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The Hellenistic World

Daniel 11 · c. 190 BC

    The Hellenistic WorldBetween the Testaments · c. 190 BC. The plate is one moment, about 190 BC, and a frontier of this period was a zone rather than a line, so these are drawn broadly. For the century from 301 to 200 BC Judea was Ptolemaic: the settlement after Ipsus had awarded Coele-Syria to Seleucus, but Ptolemy I was already in possession and kept it, and the Seleucid claim was never given up — which is what drove the six Syrian Wars. Antiochus III failed in the fourth of them, beaten by Ptolemy IV at Raphia in 217, and succeeded at Panium in 200; Coele-Syria was settled in Seleucid hands by 198. That is the change this map is drawn after: Jerusalem now answers to Antioch and not to Alexandria, and everything the books of the Maccabees describe follows from it. Antiochus IV plundered the temple and forbade the law in 167; the revolt began that year and the temple was rededicated in 164; the Hasmoneans held an independent Judea from 142; and Pompey took Jerusalem for Rome in 63 BC, where the world of the Gospels begins. 190 BC is chosen rather than a later date because Antiochus III still held western Asia Minor, with his headquarters at Ephesus. Rome beat him at Magnesia that same year, and the treaty of Apamea in 188 took everything beyond the Taurus from him, most of it to Pergamum and Rhodes; a plate drawn after that needs a fourth power on it. Pergamum under the Attalids, Rhodes, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia (the Gauls had crossed into Asia in 278 and stayed) and Armenia were all independent of the Seleucids and are left untinted, as is Greece south of Thessaly, a shifting business of leagues rather than Macedonian territory. Nabatea around Petra is outside every kingdom because it was never taken. Damascus is shown Seleucid though it changed hands repeatedly. Seleucia on the Tigris, the eastern capital, is unmarked: at this scale only one of it and Babylon would be readable. The saltires are the great battles of the Syrian Wars, each standing at the city that named it — Raphia in 217, where Ptolemy IV turned Antiochus III back from Egypt in the largest battle of the Hellenistic age (Daniel 11:11-12); Panium in 200, where Antiochus III broke the Ptolemaic army at the springs of the Jordan and took Coele-Syria and Judea for good (11:15-16); and Pelusium in 170, where Antiochus IV opened his invasion of Egypt at the delta’s gate (11:25-27). The sites are Rafah, Banias (the later Caesarea Philippi) and Tell el-Farama. A frontier war that ran for a century is not one moment, so one mark stands on either side of the snapshot. TIGRIS NILE EUPHRATES ULAI TAURUS PINDUS SYRIAN DESERT MACEDONIA GREECE THRACE GALATIA CAPPADOCIA ARMENIA CYPRUS SYRIA JUDEA NABATEA EGYPT CYRENAICA ARABIA MESOPOTAMIA BABYLONIA MEDIA ELAM THE GREAT SEA THE RED SEA Alexandria Antioch Pella Jerusalem Athens Sparta Byzantium Pergamum Ephesus Rhodes Tarsus Damascus Babylon Susa Ecbatana Memphis Cyrene Petra Dura-Europos Raphia · 217 BC Panium · 200 BC Pelusium · 170 BC Ptolemaic EgyptSeleucid EmpireAntigonid MacedonJewish communityCapital or great cityOther cityBattle of the Syrian WarsHighlandJudea became Seleucid in 198 BC 1000100200300MILES

    The Hellenistic World

    Between the Testaments · c. 190 BC

    The plate is one moment, about 190 BC, and a frontier of this period was a zone rather than a line, so these are drawn broadly. For the century from 301 to 200 BC Judea was Ptolemaic: the settlement after Ipsus had awarded Coele-Syria to Seleucus, but Ptolemy I was already in possession and kept it, and the Seleucid claim was never given up — which is what drove the six Syrian Wars. Antiochus III failed in the fourth of them, beaten by Ptolemy IV at Raphia in 217, and succeeded at Panium in 200; Coele-Syria was settled in Seleucid hands by 198. That is the change this map is drawn after: Jerusalem now answers to Antioch and not to Alexandria, and everything the books of the Maccabees describe follows from it. Antiochus IV plundered the temple and forbade the law in 167; the revolt began that year and the temple was rededicated in 164; the Hasmoneans held an independent Judea from 142; and Pompey took Jerusalem for Rome in 63 BC, where the world of the Gospels begins. 190 BC is chosen rather than a later date because Antiochus III still held western Asia Minor, with his headquarters at Ephesus. Rome beat him at Magnesia that same year, and the treaty of Apamea in 188 took everything beyond the Taurus from him, most of it to Pergamum and Rhodes; a plate drawn after that needs a fourth power on it. Pergamum under the Attalids, Rhodes, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia (the Gauls had crossed into Asia in 278 and stayed) and Armenia were all independent of the Seleucids and are left untinted, as is Greece south of Thessaly, a shifting business of leagues rather than Macedonian territory. Nabatea around Petra is outside every kingdom because it was never taken. Damascus is shown Seleucid though it changed hands repeatedly. Seleucia on the Tigris, the eastern capital, is unmarked: at this scale only one of it and Babylon would be readable. The saltires are the great battles of the Syrian Wars, each standing at the city that named it — Raphia in 217, where Ptolemy IV turned Antiochus III back from Egypt in the largest battle of the Hellenistic age (Daniel 11:11-12); Panium in 200, where Antiochus III broke the Ptolemaic army at the springs of the Jordan and took Coele-Syria and Judea for good (11:15-16); and Pelusium in 170, where Antiochus IV opened his invasion of Egypt at the delta’s gate (11:25-27). The sites are Rafah, Banias (the later Caesarea Philippi) and Tell el-Farama. A frontier war that ran for a century is not one moment, so one mark stands on either side of the snapshot.

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