Antiochus I Soter

Successor of: Seleucus I Nicator

Relatives:

• Father: Seleucus I Nicator
• Mother: Apame I, daughter of  Spitamenes
• Wife: Stratonice I (his stepmother), daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes
• Sons:
• Seleucus
• Antiochus II Theos
• Daughters
  • Laodice
  • Apame II (married to Magas of Cyrene)
  • Stratonice III (married to Ariarathes III of Cappadocia)

• 301: Present during the Battle of Ipsus
• 294/293: marriage with his father's wife Stratonice I
• 292: made co-regent and satrap of Bactria (perhaps Seleucus was thinking of the ancient Achaemenid office of mathišta)
• Stay in Babylon (on several occasions?), where he showed an interest in the cults of Sin and Marduk, and in the rebuilding of the Esagila and Etemenanki
• September 281: death of Seleucus (more...); accession of Antiochus; Philetaerus of Pergamon buys back Seleucus' corpse
• 280-279: Brief war against Ptolemy II Philadelphus (First Syrian War, first part); Cappadocia becomes independent when its leader Ariarathes II and his ally Orontes III of Armenia defeat the Seleucid general Amyntas
• 279: Intervention in Greece: soldiers sent to Thermopylae to fight against the Galatians; they are defeated
• 275 Successful "Elephant Battle" against the Galatians; they enter his army as mercenaries; Antiochus is called Soter, 'victor'
• 274-271: Unsuccessful war against Ptolemy (First Syrian War, second part)
• 268: Stay in Babylonia; rebuilding of the Ezida in Borsippa
• 266: Execution of his son Seleucus
• 263: Eumenes I of Pergamon, successor of Philetaerus, declares himself independent
• 262: Antiochus defeated by Eumenes
• Dies 2 June 261

Sources:

• During Antiochus' years as crown prince, he played a large role in Babylonian policy. He is therefore often mentioned in the Babylonian Chronicles: Antiochus I and Sin temple chronicle (BCHP 5), Ruin of Esagila chronicle (BCHP 6), Antiochus, Bactria, and India chronicle (BCHP 7), Juniper garden chronicle (BCHP 8), and End of Seleucus I chronicle (BCHP 9)
• Antiochus Cylinder
• Appian of Alexandria, Syrian Wars, 65
• Diodorus of Sicily, Library of World History, 21.20
• Pausanias, Guide to Greece, 1.7.3, 10.20.3
• Pliny the Elder, Natural history, 6.47
• Plutarch of Chaeronea, Demetrius, 28-29
• Strabo, Geography, 11.516 and 13.623

Literature

• O.L. Gabelko & Yu.N. Kuzmin, "Matrimonial Policy of Demetrius II of Macedonia. New Solutions of Old Problems", in: Vestnik drevnej istorii 264 (2008) 141-164