and
Lysimachus
‘ victory over
Antigonus Monophthalmus
at the decisive
Battle of Ipsus
in 301 BC, Seleucus took
control over eastern
Anatolia
and northern
Syria
.

In the latter area, he founded a new capital at
Antioch on the Orontes
, a city he named after
his father. An alternative capital was established at
Seleucia on the Tigris
, north of Babylon.
Seleucus’s empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his
erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at
Corupedion
in 281 BC, after which Seleucus
expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take
control of Lysimachus’s lands in Europe – primarily
Thrace
and even
Macedonia
itself, but was assassinated by
Ptolemy Ceraunus
on landing in Europe.

His son and successor,
Antiochus I Soter
, was left with an enormous
realm consisting of nearly all of the Asian portions of the Empire, but faced
with
Antigonus II Gonatas
in Macedonia and
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
in
Egypt
, he proved unable to pick up where his
father had left off in conquering the European portions of Alexander’s empire.

An overextended domain

Nevertheless, even before Seleucus’ death, it was difficult to assert control
over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded
Punjab region
region of
India
in 305 BC,
confronting

Chandragupta Maurya
(Sandrokottos),
founder of the
Maurya empire
. 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
Hindu Kush
, modern day
Afghanistan
, and the
Balochistan
province of
Pakistan
. Archaeologically, concrete
indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the
Edicts of Ashoka
, are known as far as
Kandahar
in southern Afghanistan.

It is generally thought that Chandragupta married
Seleucus’s
daughter, or a
Macedonian

princess
, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an
alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500
war–elephants,
a military asset which would play a decisive role at the
Battle of Ipsus
in 301 BC. In addition to this
treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador,
Megasthenes
, to Chandragupta, and later
Deimakos
to his son
Bindusara
, at the Mauryan court at
Pataliputra
(modern
Patna
in
Bihar state
). Megasthenes wrote detailed
descriptions of India and Chandragupta’s reign, which have been partly preserved
to us through
Diodorus Siculus
. Later
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
, the ruler of
Ptolemaic Egypt
and contemporary of
Ashoka the Great
, is also recorded by
Pliny the Elder
as having sent an ambassador
named
Dionysius
to the Mauryan court.

Other territories lost before Seleucus’ death were
Gedrosia
in the south-east of the Iranian
plateau, and, to the north of this,
Arachosia
on the west bank of the
Indus River
.

Antiochus I (reigned 281–261 BC) and his son and successor
Antiochus II Theos
(reigned 261–246 BC) were
faced with challenges in the west, including repeated wars with
Ptolemy II
and a
Celtic
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
Bactria
under
Diodotus
,
Parthia
under
Arsaces
, and
Cappadocia
under
Ariarathes III
.

In Bactria
, the satrap
Diodotus
asserted independence to
form the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom
c.245 BC.

Diodotus
, governor for the
Bactrian
territory, asserted independence in
around 245 BC, although the exact date is far from certain, to form the
Greco-Bactrian
kingdom. This kingdom was
characterized by a rich
Hellenistic
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,
Demetrius I of Bactria
, invaded India around
180 BC to form the
Greco-Indian
kingdom, lasting until around AD
20.

The Seleucid satrap of Parthia, named
Andragoras
, first claimed independence, in a
parallel to the secession of his Bactrian neighbour. Soon after however, a
Parthian tribal chief called
Arsaces

invaded the Parthian
territory around 238 BC to
form the
Arsacid Dynasty
— the starting point of the
powerful
Parthian Empire
.

By the time Antiochus II’s son
Seleucus II Callinicus
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
Third Syrian War
against
Ptolemy III of Egypt
and then had to fight a
civil war against his own brother
Antiochus Hierax
. 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 Galatia
, semi-independent semi-Hellenized
kingdoms had sprung up in
Bithynia
,
Pontus
, and
Cappadocia
, and the city of
Pergamum
in the west was asserting its
independence under the
Attalid Dynasty
.

Revival
(223–191 BC)

Silver coin of
Antiochus III the Great
.

The Seleucid Empire in 200 BC (before expansion into
Anatolia
and
Greece
).

