Antiochus XIII Philadelphus: The Last Seleucid Ruler in Syria

Introduction

Antiochus XIII Philadelphus, called Asiaticus, was a late Hellenistic ruler of the Seleucid dynasty whose activity falls in the late first century BC. He succeeded his father, Antiochus X Eusebes, in the early 90s–80s BC (sources give the succession between c.92 and c.88–83 BC) and reigned under the regency of his mother, the Ptolemaic princess Cleopatra Selene of Syria, while still a minor.

After the Armenian king Tigranes the Great overran Syria, Cleopatra Selene took her sons to Rome to seek recognition for their claims; they were not accepted for Egypt but were acknowledged as kings of Syria during a Roman stay dated between 75 and 73 BC and maintained a royal court in exile. Cleopatra Selene was later captured and killed by Tigranes. Following Lucius Licinius Lucullus’s victory over Tigranes, Antiochus XIII was acclaimed by the citizens of Antioch and in 69 BC Lucullus approved his appointment as a Roman client ruler of Syria.

Antiochus’s authority was contested by relatives such as Philip II Philoromaeus and by the shifting Roman settlement of the region. In 64 BC Pompey ordered his removal; he was killed by the Syrian chieftain Sampsiceramus I. His death has traditionally been treated as the end of the Seleucid dynasty, though Philip II and possibly a Seleucus VII survived briefly. Antiochus XIII’s reign is therefore defined by dynastic inheritance, regency and exile, brief restoration as a Roman client king, and a violent deposition that marked the final eclipse of Seleucid power in Syria.