(CALLINICUS, king of SYRIA, was the eldest son
of Antiochus II. by his first wife Laodice. (Appian. Syr. 66 ; Justin,
BERENICE, No. 2.] But this act of cruelty produced the most disastrous effects, by
alienating all his Syrian subjects, while it aroused Ptolemy Euergetes, king of Egypt, to
avenge the fate of his unhappy sister. Seleucus was unable to offer any resistance to the
Egyptian monarch, and withdrew beyond Mount Taurus, while Ptolemy not only made himself master
of Antioch and the whole of Syria, but carried his arms unopposed beyond the Euphrates and the
Tigris. [PTOLEMAEUS III.] During these operations Seleucus kept
wholly aloof; but when Ptolemy had been recalled to his own dominions by domestic
disturbances, he appears to have easily recovered possession of the greater part of the
provinces which he had lost. All farther details of the revolution which replaced him in the
possession of his father's empire, are lost to us; but it seems certain that as early as Hellenism. vol. ii. p. 351;
Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 313.) A naval expedition which he undertook
in order to subdue the maritime cities that had revolted, was less fortunate : his fleet was
shattered by a storm, and he himself narrowly escaped with his life. Still, he soon after
found himself strong enough to commence offensive operations against Ptolemy, but was totally
defeated and his army dispersed. In this emergency he had recourse to his younger brother
Antiochus Hierax, who appears to have been already established (probably by Ptolemy) in an
independent position, and offered him the sovereignty of all Asia Minor as the price of his
support. But Antiochus, deeming the opportunity a favourable one for making himself master of
the whole Syrian kingdom, instead of supporting his brother, turned his arms against him, and
Seleucus found himself engaged in war at once with the king of Egypt and his own brother.
(
The events of the succeeding years are very imperfectly known to us, and it is scarcely
possible to derive any connected historical results from the confused and fragmentary notices
which have been transmitted to us. But it seems certain that Seleucus concluded (probably in
Prol. xxvii.;
Euseb. Arm. pp. 164, 165; de Frat. Amor. p. 489a.; Kl. Schrift. vol. i. pp. 276-286;
and Droysen, vol. ii. p. 337-359, 410-429.)
It must have been during this interval that Seleucus undertook an expedition to the East,
with the view of reducing the revolted provinces of Parthia and Bactria, which had availed
themselves of the disordered state of the Syrian empire to throw off its yoke. He was,
however, defeated by Arsaces, king of Parthia, in a great battle which was long after
celebrated by the Parthians as the foundation of their independence (Ann. Syr. pp. 30,
31) and Clinton (F. H. vol. iii. p. 313) have represented him as himself
falling a captive into the bands of the Parthians : but it appears, from the Armenian version
of Eusebius (p. 167, fol. edit.), that the passage of Posidonius (apud Athen. iv. p. 153) on which they rely as their authority, refers in fact to Seleucus
the son of Antiochus Sidetes (see Niebuhr, Kl. Schrift. p. 300). It was
probably during the same period of partial tranquillity that Seleucus found time to enlarge
his capital of Antioch, by the construction of a new quarter of the city. (
Whether hostilities with Egypt were ever actually renewed, or the truce between the two
countries at once passed into a durable peace, we know not; but it seems certain that such a
peace was concluded before the death of Seleucus (Nieb. l. c p. 287). On
the other hand, the war between the two brothers broke out with fresh violence. We have,
however, little information of its events ; and we only know that it was terminated by a
decisive victory of Seleucus in Mesopotamia, which compelled Antiochus to take refuge with
Ariamnes, king of Cappadocia. From thence he made his escape to the court of Ptolemy; but that
monarch being now desirous to maintain friendly relations with Syria, detained him in close
custody, from which he only escaped to perish by the hands of robbers. Meanwhile Attalus, king
of Pergamus, had extended his dominions over the greater part of Asia Minor, from which he had
expelled Antiochus ; and Seleucus appears to have been engaged in an expedition for the
recovery of these provinces, when he was accidentally killed by a fall from his horse, in the
twenty-first year of his reign, Prol. xxvii.; Euseb. Arm. p. 165;
Droysen, vol. ii. p. 426.)
One of the last acts of his reign was to send a magnificent present of corn, timber, and
other supplies, as well as ten quinqueremes fully equipped, to the Rhodians, whose city had
suffered severely by an earthquake (Syr. 66 ;