Antiochus IV

Antiochus was a son of Antiochus III and had lived at Rome as a hostage before he became king in the 137th year of the Seleucid era, 175 BC (1 Maccabees 1:10). He was surnamed Epiphanes, “the Manifest”. Polybius, who lived at the same time, says that his behaviour earned him the nickname Epimanes, “the madman”, and also that he outdid earlier kings in his gifts to Greek cities and temples (Polybius, Histories 26.1). In 168 BC a Roman envoy forced him to abandon his conquest of Egypt (Polybius, Histories 29.27).

His measures against Jerusalem and the Jewish law are told in Antiochus IV Desecrates the Temple. 1 Maccabees says that he died in Persia in the 149th year, after failing to plunder a temple in Elymais, and that on his deathbed he blamed his end on what he had done at Jerusalem (1 Maccabees 6:1–16). Polybius also has him die in Persia, at Tabae, after an attempt on a sanctuary of Artemis in Elymais (Polybius, Histories 31.9). 2 Maccabees gives a different account, in which he is struck down by disease on the road as he hurries to take vengeance on the Jews (2 Maccabees 9:1–12, 28).