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Episode 30, the Seleucate Empire, Antiochus I, the last king of the universe.

In our last episode, we covered the reign of Seleucus I. The former commander of Alexander the Great turned founder of the Seleucan Empire, who managed to conquer a territory

based largely in Syria and Mesopotamia, stretching to Asia Minor and the borders of India.

With his death in 281 BC, the throne would now be passed to his successor, Antiochus,

who I have spoken little about thus far in the narrative. We are going to have to

rewind the clock a bit to understand the role of Antiochus during his father's reign, as there

are important details otherwise untold and are relevant to his later career. But before we begin,

I would like to rectify an error I had made during the last episode.

I previously said that we only have Salukas' mother, Laudique, on record, and that the later

city of Antioch was named after Salukas' son of the same name.

I don't know how I missed it, but we do know the name of Seleucus's father. It also just happens to be Antiochus,

and the city of Antioch was actually named after him, not for Seleucus's son. It's a minor error,

but I wanted to just make it clear. Antiochus I, son of Seleucus I and his wife Apama, was born sometime around the turn of

the decade, circa 320 BC. We don't know for sure when he was born, but based upon our evidence,

we can make a rough estimation. The union of his parents at the mass weddings of Sousa in late

324 suggests a birth no earlier than 323,

and his participation in the Battle of Ipsis in 301 can't allow him to be born later than 317,

since he would only be 16 years old commanding the cavalry, which is a stretch even for the ancient world.

Thus, I think 320 is not an unreasonable year to choose for the sake of simplicity.

When looking at the first generation of kings following the initial founding dynasts of the Hellenistic

Big Three, that be the Seleucids, Ptolemy's, and Antigonids, it is Antiochus that proves to be the most

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