Shortly after Antiochus III’s succession in 223 BC, the provinces Media and Persia revolted. Two years later he went eastwards with an army and the rebellion collapsed. Meanwhile his cousin Achaeus had revolted and assumed the title of king in Asia Minor. Antiochus’ first attempt to capture southern Syria from Egypt during the Fourth Syrian War (219-217 BC) ended with his defeat at Raphia (near Gaza).
In 214-213 BC Antiochus recovered the central part of Asia Minor from Achaeus. During 213 to 205 BC he brought Commagene and Armenia under his control, regained Parthia and Bactria (they had broken away in c.245 BC), and led expeditions into India and Arabia. In 202-198 BC he captured southern Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia from Egypt. In 197 BC he returned to Asia Minor. He gained some Ptolemaic territories then crossed Europe into Thrace with the intention of rebuilding Lysimachia, a previous Seleucid possession that had been recently destroyed by the Thracians.
In 195 BC he began a campaign against the Thracians. Towards the end of the year Hannibal found refuge with Antiochus and became one of his advisers. In 194 BC the Romans fulfilled their promise of freedom and withdrew their army from Greece. In 193 BC Antiochus offered the Romans joint rule of the Mediterranean with borders at Thrace and the Aegean. In response, Flaminius insisted that the king either withdrew altogether from Europe or allow the Romans to intervene in the affairs of their friends in Asia Minor.
Seeing that war was now certain the Aetolians attempted to form an anti-Roman coalition with Philip, Nabis and Antiochus. Philip declined, but Nabis was enthusiastic and tried to recapture his former Laconian coastal possessions. Initially he was successful but his army was soon routed by Philopoemen and confined within the walls of Sparta (192 BC).
In March 192 BC Antiochus informed the Aetolians through his envoy that he was willing to join them in restoring Greek freedom. The Aetolians attempted to seize Chalcis and Demetrias to facilitate Antiochus’ landing, and to occupy Sparta to hold the Achaeans. At Sparta they killed Nabis but their force was annihilated. They also failed with their attempt on Chalcis, but managed to capture Demetrias. With Sparta in turmoil Philopoemen entered the city with the Achaean army and made Sparta a member state of the league.
In autumn 192 BC Antiochus landed at Demetrias with a relatively small force of ten thousand troops, hoping to increase his numbers during his advance. At about the same time 03Baebius Tamphilus (cos.181 BC) crossed from southern Italy to Apollonia. Some disturbances favouring Antiochus were quietened at Athens by the presence of Flamininus; and those at Corinth, Aegium (Achaea) and Patrae (Achaea) by Marcus 02Porcius Cato the Elder (85; fl.214-149 BC).
Antiochus marched through Lamia and captured Chalcis, after which the Boeotians and the rest of Euboea went over to him. He then conducted a campaign in Thessaly but had to withdraw before Larissa on the approach of a Roman detachment under 13Claudius Pulcher (fl.197-176 BC).
During the winter Baebius met Philip (who by now was disillusioned with Antiochus) and secured his support by agreeing that he should keep any places he captured from the Aetolians and their allies. Philip and Baebius then conducted a campaign in Thessaly that regained most of the towns the Aetolians had taken in the previous year.
In spring 191 BC the consul Manius 01Acilius Glabrio arrived with reinforcements that increased the Roman army in Greece to about forty thousand men. Antiochus withdrew to Thermopylae. He rebuilt the wall across the pass at its narrowest point and put a palisade and trench in front of it. To prevent the Romans outflanking him by using the mountain trails (by then well known to both sides) he ordered the Aetolians to guard the nearby peaks.
Glabrio attacked the pass and sent the legates 10Valerius Flaccus (fl.212-180 BC) and 02Porcius Cato to take the Aetolians’ strongholds. Flaccus was beaten back from the Rhoduntia and the Tichius, but Cato successfully assaulted the Callidromus stronghold and the sudden appearance of Cato’s troops from behind led to chaos in the enemy’s ranks. Antiochus was easily routed and fled with the remains of his army to Chalcis and from there by sea to Ephesus.
Glabrio occupied Epicnemedian Locris then invaded Phocis and Boeotia, which surrendered. With the region pacified he returned to Thermopylae and laid siege to the Aetolians in Heraclea. He was assisted by Philip V, whom he ordered to desist from the siege of Lamia but allowed to appropriate territory in Northern Greece. Glabrio embarked on a siege of Naupactus but was persuaded by Flaminius to grant the Aetolians a truce to allow them to negotiate a peace.
