Antiochus IV in Life and Death: Evidence from the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries

Author(s): Dov Gera and Wayne Horowitz

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 117, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1997), pp. 240252
Published by: American Oriental Society
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ANTIOCHUS IV IN LIFE AND DEATH:

EVIDENCE FROM THE BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMICAL DIARIES1
Dov GERA

WAYNE HOROWITZ

BEN-GURIONUNIVERSITYOF THE NEGEV

THE HEBREWUNIVERSITY

This paper discusses Babylonian astronomical diaries for the years 169-163 B.C.E.,which mention Antiochus IV Epiphanes and consequently bear chronological implications for Seleucid history.
While the documents discussed do not upset the accepted reconstruction of Seleucid history, they
add to our knowledge of the period.
The first diary discussed mentions a "procession" (pompe). We claim that this procession should
not be identified with Antiochus IV's famous procession at Daphne but was a local festival of the
Greeks of Babylon, celebrated in honor of their king's victorious Egyptian campaign.
There are two significant notices in a diary for 165. The first refers to Antiochus' Armenian expedition while the second, it is argued, alludes to his efforts to explore the Persian Gulf. The diary'sdate
and the geographical information it contains add to our knowledge of Antiochus IV's movements
during that year.
The last diary mentions a party escorting the corpse of a king, who must be Antiochus IV. On the
basis of Jewish sources, the party's leader is identified as Philip, the dead king's syntrophos. His
presence in Babylon in Tebet 163. supplies an additional argumentin favor of dating Lysias' second
campaign against the Jews to that year.

documents do not upset in drastic fashion the accepted

reconstruction of Seleucid history in the years 169-163
B.C.E., the diaries do add to our knowledge of the period.

I. INTRODUCTION

THREE

HISTORICAL

NOTICES

RELATING

TO Antiochus

IV Epiphanes are preserved in astronomical diaries from

the city of Babylon. This study examines the implications of these notices on the currently accepted chronology of the reign of Antiochus IV and that of his son
Antiochus V Eupator. We shall show that, although the

The Diary for 169 B.C.E.

The first diary is dated to the month of Ab, 169 (-168
month V).2 This text was first published in the opening
decade of the century,3 but our understanding of it has
recently been enriched by R. J. van der Spek's suggestion4 that Akkadian pu-up-pe-e, mentioned in a historical notice in the diary, is a cuneiform rendering of
Greek pompe (procession). This new reading, when taken
together with the date of the diary and its allusion to

Although the following is a cooperative effort of the authors, the Assyriological materials are the responsibility of
W. Horowitz and the historical materials are that of D. Gera.
Assyriological abbreviations follow E. Reiner, ed., The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago, vol. 17: S, part II (Chicago: The Oriental Institute,
1992), ix-xxvi, with the following addition: Halley's Comet =
F R. Stephenson and C. B. F Walker, eds., Halley's Comet in
History (London: British Museum Publications, 1985). Abbreviations of classical journals accord with the list found in
L'Annee philologique 62 (1993): xv-xxxvii. FGH = F Jacoby, Die Fragmenteder griechischen Historiker(Berlin: Weidmann; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1923- ). CAH = The Cambridge
Ancient History, new edition (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1970- ).

Sachs-Hunger Diaries use the astronomical dating convention Year -x = x + 1 B.C.E.,e.g., -200 = 201 B.C.E.
3 T. G. Pinches, The Old Testamentin the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, 2nd ed.
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903),
480, 553.
4 "The Babylonian City," in Hellenism in the East, ed. A.
Kuhrt and S. Sherwin-White (Berkeley: Univ. of California
Press, 1987), 67-68.
240

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GERA and HOROWITZ: Antiochus IV in Life and Death

Antiochus IV's campaign in Egypt, prompted M. J.

Geller to suggest5that the procession in the diary for 169
is identical to the one organized by Antiochus IV at
Daphne near Antioch, and that consequently the date of
the festival should be fixed to 169. If this last conclusion
were correct, the results for the history of Antiochus'
reign would be significant, for it is almost universally
agreed that the festival at Daphne was held in 166 B.C.E.6
The problem here is whether a procession mentioned in
a Babylonian document duringthe reign of Antiochus IV
need automatically be identified with the famous pompe
organized by the king or should instead be regarded as
part of a local celebration. Below, we shall argue for the
latter proposition.
The Diary for 165

B.C.E.

Our second examination will concern two additional

historical notices in two partially preserved exemplars
of the diary for Tishre 165 (-164 month VII). Inrthe first
of these, mention is made of "the fortresses of the city of
Habigalbat which they call Armil." Since Antiochus is
mentionedin the second notice, which is partof the same
diary, it would seem that the notice, when complete, referred to some military activity of King Antiochus in
Habigalbat-Armil.We shall argue below that HabigalbatArmil here is the land of Armenia, which Antiochus IV
is known to have conquered. In the second notice, Antiochus is mentioned in connection with a march along a
seashore. Our contention is that the reference is to the
Persian Gulf, for Pliny the Elder tells of Antiochus' initiative in exploring the coast of the PersianGulf. The date
of the diary is, in fact, a terminus ad quem for Antiochus' operations in the areas of Armenia and the Persian
Gulf. We shall therefore try to reconstruct the first year
of Antiochus' anabasis, from the time he left Antiochon-the-Orontesin the spring of 165 until he reached the
PersianGulf, before or during October 165. We shall see
how the chronological and geographical data in the astronomical diary improve our knowledge of the movements of Antiochus and his army and bolster, ratherthan
upset, mainstream views regarding the chronology of
Antiochus IV's reign.

5 "New Information on Antiochus IV from

Babylonian
Astronomical Diaries," BSOAS 54 (1991): 1-2.
6
E.g., Cl. Preaux, Le Monde hellenistique, Nouvelle Clio:
L'Histoire et ses problemes, 6.6 bis (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1978), 1: 170; C. Habicht, "The Seleucids
and their Rivals," CAH VIII: 345. For another dissent see
below, p. 248.

The Diary for 163

241

B.C.E.

Finally, our last historical notice, in a diary for Tebet

163 (-164 month X), mentions a party which escorted a
king's corpse. The date, one calendar month after Antiochus IV's death was first reportedin Babylon,7clearly indicates that the corpse is that of Antiochus IV. The diary
does not tell us who formed the escort that accompanied
the funeral procession, but, relying on testimony from
1 and 2 Maccabees, we shall demonstratethat the escort
was comprised of troops returningfrom the abortedcampaign in the east, now under the command of Philip, the
deadking'ssyntrophos.The conjecturedpresenceof Philip
in Babylon in Tebet 163 has repercussionsfor the date of
Lysias' second campaign against the Jews. We shall address this problemas well, making use of a Greekinscription datedto the summerof 163 andfound at Yavneh-Yam
in Israel. Thus, our Babylonian astronomicaldiary serves
as an entr6e to wider investigations into the wars between
the Seleucids and the Jews. However, before discussing
the importof these notices, let us firstbriefly describe the
genre of Babylonian astronomicaldiaries in general.
The Astronomical Diaries

Babylonian astronomical diaries survive from the

seventh to the first centuries B.C.E.8Each diary recorded
7 See the
Babylonian, Hellenistic period, king list, BM 35603
(A. Sachs and D. J. Wiseman, "A Babylonian King List of The
Hellenistic Period,"Iraq 16 [1954]: 204, line 14): "[Year 148
(of the Seleucid Era), the month] of Kislev (IX), it was heard
that Antiochus, the k[ing had died]." See also Sachs and Wiseman, "King List," 208-9; RIA 6: 98-100; Halley's Comet, 21;
Grayson, Chronicles, 123, rev. 7-10; and n. 69 below.
8 Editions of Babylonian astronomical diaries are now being published by H. Hunger based on previous work by the late
A. Sachs, Astronomical Diaries and Related Textsfrom Babylonia (Vienna: Ostereichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1988- ), herein cited as Sachs-Hunger Diaries. The first two
volumes of this work include diaries for the years 652 B.C.E. to
165 B.C.E. The third volume covers the years 164 to 61 B.C.E.
Diaries for 164-163 B.C.E and 87 B.C.E are published in Halley's Comet, 18-40. For general introductions to Babylonian
astronomical diaries, see Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 1: 11-36 and
Halley's Comet, 12-17. See also M. J. Geller, "Babylonian Astronomical Diaries and Corrections of Diodorus", BSOAS 53
(1990): 1-7, and the following reviews and discussions of SachsHunger Diaries 1 and 2: F. Rochberg-Halton, Or 58 (1989):
551-55; idem, JAOS 111 (1991): 323-32; R. D. Biggs, JNES 50
(1991): 63-65; V. S. Tuman,WO 19 (1988): 174-79; J. Oelsner,
OLZ84 (1989): 672-76; W. H. van Soldt, ZA 81 (1991): 153-55.

