So 20 yearold Antiochus, guess what?

Well, first off, your brother Salucus the third is dead.

So, take a few seconds to go through the five stages of grieving.

Okay, have you processed that?

Because we're kind of on a timetable here.

No more lounging around Babylon for you, put down that PlayStation, pick up your spear, and let's go get you an empire.

So what to do first? Well, how about those satraps in media and Persia who just decided to revolt?

Actually, it's bad form to start off your reign by dealing with a few pesky rebels. Let your subordinates take care of that while you go big.

Attacking Ptolemaic Holdings in Coel Syria.

And oh wait, one more thing thing before you go would you mind getting somebody pregnant

Thus began the glorious reign of the sluicid king Antiochus the third who'd have the

who'd eventually come to be known as Antiochus the great. Things were collapsing so quick

around him it was hard not to get swept up in the vortex.

But the one thing that everyone agreed on was the need to conceive an air.

The lucky bride was Loudisee, the daughter of the Salusid ally King Mithardat II of Pontus and also funnily enough Antiochus's first cousin. Actually, in this story, it's probably just easier to let you know when somebody isn't someone else's cousin. It'll save us a lot of time.

At this point, Antiochus's main supporters were men who'd served his murdered brother,

his main advisor Hermes, and senior General Epigenes. He also had an elder cousin named Aqueus, who was

given command in Anatolia and tasked with continuing the Seleucid war against Pergamon.

And as I just mentioned, an army was sent east to put down the revolt

while Antiochus marched on Coel Syria.

There are several definitions of what Coel Syria may have actually meant, but I'm taking

it to mean all the territories of Syria, Phoenicia, and Judea south of the

...