A revival would begin when Seleucus II’s younger son,
Antiochus III the Great
, took the throne in 223
BC. Although initially unsuccessful in the
Fourth Syrian War
against Egypt, which led to a
defeat at the
Battle of Raphia
(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
anabasis
through the eastern parts of his
domain and restoring rebellious vassals like Parthia and
Greco-Bactria
to at least nominal obedience. He
won the
Battle of the Arius
and
besieged the Bactrian capital
, and even
emulated Alexander with an expedition into India where he met with king
Sophagasenus
receiving war elephants:

“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”. Polybius 11.39

When he returned to the west in 205 BC, Antiochus found that with the death
of
Ptolemy IV
, the situation now looked propitious
for another western campaign. Antiochus and
Philip V of Macedon
then made a pact to divide
the Ptolemaic possessions outside of Egypt, and in the
Fifth Syrian War
, the Seleucids ousted
Ptolemy V
from control of
Coele-Syria
. The
Battle of Panium
(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

Following his erstwhile ally
Philip’s
defeat by Rome in 197 BC, Antiochus
saw the opportunity for expansion into Greece itself. Encouraged by the exiled
Carthaginian
general
Hannibal
, and making an alliance with the
disgruntled
Aetolian League
, Antiochus launched an invasion
across the
Hellespont
. 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
Roman Republic
. At the battles of
Thermopylae
and
Magnesia
, Antiochus’s forces were resoundingly
defeated and he was compelled to make peace and sign the
Treaty of Apamea
in (188 BC), the main clause
of which saw the Seleucids agree to pay a large indemnity, retreat from
Anatolia
and to never again attempt to expand
Seleucid territory west of the
Taurus Mountains
. The
Kingdom of Pergamum
and the
Republic of Rhodes
, Rome’s allies in the war,
were given the former Seleucid lands in Anatolia. Antiochus died in 187 BC on
another expedition to the east, where he sought to extract money to pay the
indemnity.

Roman power,
Parthia and Judea

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

Seleucus’ younger brother,
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
, now seized the throne.
He attempted to restore Seleucid power and prestige with a successful war
against the old enemy,
Ptolemaic Egypt
, which met with initial success
as the Seleucids defeated and drove the Egyptian army back to
Alexandria
itself. As the king planned on how
to conclude the war, he was informed that Roman commissioners, led by the
Proconsul

Gaius Popillius Laenas
, were near and
requesting a meeting with the Seleucid king. Antiochus agreed, but when they met
and Antiochus 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 Judea
—the
Maccabean Revolt
. 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.

Civil war and
further decay

Coin of
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
.

Silver coin of
Alexander Balas
.

After the death of
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
, the Seleucid Empire
became increasingly unstable. Frequent civil wars made central authority tenuous
at best. Epiphanes’ young son,
Antiochus V Eupator
, was first overthrown by
Seleucus IV’s son,
Demetrius I Soter
in 161 BC. Demetrius I
attempted to restore Seleucid power in
Judea
particularly, but was overthrown in 150
BC by
Alexander Balas
— an impostor who (with
Egyptian backing) claimed to be the son of Epiphanes. Alexander Balas reigned
until 145 BC, when he was overthrown by Demetrius I’s son,
Demetrius II Nicator
. Demetrius II proved
unable to control the whole of the kingdom, however. While he ruled
Babylonia
and eastern
Syria
from
Damascus
, the remnants of Balas’ supporters —
first supporting Balas’ son
Antiochus VI
, then the usurping general
Diodotus Tryphon
— held out in
Antioch
.

Meanwhile, the decay of the Empire’s territorial possessions continued apace.
By 143 BC, the
Jews
in form of the
Maccabees
had fully established their
independence.
Parthian
expansion continued as well. In 139
BC, Demetrius II was defeated in battle by the Parthians and was captured. By
this time, the entire Iranian Plateau had been lost to Parthian control.

Demetrius Nicator’s brother,
Antiochus VII Sidetes
, took the throne after
his brother’s capture. He faced the enormous task of restoring a rapidly
crumbling empire; one facing threats on multiple fronts. Hard-won control of
Coele-Syria
was threatened by the Jewish
Maccabee rebels. Once-vassal dynasties in Armenia, Cappadocia, and Pontus were
threatening Syria and northern
Mesopotamia
; the nomadic Parthians, brilliantly
led by
Mithridates I of Parthia
had overrun uppland
Media (home of the famed
Nisean horse
herd); and Roman intervention was
an ever-present threat. Sidetes managed to bring the Maccabees to heel; frighten
the Anatolian dynasts into a temporary submission; and then, in 133, turned east
with the full might of the Royal Army (supported by a body of Jews under the
Maccabee prince, John Hyrcanus) to drive back the Parthians.

Sidetes’ campaign initially met with spectacular success, recapturing
Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Media; defeating and slaying the Parthian Satrap of
Seleucia-on-Tigris
in personal combat. In the
winter of 130/129 BC, his army was scattered in winter quarters throughout Media
and Persis when the Parthian king,
Phraates II
, counter-attacked. Moving to
intercept the Parthians with only the troops at his immediate disposal, he was
ambushed and killed. Antiochus Sidetes is sometimes called the last great
Seleucid king.