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242

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

data drawn from astronomical and other observations

concerning the moon, planets, solstices and equinoxes,
meteors and comets, and the weatherfor each night of the
month for one-half year. At the end of each monthly
section, the astronomerswho compiled the diaries often
reportedthe price of commodities for the previous month,
and, occasionally, also noted events of oracular,political,
or religious import.9Individualdiaries were dated by the
ancient astronomers to regnal years. Diaries which no
longer preserve their regnal dates can be dated on the
basis of astronomical observations.'0Thus, Babylonian
astronomical diaries which record historical events provide fixed astronomicaldates for these very events.
II. THETEXTOF 169 B.C.E.

Ab S.E. 143 = Aug. 18-Sept. 16, 169 = -168 monthV"

Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 2: 470 A 14-15,
41581, photo pl. 156, copy pl. 157.
14.

...

ITU.BI al-te-e

A = BM

um-[ma]

15. mAN LUGALina URU.ME?sa KURMe-luh-ha salta-ni GIN.GIN-ma[ x x ] u1pu-li-te-e pu-up-pe-e u

e-se-e-tu sc GIMu-sur-tu 1ula-a-man-nu x [ ... ]
"That month I (the astronomer) heard as follows: King
Antiochus marched victoriously through the cities of
Meluhha (southern Egypt)12 and [...] the citizens, pro9 For

religious ceremonies in astronomical diaries, see

W. Horowitz, "Antiochus I, Esagil, and a Celebration of the
Ritual for Renovation of Temples,"RA 85 (1991): 75-77; idem,
"A Kettle-DrumRitual during Iyar Seleucid Era 85," N.A.B.U.
1991: 52-53. For historical notices see Sachs-Hunger Diaries,
1: 36; W. Horowitz, "An Astronomical Fragmentfrom Columbia University and the Babylonian Revolts against Xerxes,"
JANES 23 (1994): 61-67, and van Soldt's review of SachsHunger Diaries, in ZA 81 (1991): 153-55. See also RochbergHalton's review, JAOS 111 (1991): 325, for the relationship
between the historical notices and Late Babylonian chronicles,
and D. J. Wiseman, "A Note on Some Prices in Late Babylonian
Astronomical Diaries," in Sachs Mem. Vol., 363-73, for the
prices of commodities.
10 See Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 1: 19.
I The Babylonian dates in this paper are converted to Julian dates according to the tables supplied by R. A. Parkerand
W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 75
(Providence: Brown Univ. Press, 1956), 41.
12 Although third-millenniumMeluhha is to be located in the
Indus Valley, Meluhha occurs in first-millennium texts as a
name for upper Egypt, Nubia, and perhaps as far up the Nile
as Ethiopia. Cf. D. Potts, "The Road to Meluhha," JNES 41
(1982): 284-85; Rep. g6ogr., 8: 228.

cessions

(pompe) and rituals akin to the style of the

Greeks. [. . .]"
Assyriological
line 15

Commentary
For pu-up-pe-e = pompe, "processions,"
see above, note 4.13

Historical Commentary
As noted, Geller's proposed new date for the procession and the games at Daphne is based on an identification of this event with the pompe noted in the portion
of the diary for August-September 169. This conclusion
seems to rest on the tacit assumption that a pompe was an
extraordinary event, and that there could have been no

more than one in the reign of Antiochus IV. However,

more often than not, the term refers to processions that
formed an essential part of Greek religious festivals. Thus
one would expect to find such festivals and processions
in any Greek religious community or p6lis.l4 Most processions seem to have been connected to the cults of various gods and heroes.15 Others were associated with the
ruler-cults; Greek poleis that wished to confer divine honors on a king or dynast instituted a festival (panegyris),
of which the procession was an essential part.'6 Thus
there is no reason to presuppose that the pompe in the
diary is the famous Daphne pompe. Furthermore, it is
even possible that the Babylonian astronomical diary here
reports a local Babylonian event performed in Babylon by
the Greeks and their Hellenized neighbors in celebration
of the arrival of the news of Antiochus' victories.17
13 For this

passage cf. D. J. Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzarand

Babylon (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985), 22, n. 152; E.
Bickermann, "Sur la chronologie de la sixieme guerre de Syrie," CE 27 (1952): 397, n. 3; A. T Olmstead, "Intertestamental
Studies,"JAOS56 (1936): 247.
14 See W. Burkert,Greek Religion, tr. J. Raffan (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1985), 99-101. F Bomer, s.v.
Pompa, RE XXI.2 (1952), cols. 1913-74, lists 356 known processions from Greece and the Hellenistic east of which 305
seem to be institutionalized, i.e., they took place on a regular
basis at fixed dates.
15 These include the first 249 on the list in Bomer, "Pompa,"
cols. 1913-62.
16 See C. Habicht, Gottmenschentumund griechische Stddte,
2nd ed. (Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,1970),
147-48. An additional reference may be found in Ph. Gauthier,
Nouvelles inscriptions de Sardes II (Geneva: Librairie Droz,
1989), 48, no. 2, line 13.
17 For the Greek community in Babylon and its inner organization, see the differing views of van der Spek, "The

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GERA and HOROWITZ:

Antiochus IV in Life and Death

Indirect support for the theory that the Babylonian

astronomicaldiary refers to a local festival may be found
elsewhere. In 167, when the Jews of Coele-Syria and
Phoenicia were forced by Antiochus and his officials to
transgress their ancestral law, 2 Macc. 6:7 states that
"when the Dionysia (festival of Dionysus) came to pass,
they (i.e., the Jews) were forced to escort Dionysus in a
procession (pompetein) wearing wreaths of ivy."'8Once
we have knowledge of a procession in Jerusalemassociated with the cult of Dionysus in the time of Antiochus
IV, and of a second procession in Daphne associated with
the worship of the entire pantheon (Athen. 5.195 a-b =
Polyb. 30.25.13-15), it is possible to accept the existence
of a thirdpompe in Babylon. There is no need therefore
to identify the pompe of 169 in the astronomical diary
with the famous procession of 166 organized by Antiochus IV in Daphne (see below, section III). Furthermore,
the text of the astronomical diary supportsthe view that
the procession of 169 was a civic, rather than a royal,
affair. It speaks of the politai (citizens) establishing the
pompe, not the king. Geller's statement that the Babylonian diaries refer to a "Greek festival established by Antiochus to celebrate his victories"'9clearly goes beyond
the plain meaning of the text.
To conclude, we propose that the diary for Ab 169
refers to a procession organized by the Greek (and Hellenized residents) of Babylon who, having heard of the
victorious campaign of Antiochus Epiphanes in Egypt,
now judged that the right moment had come to pay divine
honors to their monarch. They therefore established a
festival in his honor, acting like many Greek pdleis that
Babylonian City," 67-70; and S. Sherwin-White, "Seleucid

Babylonia:A Case-studyfor the Installationand Developmentof GreekRule"in Hellenismin theEast,20-21. See also

243

wished to pay homage to the king and to reap his benefactions in return.One of the features of this festival was
the pompe reportedin the astronomical diary20
III. THE TEXT OF 165 B.C.E.

