Antiochus I faced a difficult situation when his father died, as indicated by today's episode title- an extract from Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If'. The great distance messengers had to travel to notify Antiochus of the western situation following his father's death meant that others had already begun carving out their own piece of the pie again. Yes, Seleucus has an obvious heir where Alexander did not, but that doesn't mean that the Hellenistic world isn't going to descend from unity into anarchy once again...
Sources for this episode:
- Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Quote: p. 75- 76.
- Bevan, E. R. (1927), The House of Ptolemy, London: Methuen Publishing. Available at: LascusCurtis (online) [Accessed 08/02/2021].
- The Editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020), Antiochus I Soter (online) [Accessed 11/03/2021].
- Kipling, R. (1949) The Definitive Edition of Rudyard Kipling verse. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark Ltd. (Printed for Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. in London). Quote: p. 576.
- Rawlinson, G. (1869) A manual of ancient history from the earliest times to the fall of the Western Empire, comprising the history of Chaldea, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, Lydia, Phoenicia, Syria, Judea, Egypt, Carthage, Persia, Greece, Macedonia, Rome, and Parthia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (eBook) [Accessed 02/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Antiochus I Soter (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Antigonus II Gonatas (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Arsinoe II (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Attalid dynasty (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Bithynia (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Cappadocia (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Kingdom of Pontus (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Pergamon (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Philetaerus (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
- Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Zipoetes I of Bithynia (online) [Accessed 10/03/2021].