After the death of Antiochus VII Sidetes, all of the recovered eastern
territories were recaptured by the Parthians. The Maccabees again rebelled,
civil war soon tore the empire to pieces, and the Armenians began to encroach on
Syria from the north.

Collapse
(100–63 BC)

By 100 BC, the once formidable Seleucid Empire encompassed little more than
Antioch
and some Syrian cities. Despite the
clear collapse of their power, and the decline of their kingdom around them,
nobles continued to play kingmakers on a regular basis, with occasional
intervention from
Ptolemaic Egypt
and other outside powers. The
Seleucids existed solely because no other nation wished to absorb them — seeing
as they constituted a useful buffer between their other neighbours. In the wars
in Anatolia between
Mithridates VI
of
Pontus
and
Sulla
of Rome, the Seleucids were largely left
alone by both major combatants.

Mithridates’ ambitious son-in-law,
Tigranes the Great
, king of
Armenia
, however, saw opportunity for expansion
in the constant civil strife to the south. In 83 BC, at the invitation of one of
the factions in the interminable civil wars, he invaded Syria, and soon
established himself as ruler of Syria, putting the Seleucid Empire virtually at
an end.

Seleucid rule was not entirely over, however. Following the Roman general
Lucullus
‘ defeat of both Mithridates and
Tigranes in 69 BC, a rump Seleucid kingdom was restored under
Antiochus XIII
. Even so, civil wars could not
be prevented, as another Seleucid,
Philip II
, contested rule with Antiochus. After
the Roman conquest of Pontus, the Romans became increasingly alarmed at the
constant source of instability in Syria under the Seleucids. Once Mithridates
was defeated by Pompey
in 63 BC, Pompey set about the task of
remaking the Hellenistic East, by creating new client kingdoms and establishing
provinces. While client nations like
Armenia
and
Judea
were allowed to continue with some degree
of autonomy under local kings, Pompey saw the Seleucids as too troublesome to
continue; and doing away with both rival Seleucid princes, he made Syria into a
Roman province.

Culture

Bagadates I
(Minted 290–280 BC) was
the first indigenous Seleucid satrap to be appointed.

The Seleucid empire’s geographic span, from the
Aegean Sea
to what is now
Afghanistan
and
Pakistan
, created a melting pot of various
peoples, such as Greeks
,
Armenians
,
Persians
,
Medes
,
Assyrians
, and
Jews
. The immense size of the empire, followed
by its encompassing nature, made the Seleucid rulers have a governing interest
in implementing a policy of racial unity initiated by Alexander.

The
Hellenization
of the Seleucid empire was
achieved by the establishment of Greek cities throughout the empire.
Historically significant towns and cities, such as
Antioch
, were created or renamed with more
appropriate
Greek
names. The creation of new
Greek
cities and towns was aided by the fact
that the Greek mainland was overpopulated and therefore made the vast Seleucid
empire ripe for colonization. Colonization was used to further Greek interest
while facilitating the assimilation of many native groups. Socially, this led to
the adoption of Greek practices and customs by the educated native classes in
order to further themselves in public life and the ruling
Macedonian
class gradually adopted some of the
local traditions. By 313 BC, Hellenic ideas had begun their almost 250-year
expansion into the Near East, Middle East, and Central Asian cultures. It was
the empire’s governmental framework to rule by establishing hundreds of cities
for trade and occupational purposes. Many of the existing cities began — or were
compelled by force — to adopt Hellenized philosophic thought, religious
sentiments, and politics.

Synthesizing Hellenic and indigenous cultural, religious, and philosophical
ideas met with varying degrees of success — resulting in times of simultaneous
peace and rebellion in various parts of the empire. Such was the case with the
Jewish population of the Seleucid empire because the Jews posed a significant
problem which eventually led to war. Contrary to the accepting nature of the
Ptolemaic
empire towards native religions and
customs, the Seleucids gradually tried to force Hellenization upon the Jewish
people in their territory by outlawing Judaism. This eventually led to the
revolt of the Jews
under Seleucid control,
which would later lead to the Jews achieving independence.

Seleucid rulers

Seleucus I Nicator
, the founder of
the Seleucid Empire.

The Seleucid dynasty or the Seleucidae (from
Greek
: Σελευκίδαι,
Seleukídai) was a
Greek

Macedonian
descendants of
Seleucus I Nicator
(“the Victor”), who ruled
the
Seleucid Kingdom
centered in the
Near East
and regions of the

Asian part of the earlier
Achaemenid

Persian Empire
during the
Hellenistic period
.

List

Family tree