TishreS.E. 147 = Oct. 2-Oct. 30, 165 = -164 monthVII

Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 2: 497 B 15'-C 13'-14'

B = BM 35015 (LBAT 645) + 35332 (LBAT 377) +

55531 pl. 164-65 (collated).
C = BM 45848 + 45907, pl. 165.

B: 15'

... ]el.BAD*.ME
sad URU Ha-bi-gal-bat
KURAr*-mi-il MU-SUSA4-U X X X X X [ ...

sa

[... ] the fortresses of the city of Habigalbat

which they call the land of Armil .
....[...
C:

13' [ ... ] um-ma man-ti-'u-uk-su L[UGALX X ] TA

URU.ME9s[d...
C: 14' ... ] sa UGUma-rat GIN.MEg
C: 13' [... ] saying, Antiochus the k[ing, ... ] from
the cities o[f ...
C: 14' [ ... ] who/which went on the sea-(shore).21
Assyriological

Commentary

II B 15': Habigalbat/Ijanigalbat is the Assyrian name

for the second-millennium Hurrianfederation,
Mitanni. In Neo-Assyrian inscriptions, Habigalbatis located in the vicinity of Lake Van, where Neo-Assyrian
Aramale/Armarili in Urartu is also located.22Armil in
the diary is almost certainly a later rendering of this
name. As Habigalbatis not attested after the fall of Assyria in 611,23 the term here represents an anachronistic
name for the region the astronomer knows as Armil.

S. Sherwin-White and A. Kuhrt, From Samarkhand to Sardis

(London:Duckworth,1993), 155-58.
18Cf. B6mer,
col. 1941,no. 125;F-M. Abel,Les
"Pompa",
Livresdes Maccabees(Paris:LibrairieLecoffre,1949), 36263. E. Bickermannclaimedthatthe Greekdeities mentioned
in the sourceswith regardto the persecutionof the Jews by
Antiochus IV were in fact Semitic (Der Gott der Makkabder
[Berlin: Schocken Verlag-Jiidischer Buchverlag, 1937], 90116). Consequently, he identified Dionysus with the Nabatean

god Dusares(pp. 113-14). However,the cults introducedby

the Seleucidkingto JudeawereGreekby nature.See M. Stern,
"TheHasmonean
RevoltandIts Placein the Historyof Jewish
Society and Religion," Cahiers d'histoire mondiale 11 (1968):

to the MaccabeanRevolu96-97; F Millar,"TheBackground

tion:Reflectionson MartinHengel's'JudaismandHellenism',"
Journal of Jewish Studies 29 (1978): 12-21.

19Geller,"NewInformation,"
1-2.

20

Similarly,vanderSpek,"TheBabylonianCity,"68.

21 UGU = muhhu with names of bodies of water has the

sense of "by/alongthe shoreof." For examplessee Grayson,

Chronicles, 284: 12: ra-di?' muh-hi idma-rat-ta;CAD 10.2:

175,mubbu2. b).
22 For Uanigalbat/Iabigalbat, see RLA 4: 105-7. For Aramale/Armarili see AOAT6: 22, 30. See also I. M. Diakonoff,
The Pre-History of the Armenian People (New York: Caravan

Books, 1984),84. Forthe locationof Aramalesee B. B. Piotrovskij,II regnodi Van,tr. M. Salvini(Rome:Edizionidell'

Ateneo,1966),77.
23

Uabigalbat does occur in the Late Babylonian exemplar,

BM 64382+82955,of the Neo-Assyriangeographicaltreatise

"TheSargonGeography."
See W.Horowitz,"MoabandEdom
in The SargonGeography,"
IEJ43 (1993): 151-56.

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244

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

Comparethe use of Melubba, the third-millenniumname

of the Indus Valley culture, for southern Egypt in I 15
(see above section II); Hatti (the Hittite land) as a name
for Syria in the Antiochus Soter Inscription;24and Hani
for Macedonia/Greece.25
The "city of Habigalbat" (URU Ha-bi-gal-bat)

here is

presumablythe political capital of the country.Compare

the following passages in Babylonian chronicles: Grayson, Chronicles,

102, 12, URU la-a-hu-du

"the city of

Judah,"for Judah'scapital Jerusalem in the context of

Nebuchadnezzar'sinvasion of Judah in 597; Grayson,
Chronicles, 96, 72, pi-hat URU u-ra-as-tu "the district of
the city of Urartu," and URU KUR A-gam-ta-nu "The City

of the land of Ecbatana"(see Grayson, Chronicles, 106,

commentary ii 3). For an identification of "the city of
Habigalbat"in the astronomicaldiary with Artaxata(Artashat), see below section III.3. The "fortresses"of the
city of Habigalbat presumably refers to lesser fortified
cities outside the capital.26
II C 14': Although the Akkadian name for the ocean
marratu was originally only a name for the
"Lower Sea" (i.e., the PersianGulf or IndianOcean), the
name came to be used for both the "Upper Sea" (MediterraneanSea) and "Lower Sea" as early as the time of
Sargon II of Assyria (721-705). Thus marratu here, in
theory at least, could refer to either the Mediterraneanor
the Persian Gulf.27There is no evidence that the inland
lakes of moderneasternTurkeywere ever called marratu
althoughthey are identifiedas tamtu "sea" in Middle and
Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions.28

24 VAB3 132: 10. See A. Kuhrtand S.

Sherwin-White, "As-

pectsof SeleucidRoyalIdeology:TheCylinderof AntiochusI

fromBorsippa,"JHS 111 (1991): 75, line 10; and Pritchard,
ANET,317.
25 Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 1: 190-328: 26'-27', left edge;
p. 210-322: 22. See Geller, "BabylonianAstronomicalDiaries,"
5-6; and Grayson, Chronicles, 112, 1. 6; 116, 1. 17. For the use
of anachronisticplace-names in Mesopotamiantexts in general,
see J. Tigay, "Studies in Biblical and CuneiformLiteratures,"in
History, Historiography,and Interpretation,ed. H. Tadmorand
M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem:Magnes Press, 1983), 181-86.
26 Compare the examples cited in CAD D 1973: dfru A in
bit duri = "fortress."
27 See W. Horowitz, "The Babylonian Map of the World,"
Iraq 50 (1988): 153, 156. For additional examples of marratu
see CAD 10.1: 285.
28 See J. Elayi, "Terminologie de la mer M6diterraneedans
les annales assyriennes," Oriens Antiquus 23 (1984): 80-87;

Historical Commentary

In the second diary we hear of events which became

known to the astronomer in Babylon in the month of
Tishre, i.e., between October2 and October30, 165 B.C.E.
The first item clearly touches upon some events of a
military nature because "the fortresses of the city of
jabigalbat" are mentioned. Both Iabigalbat and the land
of Armil (Armale)-which seem to be synonyms-are
situated to the east or northeastof Lake Van, i.e., in Armenia.29This geographical setting and the chronological
context indicate that this item is related to the campaign
of Antiochus IV against Artaxias I, king of Armenia.30
The date of our document is in general agreement with
that of a fragment of Diodorus which tells of the war
waged by the Seleucid king against Artaxias I, and the
latter'ssubmission. This fragmentshould be dated to 168
B.C.E. at the earliest, but no later than Antiochus' death
in 164.31 It should also be recalled that, according to
1 Macc. 3:37, Antiochus IV left Antioch-on-the-Orontes
with his army in 147 S.E. (= Seleucid Era) on his way
to the Euphrates and beyond. This date, the beginning
of 147 S.E., serves as a terminus a quo for the eastern

campaign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It has long been

suggested that Armenia was the Seleucid king's first objective within this campaign.32 This would mean that
1 Maccabees provides a terminusa quo for the Armenian
expedition of Antiochus IV as well. Scholars however
disagree with regard to the Seleucid era or eras used in
1 Maccabees, and thus it is possible to argue either for
October 166 as a terminusa quo (according to the Macedonian reckoning) or April 165 (according to the Baby-

Rep. g6ogr., 5: 321; and AOAT,6: 346. For possible references

to the Black Sea, see Rep. g6ogr., 5: 319 1, 320 3. For a study
of Mesopotamian names for the ocean see W. Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns,
forthcoming). Although it may be assumed that the existence
of the Black and Caspian Seas was known from at least the
time of the Middle Assyrian king Tukulti-NinurtaI (12431207), no certain references to these seas have come to light.
29 See note 22 above.
30 The sources for this
campaign are Diod. 31.17a; Appian,
Syr. 45-46, 66; Porphyry,FGH 260, F38, 56.
31 See O. M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria (Copenhagen:
Gyldendal, 1966), 166.
32 B. Niese, Geschichte der
griechischen und makedonischen
Staaten (Gotha: F A. Perthes, 1903), 3: 216-17; E. Will, Histoire politique du monde hellenistique, 2nd ed. (Nancy: Universit6 de Nancy II, 1982), 2: 352. For further references see
M0rkholm,Antiochus IV of Syria, 167, n. 5.

