Appian's account of the Syrian wars and Rome's conflict with the Seleucid Empire.
Start ReadingThe Seleucid Empire under Antiochus III the Great reaches eastward to India, building a power that rivals Alexander's legacy.
Antiochus III's ambitions turn westward as he crosses into Europe, alarming the Greek states and drawing Rome's attention.
Hannibal, exiled from Carthage, arrives at Antiochus's court and urges the king to carry the war to Italy itself.
Rome sends Scipio Africanus's brother Lucius to confront Antiochus, with Africanus himself accompanying as an adviser.
The Battle of Thermopylae sees Antiochus defeated in the same pass where Leonidas fell, as Roman discipline overwhelms Seleucid numbers.
The Roman fleet pursues the war into Asia Minor, fighting naval engagements that secure the crossing of the Hellespont.
The decisive Battle of Magnesia destroys Antiochus's army, including his feared scythed chariots and war elephants.
The Treaty of Apamea strips the Seleucid Empire of Asia Minor, confining it east of the Taurus Mountains and imposing crippling reparations.
The decline of Seleucid power accelerates as dynastic civil wars and Parthian expansion eat away at the empire from within and without.
Rome intervenes repeatedly in Seleucid affairs, drawing a circle in the sand around Antiochus IV and ordering him out of Egypt.
The final collapse of the Seleucid state leads Pompey to annex Syria as a Roman province, ending three centuries of Macedonian rule in the east.