In 189 BC the consul 10Fulvius Nobilior (fl.195-179 BC) laid siege to Ambracia and eventually the Aetolian League accepted a treaty that restricted it to Aetolian territory alone and took control of its foreign relations, thus ending Aetolian independence. Cephalonia, a member of the Aetolian League not included in the treaty, surrendered to Fulvius but the city of Sami on the island immediately revolted. After a four months’ siege Fulvius took the city and subdued the island.
Meanwhile, in 191 BC 03Livius Salinator (cos.188 BC) in command of eighty-one ships was pursuing Antiochus. At the Ionian coast, Eumenes II of Pergamum (r.197-160 BC) added twenty-four ships. Antiochus’ fleet of seventy ships under the command of his admiral Polyxenidas (fl.209-190 BC) met the allied fleet off Cape Corycus in Cilicia. His right flank was protected by the shore, but the allies with their advantage in numbers outflanked his left, which was soon overpowered. The greater speed of his ships allowed him to withdraw and reach the safety of the harbour at Ephesus, but ten of his ships were sunk and thirteen captured, while the allies lost only one. The next day the Rhodians arrived, adding twenty-seven ships to the allied fleet. Polyxenidas was not inclined to come out and fight, and so with winter approaching the Romans and the Pergamenes retired to a harbour near Pergamum.
In April 190 BC Polyxenidas managed to slip out of the harbour and attack the Rhodian squadron which had come too close. Only seven of their ships escaped, the other twenty were either lost or captured.
In June it was learned that Hannibal had sailed with a fleet of forty-seven ships and was heading westwards along the Cilician coast. The Rhodians concentrated their thirty-six ships under their captain Eudamus of Rhodes and despite their inferior numbers they were defeated near the mouth of the Eurymedon River (or off the town of Side).
By October, the allied fleet watching Ephesus consisted of fifty-eight Roman ships commanded by the consul 12Aemilius Regillus, supported by Eudamus with twenty-two lighter ships. The Syrians’ fleet now numbered eighty-nine ships and Polyxenidas was ordered to break out and attack the allies. The two fleets met off Myonessus (near Teos).
Polyxenidas extended his line of ships so that his superior numbers would envelop the Roman offshore (right) flank. To counter this Eudemus led his ships to harry and hold the Syrians’ offshore (left) wing, while the Romans used their ‘grapple and board’ method to break through the Syrian centre. Before long, Polyxenidas’ offshore wing was in retreat and the rest of his fleet followed, sailing back to Ephesus. Polyxenidas was defeated, nearly half of the fleet being sunk or captured.
With these two victories, Rome and her allies now controlled the Aegean and the coasts of Asia Minor. The Roman forces, escorted by thirty ships, crossed safely into Asia. On the west coast north of Ephesus, the enemy city and harbour of Phocaea was captured to use as a winter base.
In December a Roman army of forty thousand men under Publius 16Cornelius and his brother Lucius 18Cornelius met Antiochus and his army of at least fifty thousand at Magnesia ad Sipylum, northeast of Smyrna. The battle began with a charge by Antiochus’ scythed chariots, but they were defeated by archers and slingers. Antiochus’ cavalry on the right then tore through the Roman left, scattering the allied soldiers. At the same time, Eumenes’ cavalry defeated the Seleucid left and pushed towards the enemy centre. At some point Antiochus’ elephants stampeded, causing his phalanx line to break and flee. The Roman legions advanced, putting the larger Syrian force in rout. The fleeing force fell easy prey to the pursuers and suffered a loss of half their force. The Roman losses totalled only three hundred.
In 189 BC the consul 10Manlius Vulso launched an attack on the Galatians, descendants of the Gauls who had settled in central Anatolia about a century before, some of whom had fought on the side of Antiochus at Magnesia. Manlius attacked their strongholds on Mount Olympus and Mount Magaba, and the Galatian Gauls, after a short but stout resistance, were defeated with great slaughter and subjugated.
In 191 BC the Achaean League had annexed Messene and Elis and crushed a revolt in Sparta. In 189 BC when Sparta stormed Las near Gytheum, Philopoemen threatened war unless the Spartans surrendered those guilty of the attack. But the Spartans instead voted secession from the league and surrendered to Roman protection. In 188 BC the league’s forces invaded Laconia, dismantled Sparta’s city walls, exiled all mercenaries, anti-Achaeans and enfranchised helots, made all the laws Achaean, and forced a new treaty upon Sparta.
Finally, in the Treaty of Apamea of 188 BC Antiochus was forced to pay a war indemnity of fifteen thousand talents and give up significant territory in Asia Minor. The Taurus Mountains became the new frontier. He was allowed to keep the Pamphylia and Cilicia regions, but the greater part of the territory ceded was divided between Eumenes and the Rhodians, with the Meander River as the boundary between. He also had to surrender his elephants and fleet, except ten ships that were not to sail west of Cape Sarpedonium on the Cilician coast.
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