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GERA and HOROWITZ:Antiochus IV in Life and Death

lonian reckoning).33In practice, however, this difference

is of little importancehere. Weatherconditions in Armenia during the winter are extremely harsh,34and it is unlikely that Antiochus IV would have contemplated using
his troops, conditioned to a warmer climate, against the
rebellious province duringthe winter months. The spring
of 165 is therefore the earliest date for the departureof
Antiochus IV for the east.
What do we know about the war itself other than its
date? The picture emerging from the literary sources
concerning Antiochus' war with Artaxias I is dim and
unsatisfactory. The Seleucid king, we are told, fought
against the Armenian king, killed many of his soldiers,
and finally captured Artaxias I himself. The royal prisoner was forced to recognize the authorityof Antiochus
IV, in exchange for which he was allowed to retain his
throne. The Babylonian document adds a geographical
dimension to our knowledge of the war, namely that military operations were waged in the land of Armil against
the fortresses of Habigalbat.35
The connection between the events discussed above
in Diary II B and those that follow in II C is far from
clear. The name of King Antiochus is mentioned, and
the Seleucid king is somehow linked with a march along
the seacoast, but because of the fragmentarystate of the
diary we cannot be sure whether it is the king who is
marching, his subordinates, or perhaps even his adver-

33 For the two eras, see Bickermann,

Der Gottder Makkabder,155-56. RecentlyL. L. Grabbe,"Maccabean
Chronology:
167-164 or 168-165 B.C.E.," JBL 110 (1991): 59-74, has ac-

ceptedthat some of the dates in 1 Maccabeesreflectthe use

of the Seleucidera (Macedonianreckoning)while othersare
calculatedfroman erawhichbeganin the springof 312 B.C.E.
Twoobjectionsto this may be raised.First, no era of Nisan
312 B.C.E. is known. Why invent one if it does not solve all our

difficulties?Cf. Grabbehimself (pp. 66-67, 71). Second,the

datein 1 Macc.13:41(170 S.E.) canbe rightonly if calculated
fromNisan 311 B.C.E.,not 312. See D. Gera,"Tryphon's
Sling
BulletfromDor,"IEJ35 (1985): 157-58.
34 See R. D. Barnett,"Urartu"in CAH, 3.1: 323. Thus
Grabbe's
tentativedatingof Antiochus'marchto the eastin the
autumnor winterof 166 B.C.E.("Maccabean
68,
Chronology,"
71), which ignoresclimaticconditionsin Armenia,cannotbe
accepted.
35 The "city of. Uabigalbat"presumably refers to the capital

of Artaxias(see above,sectionIII) and thereforeto Artaxata

(Artashat),locatedthirtykilometerssouthof Erivan.On Artaxatasee Diod. 31.17a; Strabo11.4.6 (528-529); and Plut.
Lucullus31.3-4. The land of Armilseems to have included
Artaxiasin the northeast.

245

saries. This event, like the war in Armenia, came to the

knowledge of the astronomerin October 165. If we assume that II B and C are closely related, it is tempting to
take the "sea" (marratu)mentioned in II C as a reference
to Lake Van, Lake Urmia, or one of the other lakes in
Armenia. Indeed, with regard to Assyrian campaigns in
Armenia, we hear of "the Sea of Nairi," "the Sea of
Zamua,"and others. However, there are no known examples of marratuused in conjunction with inland seas and
lakes.36Furthermore,we cannot be sure that the events of
II B and II C are, in fact, related. Rather, II B and II C
might refer to two completely separate events that came
to the attention of the astronomerin Babylon during the
same month.37Thus, we are left with a choice between
the "Upper Sea" (the Mediterranean)and "the Lower
Sea" (the Persian Gulf).
According to Porphyry, Antiochus IV campaigned
against the people of Aradus and in the process devastated the entire area along the coasts of Phoenicia.38Yet
the coins of Aradus do not confirm Porphyry'sstory; the
clash between Antiochus IV and the Aradians seems to
be fictional.39With the absence of any solid information
for any armed movements along the Mediterranean,the
marratuhere would then seem to be the Persian Gulf.
The association of Antiochus IV with the PersianGulf
is attested by Pliny the Elder, who writes40of the city of
Charaxwhich was placed "in the innermostrecess of the
Persian Gulf" and that the original founder of the city
was Alexander the Great who named it Alexandria; it
was later rebuilt by Antiochus quintus regum who, in

turn, named it after himself. This Antiochus seems to

be none other than Antiochus IV Epiphanes.41Pliny the

36 For

marratu,see above,sectionIII,commenton II C 14'.

37 In Babylonianastronomicaldiarieshistoricalnoticesfor
a particularmonthwere notedat the end of monthlysections
afterthe astronomical
observationsfor the daysof thatmonth.
as manyas twentyThus,twoseparatehistoricaleventsoccurring
nine days apart(i.e., the firstand thirtiethof a lunarmonth)
mighthaveappeareddirectlyjuxtaposedin the diaries.
38 FGH, 260, F 56.
39 See M0rkholm,Antiochus IV of Syria, 122-24.
40 6.138-39.

41 He was actuallyprecededby five kingsnamedAntiochus:

AntiochusI, AntiochusII,his fatherAntiochustheGreat,his eldesthomonymous
brother(co-regentwithAntiochustheGreat),
andhis nephewAntiochusson of Seleucus.This wouldmake
himthe sixth.Curiously,bothW.W.Tarn,TheGreeksin BactriaandIndia,seconded. (Cambridge:
Univ.Press,
Cambridge
1951), 213, n. 4, and M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 168,

supportthe identificationof Pliny'sAntiochusquintusregum

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246

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

Elder also says that the coastline of the Persian Gulf

was first explored for Antiochus Epiphanes.42Here Pliny
is no doubt mistaken. Alexander the Great had already
initiated the exploration of the Gulf, and later on, in
205 B.C.E., Antiochus III was sailing through its waters.43Due to Pliny's error Tarn dismisses the information here on Antiochus IV, explaining it as "a mistake
for Antiochus III."44However, in one importantrespect
Pliny's brief notice differs from what is known of the
Seleucid efforts in the Persian Gulf during the reign of
Antiochus III. Antiochus the Great was personally in
charge of the voyage through the Gulf waters (Polyb.
13.9.4-5). However, Pliny does not say that Antiochus
Epiphanes personally led the expedition, ratherthat the
Gulf seashore was explored for him.45 Pliny was not
confused here and did not base his statementon a source
which dealt with Antiochus the Great. The march along
the seacoast mentioned in our document seems very
much like the expedition that Antiochus IV sent along
the coast of the Persian Gulf, and the two may in fact be
identical. The leader of this expedition may have been
the Seleucid official Numenius, again mentioned by
Pliny the Elder.46Numenius was appointed ab Antiocho
rege as governor of Mesene, and is reportedas winning
a sea battle in the waters of the Persian Gulf and a land
battle as well. However, Pliny here does not supply us
with any firm clue as to the identity of the King Antio-

