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Antiochus The Great, by Michael Taylor
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A teenage king in 223 BC, Antiochus III inherited an empire in shambles, ravaged by civil strife and eroded by territorial secessions. He proved himself a true heir of Alexander: he defeated rebel armies and embarked on a campaign of conquest and reunification. Although repulsed by Ptolemy IV at the Battle of Raphia, his eastern campaigns reaffirmed Seleucid hegemony as far as modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Returning westward, he defeated Ptolemy V at Panion (200 BC) and succeeded in adding Koile Syria to the Seleucid realm.
At the height of his powers, he challenged growing Roman power, unimpressed by their recent successes against Carthage and Macedon. His expeditionary force was crushed at Thermopylae and evacuated. Refusing to bow before Roman demands, Antiochus energetically mobilized against Roman invasion, but was again decisively defeated at the epic battle of Magnesia. Despite the loss of territory and prestige enshrined in the subsequent Peace of Apamea, Antiochus III left the Seleucid Empire in far better condition than he found it. Although sometimes presented as a failure against the unstoppable might of Rome, Antiochus III must rank as one of the most energetic and effective rulers of the Ancient world.
In addition to discussing the career of Antiochus III, Michael Taylor examines Seleucid military organization and royal administration.
REVIEWS
"...very interesting reading about a man who declared himself the champion of Greek freedom against Roman domination, only to be defeated. "
Toy Soldier and Model Figure Magazine
"... full of events ...the author narrates in a compelling style...wealth of informational aspects"
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
an excellent work for anyone interested in ancient history; informative, lively, and quite readable.
Strategy Page
- Sales Rank: #872188 in Books
- Published on: 2013-11-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.34" h x .87" w x 6.40" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 192 pages
About the Author
Michael Taylor has a history degree from Princeton University and an MA from the University of California, where has also taught Greek and Roman history. A Lieutenant in the National Guard, he saw service in Kuwait and Iraq in 2007/8 and is currently deployed with the NATO force in Kosovo. He has been decorated for meritorious conduct. He is a regular contributor to Ancient Warfare magazine
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
What a Pen & Sword book should look like
By JPS
First posted on Amazon.co.uk on 16 October 2013
As the author acknowledges in his own words, this book "is designed as a narrative overview of the king (Antiochus III) and his times, aimed at the widest possible audience." In this, Michael Taylor has been hugely successful and has fully achieved his objective. With 160 pages of text, and 200 pages all told, preface, maps, bibliography and index included, this is a concise little book, written in a clear style, and very accessible. Moreover, it makes all the key points. It presents and discusses the whole career of the Seleucid king and the game-changing events in which he played a key role and still manages, despite its size, to provide the reader with a decent overview of the Seleucid Empire, its institutions, its history and its weak points.
The most remarkable feature of this book, and what makes it so successful in my view, is the author's ability to draw the main points from the main references on each subject and wield them together into a coherent narrative while never giving the impression of paraphrasing. This is also fully acknowledged by the author when stating that his endnotes are intended to guide those looking for further reading and to recognize that "the heavy lifting has been done by other scholars." The book's contents and structure certainly confirms this display of modesty and honesty.
Another remarkable feat is to show both the qualities and the limits of the Seleucid King and his achievements. He was a competent politician and general, rather than a genius. His main weakness seems to have been a rather rash and reckless streak directly in line with Alexander the Great's heritage. This streak stemmed from Alexander the Great's "heroic leadership" (and high-risk) leadership, but not everyone could display it consistently and so successfully. Not only did Antiochus put himself at personal risk by leading from the front, as his Macedonian predecessor did so often, but he also sometimes "lost it" and got carried away, both in battle and politically. His cavalry charges were pressed too far and for too long at Raphia against the Ptolemies, and at Magnesia, against the Romans. In both cases, what could have been a victory ended in military disaster. Politically, the BC 192-191 invasion of Greece seems to have been somewhat improvised and ill-conceived, with the King landing with too few troops and having stacked everything on the somewhat delusional impression that he would be welcomed as a liberator.
His main quality, however, seems to have been his sheer determination and drive. As the author shows, the King could be quite ruthless and he certainly needed to be so at times. He spent about thirty years of his long reign on campaigns to reassert his authority across his far-flung empire and most of these, with the exception of the one mentioned above, seem to have been carefully planned and prepared.
A third interesting feature is the glimpses that the book gives on what it meant to run the huge and far-flung Empire. One well-made point is to show the connections between Seleucid rule and the Persian Empire, with the latter's heritage being far greater than what is usually believed. Another is to show that the King, while an absolute monarch, had to rule through a mix of military power and consent. The later was largely achieved through the financial support that he displayed - gifts to his entourage at Court (his "friends") and to the Empire's cities, whose expansion was therefore favoured. These displays of both force and gifts were key ingredients of his legitimacy. Yet another feature was the sheer size of the Empire, which in itself made it a huge challenge to govern. One recipe was to trust kinsmen and appoint them as quasi viceroys, but this did not always work. Another alternative, first experienced by Seleukos I, the founder of the dynasty, was to associate the heir to the throne to the government of the Empire early on. In addition to smoothing the succession, this would allow the younger monarch to "learn the ropes" from the "old pair of hands" while also in effect allowing one to concentrate on the eastern provinces while the other focused on the western ones.
