Antiochus II Theos
Successor of: Antiochus I Soter
Relatives:
- Father: Antiochus I Soter
- Mother: Stratonice I
- Wives:
- Laodice I
- Son: Seleucus II Callinicus
- Son: Antiochus Hierax
- Daughter: Apame [1]
- Daughter: Stratonice III (married to Ariarathes III of Cappadocia)
- Daughter: Laodice (married to Mithradates II of Pontus)
- Berenice Phernephorus (daughter of Ptolemy II Philadelphus)
- Son: Antiochus (born 251; killed in the late summer of 246)
Part of the decoration of the Belevi mausoleum (Archaeological museum, Izmir)
- c.286 Born
- After 268: Antiochus I Soter executes his eldest son Seleucus; Antiochus II becomes crown prince
- 2 June 261: Death of Antiochus I; Antiochus II succeeds
- 260: Outbreak of the Second Syrian War against Ptolemy II Philadelphus; the Seleucids achieve several successes in western Asia Minor
- 259/258: Liberates Miletus from a tyrant Timarchus, and is awarded the surname Theos, 'the god'
- 253: Peace with Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who recognizes Seleucid territorial gains in the west
- 252: Antiochus divorces his wife Laodice and marries Ptolemy's daughter Berenice Phernephorus
- 251: Birth of Antiochus
- 28 January 246: Death of Ptolemy II; Antiochus II repudiates Berenice, who stays in Antioch; he returns to his first wife Laodice
- early July 246: dies in Ephesus, only forty years old, and is buried in the Belevi Mausoleum
- His death provokes the Third Syrian War
Sources:
- Seleucid successions chronicle (BCHP 10)
- Appian of Alexandria, Syrian Wars, 65
- Diodorus of Sicily, Library of World History, 31.19
- Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 7.43
- Polyaenus, Stratagems, 8.50
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Sometimes, it is assumed that this was a son named Apammes. This is based on an erroneous reading of an Astronomical Diary (more...).