45

chus who appointed Numenius, and thus Numenius may

have been in the service of an Antiochus other than Antiochus IV.47To sum up Pliny's references to the activities of the Seleucids in the Persian Gulf, it seems clear
that Antiochus IV did refound Antioch Charax.This city
was a naturalbase for an expedition to explore yet again
the Persian Gulf and its shores, and Antiochus IV entrusted this assignment to one of his officials, who may
have been Numenius. Since the marratu in II C is the
Persian Gulf, the march along its shores, referred to in
our document, would be identical with the expedition
organized by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and mentioned by
Pliny the Elder. At any rate the explanation offered here
for II C, namely that Antiochus was somehow involved
with the Persian Gulf in 165, could well fit the general
frameworkof this king's anabasis, and is in accord with
what Pliny tells us about the king's exploits there.
According to our understanding, then, the historical
notices II B and II C have the figure of Antiochus IV in
common. His activities, even though they extend over
two separategeographic zones, Armenia and the Persian
Gulf, are interconnectedwithin the larger frameworkof
the king's anabasis to the east. Furthermore,it is now
possible to narrow down the date of the campaigns of
Antiochus IV to Armenia and the Persian Gulf to a period of seven months, between the early spring (April)
and the end of October 165. This would place within
this period several time-consuming events: the Seleucid
army's march from Antioch-on-the-Orontes (I Macc.
3:37) to Armenia and the campaign there against Artaxias' army; Antiochus'journey from Armenia to the Persian Gulf and Antioch-Charax;the re-foundationof the
polis at Charax; and the organization of an exploratory
expedition along the Persian Gulf. We must also add the
time needed for all this news to have reached the astronomer in Babylon. To cover such distances in an everchanging terrainand climate is indeed formidable,but is
it impossible?
The first part of Antiochus' campaign to the east was
along the road from the Syrian capital to Armenia. It is
impossible to know the itinerary of the Seleucid army
in Armenia, for our diary does not specify where the
Seleucids battled against the Armenian army but only
mentions the land of Armil (i.e., Hanigalbat)and its fortresses. However, the impressionone gets from the Greek
sources which refer to Antiochus' campaign in Armenia
is that of only slight opposition on the part of the army

46 6.152.

47 M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 169-70; Roueche and

Sherwin-White, "Some Aspects of the Seleucid Empire,"8-9;
Potts, The Arabian Gulf, 2: 12-14.

with Antiochus IV. The first scholar ignores in this context

Antiochus Epiphanes' eldest brother while the second neglects
to mention the nephew. It seems more convincing to count Antiochus, the eldest son of Antiochus the Great, as the fourth
Antiochus for he was included in official lists of the Seleucid
dynasty (W. Dittenberger,Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae [Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1903], 1: nos. 245-46), while Antiochus Epiphanes' nephew was omitted. Pliny would not have
heard of Antiochus, son of Seleucus.
42 6.147: Nunc a Charace dicemus oram Epiphani primum
exquisitam.

43 See C. Rouech6andS. M. Sherwin-White,

"SomeAspects

of the Seleucid Empire:The Greek Inscriptionsfrom Failaka, in

the Arabian Gulf," Chiron 15 (1985): 6-9; and D. T Potts, The
Arabian Gulf in Antiquity (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 2:
6-14.
44 Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria, 213. See also Rouech6 and

6-9.
"SomeAspectsof the SeleucidEmpire,"
Sherwin-White,
Rightly understoodby Potts, The Arabian Gulf, 2: 11. The
name of the king appears in the dative case. Many scholars
however seem to have taken Pliny's text as implying that the
king personally took part in this expedition. See Habicht, "The
Seleucids," 351-52; M0rkholm,Antiochus IV of Syria, 169.

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GERA and HOROWITZ:Antiochus IV in Life and Death

of Artaxias I against the military might of the Seleucid king. This seems to be the reason why Antiochus was
willing to let the Armenian king remain on his throne,
albeit in a subservient position. It would seem, therefore,
that a Seleucid show of force in southern Armenia was
enough to convince Artaxias I to lay down his arms. Our
assumption then is that Antiochus IV led his army from
Antioch-on-the-Orontesto the area east of Lake Van.48
The distance between the Seleucid capital and the modern city of Van, on the eastern shore of the lake, is
approximately 869 km.49 According to D. W. Engels,
Alexander's army made an average daily progress of fifteen miles (= 24 km), with a one-day halt in seven.50
Judging from the number of troops that took part in the
pompe at Daphne, the Seleucid army that left Antioch
in 165 was approximately the same size as Alexander's
when it landed in Asia Minor,5' and presumably would
have marchedat a similarpace. It would have taken fortythree days to cover the distance from Antioch to the eastern shore of Lake Van. In other words, one may assume
that a period of a month and a half elapsed from the time
Antiochus IV set out from Antioch until he first clashed
with the Armenian army. In addition, allowance should
be made for waging the battle or battles against the Armenian army, although our impression is that the Armenian army did not prove formidable.
From Armenia, Antiochus Epiphanes would have descended to Mesopotamia. Since we assume that the Se48 Couldthe wordsof Dan. 11:45,"He shall
pitchhis palatial tentsbetweenthe seasandthebeautifulholy mountain. . ."
(NewRevisedVersion,withone change,"seas"[Hebrew:yammim]andnot"sea"),referto LakeVan,LakeUrmia,andMount
Ararat,andthusto Armenia?If so, thesecondpartof theverse,
which alludes to AntiochusIV's death, suggests Persia(see
below,note71).
49 Ourestimatehereis basedon the routewhichseemsto be
the shortest,i.e., Antioch-Gaziantep-Urfa
(Edessa)-DiarbakirBitlis-Tatvan-Van.
AntiochusIV andhis armydidnotnecessarily marchalongthisroad,butthis route(as well as othersused
in this article)providesa fair estimateof the distancesand
timesinvolved.
50 Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian

Army(Berkeley:Univ.of CaliforniaPress,1978),154-56. P.A.

Bruntgives a lowerestimateof only sixteenkm a day (Arrian,
Loeb Classical Library[Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniv.
Press-W. Heinemann,1976], 1: 488). Admittedlyarmiesin
pursuitareknownto haveattainedgreaterspeed,butonly for a
few days.Thisis notthe case here.
51 For the force at Daphne, Polyb. 30.25.3-11. For Alex-

ander'sarmy arrivingin Asia Minor,see Brunt,Arrian, 1:

lxix-lxxi.

247

leucid army had reached a point somewhere east of

Lake Van, it would be naturalto continue the campaign
to the southeast. Antiochus IV and his army would have
marched through the basin of Lake Van and come upon
the Great Zab. The army would then have followed this
tributaryof the Tigris towards Mesopotamia, abandoning the river's course before it loops to the southeast,
then crossed the Ser Amadiyeh ridge and descended to
the valley of the Tigris.52Once Antiochus' army covered
this difficult terrain and reached Mesopotamia, the king
was not obliged to travel with his whole army.The army
could then march downstream at a slower pace to the
warmer south for winter quarters, presumably in Elymais, and Antiochus could then have rejoined his men
there for the next campaigning season, which was to be
his last.53The king, on his part, could have collected
some of his cavalry and moved towards the PersianGulf
with greater speed, marching down the Tigris through
Seleucia and traveling along the river southwards until
he reachedthe site of Alexander'scity, or else could have
joined the Royal Road and followed it southwards, to
Susa.54It was from Susa that Alexander the Great made
his way to the head of the Persian Gulf in 324.55Antiochus IV could now retrace the great conqueror's steps,
and rename Alexandria Antioch. We have posited here
a northernor northeasternapproachby Antiochus IV to
the PersianGulf. A more westerly course seems unlikely,
not only from a geographical point of view, but also because the astronomerin Babylon learnedof the successes
of Antiochus in Armenia and the PersianGulf at one and
the same time.
Now the distance between Van and Mosul (the first leg
of the second part of Antiochus' journey in 165), is
52

For this route, see AdmiraltyWar Staff: Intelligence Division, A Handbook of Mesopotamia (1917), 4: 119-21, 129-34,

III seems to have used a route

139-43, 153-57. Shalmaneser
along the GreatZab in his campaignsagainst the kingdom
of Urartu.See A. K. Grayson,"Assyria:Ashur-Danto AdadNirariV,"CAH,III.1:265.
53 ForAntiochusEpiphanesin Elymaissee Polyb.31.9.1-2;
FGH,260, F 53, 56; 1 Macc.6:1-4; Jos.Ant.12.354Porphyry,
55; Appian,Syr.66. The templeof Artemis(Polyb.;Porphyry,
loc. cit.) whichAntiochusIV failedto robis identifiedby Tarn,
TheGreeksin Bactria,29, 463-66, withthe templeof Nanaea
in Susa. See also E W. Walbank,A Historical Commentaryon

Polybius(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1979),3: 473.
54 Forthe
RoyalRoad,see Herodotus5.52; andG. Le Rider,
Suse sous les Seleucides et les Parthes (Paris: Librairie orien-

taliste,1965),255, 267.
55 Arrian,Anabasis7.7.1-2 liststwowaterwaysandoneoverlandroute,all usedsimultaneously
by Alexanderandhis army.