Two more points which I found particularly interesting and well-made, although there are others as well, is the author's lucid, clear and concise analysis of the sources and his assessment (even if borrowed from other scholars) of Antiochus' Anabasis - his multi-year expedition to the east in which he restored Seleucid supremacy over the Empire's eastern territories. Partly under the influence of some of the ancient sources, many historians have considered that the expedition had little to show for it, apart from having "shown the flag" and some short-term gains. This is because Antiochus left the Kings of Armenia, of Parthia (or rather what would become Parthia over the next few decades) and of Bactria in place and did not bring their territories under direct Seleucid control. As the author shows very well, the latter may have been unrealistic and even perhaps unachievable. It was anyway not necessary, as long as the Kings acknowledged their vassal status, contributed their contingents to the Seleucid army when called upon, and paid tribute. The point made here is that control of the peripheral provinces was best assured in the same indirect ways as it had been under the Persian Kings of Kings through semi-autonomous local "dynasts", even if, now and again, these had to be "brought back in line" and tought, somewhat violently, "how to behave".
One final strong point of this book, and one of the most important ones in my view, is that, with the benefit of hindsight, we nowadays tend to see the rise of Rome as inexorable and inevitable. The book shows that this was not so and that the Romans, for all their victories, were not necessarily assured to win against the King, contrary to what an pro-Roman author like Polybius tends to insinuate. The Romans were not over-confident either, and the help that they received from their allies - the Rhodians and the King of Pergamum in particular - was significant. As the book shows, the fact that the Romans concentrated a significant army that heavily outnumbered the meagre forces of Antiochus III in Greece is one illustration, among others.
There are, however, a few minor glitches and quibbles that can be made against this book, but only a few. One, quite frequent in Pen & Sword publications, is a number of avoidable typos (such as Cyrtian "singlers", instead of slingers). Another is perhaps a little weakness in the section narrating Antiochus' expedition to Greece. The King's reasons for fighting the battle of Thermopylae, despite being outnumbered, are somewhat unclear and not explained. Finally, I had a little grip with the author, since I do not believe that the last stand that took place during the first battle of Thermopylae was "foolish gallantry". There were in fact a couple of rather sound military and political reasons for the Spartan Battle King to make his last stand, quite apart from heroics and leaving aside all warrior ethos, although this goes beyond the scope of this book and this review.
Given all this, this book is easily worth five stars for me and I wish that most (if not all) Pen and Sword books were as good as this one. For those wanting to learn more on the Seleucids, I can recommend the following, from which Michael Taylor has borrowed:
- The Seleucid Army, by Bar Kochva (1976) which is both essential and unrivalled on this topic. In particular, the book shows to what extent Antiochus almost won at Magnesia against the Romans
- The Seleucid Royal Economy (G. Aperghis, 2004), on the financial aspects of governing the Empire
- A range of John Grainger's books on both major events (the Syrian Wars, the Roman War of Antiochus the Great), on the Empire's cities (in particular his "Seleukid cities in Syria") and a biographer of the dynasty's founder and his times (Seleukos Nicator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom)
- John Ma's book on "Antiochus III and the cities of Western Asia Minor", which shows the complex relationships between the two.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A Good Biography of an Often Obscure Figure
By Arch Stanton
This is a very good biography with a subject about whom there isn't much recorded. Antiochus III was king of the Seleucid Empire from 222-187 BC. There is better info for his life than for most of the kings before or after him since he encountered Rome at a pivotal point in their expansion, but this does not change the fact that the sources are fragmentary, undetailed, and usually from an outside perspective.
What this book does very well is provide a sense of what it was like ruling the Seleucid empire and how effective Antiochus was as one of its most successful kings. The general impression is one of competence but never brilliance, with a tendency to get too carried away during battle (following Alexander's example of heroic kingship) and occasional misjudging of the political climate. Antiochus himself remains a bit of a blank slate, although his drive and ambition is readily apparent. Oddly enough the first section of the book, which covers the part of his reign before the encounters with Rome that generally received more attention from ancient historians, is the most successful at defining his character. Seeing how he handled internal politics and gradually emerged as master of his own court was interesting and seemed to genuinely show facets of his personality. In later chapters he appears more or less as the invisible instigator behind major events, rarely emerging from a general summary of his behavior.
Inevitably this book raises many questions that cannot be answered. What was Antiochus like as a person? Exactly what did he do on his eastern campaigns? Even basic questions questions about the structure of his court are often vague. But for a work covering what can be known this biography does a very good job. For more information on the Seleucid army see Bar Kochva's The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns, from which the author bases much of his battle information.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
I would like to emphasize that the book is "a narrative overview"
By Bob Russell
JPS hits it squarely on the head. I would like to emphasize that the book is "a narrative overview". It is great for those seeking an introduction to the subject that is not merely an account of military operations. Seleucia is not exactly a household word. This is a good place for a curious reader to start finding out about the place and its greatest exponent.
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