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248

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

approximately 375 km, and the Seleucid army would

have covered it in about eighteen days. For the final
part, the king and his escort had to march 908 km in
order to reach Charax.56If we assume a march rate of
thirty km per day, with one day of rest in seven,57 this
could be done in thirty-six days. It would thereforehave
taken fifty-four days to complete the entire 1,285 kilometers'marchfrom Van to Charax.To this one must add
two elements: the forty-threedays' marchof the Seleucid
army from Antioch-on-the-Orontesto Armenia (noted
above); and the time needed for the news of Antiochus'
exploits at the vicinity of Antioch-Charaxat the head of
the PersianGulf (as it was then) to reach Babylon, some
454 km to the northwest. Assigning a generous twenty
days for this last stage58would still mean that, technically, Antiochus IV could have reachedthe site where he
was to re-found Antioch-Charaxsome three months after
leaving his Syrian capital. The news of his arrivalat the
innermost recess of the Gulf would then have reached
Babylon before the end of the fourth month.
Calculating back from October 30, 165, the terminus
ante quem, would place the beginning of the anabasis no
later than the end of June 165. Since our estimates were
based only on one element, namely the possible march
rate of the Seleucid army and its king, it becomes quite
clear that the spring of 165 is, not only a terminus a

quo, but the most likely date for Antiochus' departure

for Armenia and the east. This would mean that the
Seleucid king reached Armenia by middle of May or
beginning of June 165, and arrived at the shores of the
Persian Gulf about September of the same year.
This interpretationof our document accords with, and
indeed supports, the mainstream reconstruction of the
last years of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.The terminusante
56

On the assumption that Antioch-Charaxis Jabel Khayabir,

some forty-eight km north of Basra. See J. Hansman, "Charax
and the Karkheh,"Iranica Antiqua 7 (1967): 38-45; idem,
"The Mesopotamian Delta in the First Millennium B.C.," The
Geographical Journal 144 (1978): 54-55.
57
Comparethe 600 miles covered in thirty-eightdays by the
5th Cavalry Division in the autumn of 1917. While advancing
forward, this unit did not encounter serious opposition. See
A. P. Wavell, The Palestine Campaigns, 3rd ed. (London: Constable, 1931), 235. See also N. G. L. Hammond, "A Note on
'Pursuit'in Arrian,"CQ 28 (1978): 136.
58 D. M. Lewis, Sparta and Persia (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977),
57 rightly minimizes the importanceand usefulness of fire signals. Note also his cautious remarks concerning the speed of
the Persian royal mail and its further reduction in the time of
the Seleucids.

quem for Antiochus' exploits in Armenia and the Persian Gulf, Tishre 165 B.C.E., furnished by our astronom-

ical diary, clearly supports the view of those who wish

to place the Armenian expedition and Antiochus' presence in the Persian Gulf within a broader context, that
of the king's anabasis to the east.59 Furthermore,the
terminus ante quem, October 30, 165, disproves BarKochva's recent attempt to redate the Daphne games,
organized by Antiochus IV, to August 165, and to place
the king's departureto Armenia in the following month.60
If the procession and games at Daphne had been celebrated in August, the Seleucid army would have reached
Armenia in late September or early October 165, with
too little time left both for the king's passage to the area
of the Gulf and for news of his deeds to have reached
Babylon. Thus the document provides indirect support
for the accepted date for the Daphne festival, 166 B.C.E.
Focusing on climate and chronology, we have argued
that Antiochus IV and his army left for the east in the
spring of 165. However, we have neglected the words of
Josephus, which have served as a further support for a
spring date for the beginning of Antiochus' anabasis.61It
is true that Josephus does not explicitly say that Antiochus set out for the east in the spring. He asserts, rather,
that the king wanted to invade Judea, at the beginning of
the spring. Having seen however, that his resources were
dwindling, he decided to leave his son, the future Antiochus V Eupator, in Antioch with Lysias. Only then did
the Seleucid ruler march to Persia in 147 S.E.62 Thus it
has been contended that the spring has no relevance to
the anabasis of Antiochus IV.63Leaving aside the additional element of the spring, Josephus closely follows
1 Macc. 3:27-37 here. This text does not supply us with
a chronological sequence of historical facts but, rather,
59 For the Armenian campaign see above, note 32. For the
Persian Gulf, see Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria, 213; S. A.
Nodelman, "A PreliminaryHistory of Characene,"Berytus 13
(1960): 85; and Potts, The Arabian Gulf, 2: 16.
60 B. Bar-Kochva, Judas Maccabaeus (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989), 466-73. An additional argument
against Bar-Kochvawould be the onset of the winter by the time
the Seleucid army reached Armenia.
61 Ant. 12.293. See M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 166.
Bickermann,Der Gott der Makkabder,144, and Habicht, "The
Seleucids," 350, favor this date but do not cite Josephus as
their reason.
62 Ant. 12.293-97.
63 J. G.
Bunge, "Untersuchungenzum zweiten Makkabaerbuch" (Ph.D. diss., Bonn, 1971), 401, n. 101; Bar-Kochva,
Judas Maccabaeus, 467.

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249

GERA and HOROWITZ:Antiochus IV in Life and Death

presumes to relate what the king thought until he decided to go eastward.ThereforeJosephuscould well have
linked the spring to the king's wish to fight the Jews,
without meaning to disengage the spring from the departure of Antiochus IV to the east. It seems that Josephus
here supplementedhis main source, 1 Maccabees, with an
item of news from another source, probably Polybius.64
We have attempted here to reconstruct the first year
of the anabasis of Antiochus IV, 165 B.C.E.One of the
problems raised by this reconstruction is whether it is
actually possible to assign so much travel to a period
of seven months. Could Antiochus IV, marching with
either his whole army or with his cavalry units, have
covered the distances suggested? Furthermore,is there
time, within this period, for the king's exploits to have
been announced in Babylon?
Here a parallel example involving Alexander the Great
is instructive. In 331 B.C.E., around mid-April, Alexander and his army left Memphis in Egypt for Mesopotamia. There, about September 30, he and his troops
won a major victory at Gaugamela, some 1,870 km from
Memphis.65Thus Alexander's army covered 1,870 km in
five and a half months, or about 350 km per month. We
are suggesting that Antiochus IV traveled 2,155 km in
seven months, just over 300 km per month. Moreover,
Alexander's speed was checked by his need to face, with
all the military forces at his disposal, the Persian army,
while Antiochus IV was probably not under such a constraint, at least during the last leg of his journey to the
Persian Gulf. Finally, Alexander's march supports the
feasibility of our proposal in yet anotherway, for Alexander's five and a half months included a break at Tyre
in orderto celebrate there gymnastic and musical games,
and to attendto importantaffairs of state.66Thus the five
and half months of Alexander'sjourney do not represent
uninterruptedtravel. These argumentsfrom Alexander's
64

Polybiusis quotedin Ant. 12.135-36, 358-59. See M. Stern,

Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem:The

IsraelAcademyof Sciences and Humanities,1974), 1: 113.

Ant. 12.402is also basedon Polyb.31.14.4. See E. R. Bevan,
TheHouseof Seleucus(London:E. Arnold,1902),2: 200, n. 5.
It shouldbe notedthatPolybiusoftenconnectsthebeginningof
militarycampaignswith the year'sseasons;see, e.g., 2.54.5;
64.1; 5.68.1; 107.4;24.14.2.
65 See

Engels, Alexander the Great, 63-70. For these events

in the Babylonianastronomicaldiary for -330, see SachsHunger Diaries, 1: 178-79.

66 Arrian3. 6. 1-3; Curtius4. 8. 9-16. Curtiusalso mentions

Alexander'scampaignagainstthe Samaritans,
whichpreceded
his arrivalat Tyre.

travels render our assessment of the movements of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 165 all the more plausible.
IV. THE TEXT OF 163 B.C.E.

Tebet S.E. 148 = Dec. 19, 164-Jan. 16, 163 = -164

month X
Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 3:18 C2 17-18

copy LBAT 379+891+911+99367

17'

...

LU.ME9

it-t]i ADDA sa LUGAL GIN.ME?-ni it-ti

[...]
18' ...

] x-sa-at sd mAN A sd

mAN

he-pf ina x [ ...]

17' ...

those who] came [wit]h the corpse of the

king, with [ ...]
18' . . ] . of/which Antiochus (V) the son of Antiochus (IV) "BROKEN" in. ...
]

Assyriological Commentary
III 17': The identities of those who came with the king's
corpse is not preserved. In the historical commentary below it will be demonstratedthat this line refers to Philip, the syntrophosof Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
and his escort.
III 18': Here "BROKEN"indicates that the notice was
copied on to the surviving tablet from a previous source (an earlier copy of the diary or some other
tablet) which was broken at this point.
Historical Commentary
If the earlier diaries refer to events closely connected
to the living Antiochus IV, the third diary refers to his
corpse, which was brought to Babylon in the month of
Tebet, i.e., between December 19, 164. and January 16,
163. The date here is approximatelyone month after the
king's death first became known in Babylon during the
month of Kislev, i.e., between November 20 and December 18, 164.68 This delay of one month not only
67 Theselines areLBAT891:7'-8'.
68 See above,"Introduction:
TheDiaryfor 163 B.C.E."Here
too theJuliandatesareslightlyrevisedaccordingto Parkerand
Dubberstein,
BabylonianChronology,23, 41. The dateof the
year of AntiochusIV's death is also confirmedastronomically by observationsof Halley'sCometduringthe fall of 164
B.C.E. (Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 3: 10 16-17; 16 C1 9' [for the
comet, see the translation,p. 17]). On this topic see A. Wolters,

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250

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

corroborates the date furnished by the Babylonian king

list,69 but also suggests that, while news of the king's
death was speedily conveyed to Babylon despite the distance involved,70 the transport of his body was a slower
affair.71
The astronomical diary mentions "... those who] came
[wit]h the corpse of the king." Who, in fact, accompanied
the corpse? 2 Macc. 9:29 states that Philip, the syntro-

"Halley's Comet at a Turning Point in Jewish History," The

Catholic Biblical Quarterly55 (1993): 687-97; idem, "ZOHAR
HARAQIA(Daniel 12:3) and Halley's Comet," Journal for the
Study of the Old Testament61 (1994): 111-20; W. Horowitz,
"Halley's Comet and the JudeanRevolts Revisited," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58 (1996): 456-59.
69 Sachs and Wiseman, "A Babylonian King List," 204, 2089; E. Grzybek, "Zu einer babylonischen Konigsliste aus der
hellenistischen Zeit (Keilscrifttafel BM 35603)," Historia 41
(1992): 195, n. 16.
70 A parallel can be drawn with the death of Nabopolassar
on the 8th of Ab (month V) in Babylon in the year 605 B.C.E.
The news was reported to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was
then in Syria, possibly at Riblah. Nebuchadnezzar rushed to
Babylon where he was crowned King of Babylon on the first of
Elul (VI), twenty-three days after the death of his father (see
Grayson, Chronicles, 99: 1-100: 11). Thus, within twenty-three
days (August 15-Sept. 7, 605 B.C.E.) about 1750 km were covered, first by the couriersbringing the news to Syria and then by
Nebuchadnezzar himself returning to Babylon (see Wiseman,
Nebuchadrezzarand Babylon, 17-18 (BM 21946, lines 10-11).
71 Antiochus IV died at Tabae (Polyb. 31.9.3, Porphyry,
FGH, 260, F 56). Tabae has been identified with Gabae/Isfahan
(Niese, Geschichte, 3: 218, n. 3; Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria,
214), or at least placed in its vicinity (M0rkholm,Antiochus IV
of Syria, 171, n. 17; Walbank, A Historical Commentary on
Polybius, 3: 474). The distance between Gabae/Isfahan and
Babylon, approximately 1260 km, could just about be covered,
but only if we assume that at least two months passed from the
king's death to the arrival of his body in Babylon. Curtius Rufus seems to refer to the same Tabae when speaking of Tabas
oppidum est in Paraetacene ultima (5.13.2). Curtius notes the
location of Tabae when telling of Alexander's pursuit of Darius III. Alexander went from Persepolis to Ecbatana in Media
(Arrian, Anabasis 3.18.10-19.5). Tabae should therefore not
be located near Gabae/Isfahan, but is to be situated on the
Paraetacene-Mediaborder, as far as possible from Persepolis,
but near Ecbatana. A location near Ecbatana, not only agrees
with Curtius' statement about Tabae, but allows a distance of
fewer than the 656 km separating Ecbatana and Babylon (cf.
2 Macc. 9:3, though of limited value here).

phos of Antiochus Epiphanes, escorted the king's body,72

while 1 Macc. 6:55-56 relates that Philip returned from
the east with the Seleucid troops who had gone with Antiochus IV on his anabasis. Thus, Seleucid troops headed
by Philip would seem to have been the escort of the
king's corpse referred to in the diary.
Our document indicates that the corpse of Antiochus
IV was present in Babylon no later than January 16, 163.
If our assumption is correct that the corpse was accompanied by Philip and his army, this date can throw light
on the vexing question of the chronology of Lysias' second campaign against the Jews, since Philip and his men
appear there as well.
During the course of Lysias' second expedition
against Judas Maccabaeus, news reached Antiochus V
and his guardian, Lysias, that Philip was no longer in the
east, but was now seeking to gain control over affairs of
state in Antioch. The two immediately changed their
plans, negotiated with the Jews, agreed on terms with
them, and then left for Antioch.73 When did this second
campaign of Lysias take place? According to 1 Macc.
6:20, it was Judas' threat to besiege the citadel of Jerusalem in 150 S.E. that prompted Lysias and the boy-king
Antiochus V Eupator to set out from Antioch towards
Judea. In 2 Macc. 13:1, however, Lysias' second campaign is dated to 149 S.E. Scholars are therefore divided
between those who prefer the testimony of 2 Maccabees
and opt for a 163 B.C.E. date and those who give credence to 1 Maccabees and favor a 162 date.74

72 The epitamator of 2 Macc. 9:29 states that Philip subsequently fled to Egypt because he feared Antiochus' son. J. A.
Goldstein, II Maccabees (GardenCity, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983),
372-73, 467, correctly understoodthe meaning of 2 Macc. 9:29,
but was wrong to conclude that the Philip mentioned there
should be distinguished from the person bearing the same name
in 2 Macc. 13:23. D. Gera will discuss this issue elsewhere.
73 1 Macc. 6:55-63; 2 Macc. 13:23-26; Jos. Ant. 12.379386. These events are recordedin summaryfashion by Josephus
in BJ 1.46. Many scholars believe the royal letter in 2 Macc.
11:22-26 to be the fruit of these negotiations. However, see
C. Habicht, "Royal Documents in Maccabees II," HSPh 80
(1976): 15-17.
74 163 B.C.E.: J. Wellhausen, "Uber den geschichtlichen Wert
des zweiten Makkabaerbuchs,im verhaltnis zum ersten,"Nachrichten von der Konigl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu
Gottingen, phil.-hist. K1. (1905), 151-52; M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 153; K. Bringmann, Hellenistische Reform
und Religionsverfolgung in Judaa (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1983), 19-20, 27, n. 50. 162 B.C.E.: V. Tcherikover,

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GERA and HOROWITZ:Antiochus IV in Life and Death

Philip and the army accompanying him are clearly of

importance here. Bickermann, for instance, was able to
argue, on the basis of Philip's presence, first alongside
the dying Antiochus IV and then in Antioch during the
second campaign of Lysias, that a date of 162 is out of
the question. Bickermannclaimed, on the evidence then
available, that Antiochus IV had died in the early months
of 163. Philip would not then have waited for more than
a year before trying to seize Antioch. He would, rather,
have marchedon the Seleucid capital in the summer following the king's death, i.e., the summer of 163.75The
new datum on the date of the king's death (i.e., it became known in Babylon in November-December 164;
see above) only adds weight to Bickermann'sargument.
In addition, our historical notice, which shows that the
corpse of Antiochus IV, and consequently Philip and his
army, were present in Babylon no later than January 16,
163, makes a 162 date even more unlikely. What would
have kept Philip from marching, in the spring and summer of 163, the 1065 km that separate Babylon from
Antioch (up the Euphrates and then via Aleppo)? One
should recall that in 165 the king's army covered greater
distances, and that, in the following year, it marched, in
approximatelyone month, hundredsof kilometers from
Tabae, where the king had died, to Babylon. Thus our
document makes it even more likely that the second
campaign of Lysias should be dated to 163 B.C.E.
Here, however, one should consider another piece of
information,the recentlypublishedinscriptionof YavnehYam, a record containing two or possibly three documents. One of these is a memorandum addressed by
the Sidonians in the port of Jamnia to Antiochus V Eupator, and another is the king's reply, dated to the month
of Loos, 149 S.E. (June-July 163 B.C.E.).76An intriguing

Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (Philadelphia: The Jew-

ish PublicationSociety and Magnes Press, 1959), 224-25;

E. Schiirer, The History of the Jewish People in the Time of

Jesus Christ,revisedby G. Vermes,F. Millar,and M. Black

T. & T. Clark,1973), 1: 167,n. 14; Bar-Kochva,
(Edinburgh:
Judas Maccabaeus, 543-51.
R. Hanhart, "Zur Zeitrechnung des I. und II. Makkabaerbuches," Beihefte zur Zeitschriftfiir die a?ttestamentlicheWis-

senschaft88 (1964):57-59, 67-68, triesto harmonizethe two

dates.Hedatesthesiegeandthefollowingcampaignto between
October 163 and April 162 B.C.E.
75
Bickermann,Der Gott der Makkabder, 156-57.

251

point concerning this inscription is that it makes no

mention of the Jews and the king's problems with them
at the time. This led the first editor of the Yavneh-Yam
inscription to conclude that "no precise connection can
be found between the contents of the inscription and any
of the known stages in the wars of Judah the Maccabee."77Our view, however, is that one should look for a
link between the Yavneh-Yam inscription and the Seleucid-Jewish conflict, not in the text of the inscription itself, but in the,backgroundof the appeal of the Sidonians
of Jamnia-on-the-Seato their king. It should be remembered that at the beginning of the second campaign of
Lysias, the Seleucid army advanced through Idumea towards Beth-Zur (1 Macc. 6:31). From this F-M. Abel
concluded that the Seleucid armyhad first marchedalong
the maritime plain of Palestine. Only afterwardsdid the
Seleucid army turneastwards in order to approachJudea
from the west, or perhaps the southwest.78It is obvious
that the Seleucid army would have marched right past
Jamnia-on-the-Sea. Since the date of Antiochus Eupator's letter is the same as the date in 2 Maccabees for the
second campaign of Lysias, we suggest that both indicate the correct date of this campaign. The Sidonians of
Jamnia-on-the-Sea, on hearing of the approach of the
royal army, sent their delegates to the king and stressed
their long-standing loyalty to his predecessors (lines 811). They seem to have asked the king to grant them the
same exemption from taxes which was allowed another
(unnamed) community, and in this they were successful
(lines 4-5).79 The inscription itself was set up in order
to commemorate the royal privileges granted to the Sidonians of Jamnia-on-the-Sea.
also the instructivediscussionof Ph. Gauthier,"Bulletin6piREG105 (1992):528-30, no. 552.
graphique,"
77 Isaac,"ASeleucidInscription"137-38. However,A. KaB.C.E.GreekInscriptionfromIamsher,"A Second-Century
nia,"Cathedra63 (1992):20-21 (in Hebrew),suggeststhatthe
Sidoniansof Jamnia-on-the-Sea
askedthe king to grantthem
favors in returnfor their help in transferringsuppliesfrom
northernSyriato Palestinein thecourseof eitherthe firstcampaign of Lysias or the second.This is not borneout by the
existingtext.
78 "Topographiedes campagnesmachab6ennes,"
RB 33
(1924): 210; M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 153. Bar-

Kochva,JudasMaccabaeus,291 (withmap14),favorsa southwestern approach,while A. Kasher,Jews and Hellenistic Cities

in Eretz-Israel(Tiibingen:J. C. B. Mohr[P. Siebeck],1990),

B. Isaac,"ASeleucidInscriptionfromJamnia-on-the-Sea: 87-88, is morecautious,notingbothpossibilities.
Antiochus V Eupatorand the Sidonians,"IEJ 41 (1991): 13279 Forthe exemption,see line 12 of the inscription,andthe
44. Thetextis on p. 133.Thedateof theletteris in line 6. See
no. 552.
readingproposedby Gauthier,"Bulletin6pigraphique,"
76

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252

Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.2 (1997)

It is clear then that in June-July 163 the Seleucid army

was already approachingJudea. Since the date in 1 Maccabees, 150 s.E., serves as a terminus a quo for Lysias'

second campaign, it cannot be right. For this year would

have begun either in October 163 (according to the
Macedonian reckoning), or in April 162 (according to
the Babylonian reckoning). This mistaken informationin
1 Macc. 6:20 is perhaps the result of a chronological
errorcommitted by the authorof 1 Maccabees. He dates
the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to 149 s.E.80This
date is accurateaccording to the Macedonian reckoning,
and the author of 1 Maccabees may have gleaned this
detail from an external source. However, if the author
thought that this date was computed according to the
Babylonian reckoning, he would have dated the second
campaign of Lysias, which began after the Babylonian
and Jewish new year of 1 Nisan, to 150 s.E.81
V. CONCLUSIONS

In sum, we have dealt here with historical notices in

three Babylonian astronomicaldiaries, all of which have

80 1 Macc. 6:16.
81
Bickermann,Der Gott der Makkabaer, 157.

chronological implications for Seleucid history in the

reigns of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his son, Antiochus V Eupator.The first diary refers to a pompe which
is not identical with the festival organized by Antiochus IV at Daphne. The procession should instead be regarded as part of a local festival instituted by the Greeks
of Babylon to celebratetheirmonarch'svictories in Egypt.
Thus the diary now supplies us with the third known
example of festivals and processions celebrated in the
Seleucid kingdom during the reign of Antiochus IV.
The fragments of the second diary actually add something substantive to our knowledge of the movements of
the Seleucid king and his army: by Tishre (October 2October 30) 165, Antiochus IV had not only concluded
his victorious Armenian campaign but already reached
the Persian Gulf. The date here lends support to the
view that Antiochus IV began his anabasis in the spring
of 165, and that the games at Daphne took place in 166.
Finally, we have used the third diary to argue that Philip
the syntrophos escorted the king's corpse to Babylon.
His presence at Babylon supplies additional evidence in
supportof a 163 B.C.E. date for the second campaign of
Lysias against the Jews. While the three diaries do not
revolutionize what might be termed the mainstreamreconstruction of Seleucid history in the years 169-163,
they do add bits and pieces to our knowledge and represent a small, but appreciable, step forward.

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