The title King of Syria appeared in the second century BC in referring to the Seleucid kings who ruled the entirety of the region of Syria. It was also used to refer to Aramean kings in the Greek translations of the Old Testament, mainly indicating the kings of Aram-Damascus. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the region came under the rule of France, the United Kingdom and Prince Faisal of Hejaz, who was proclaimed King of Syria on 8 March 1920. Faisal's reign lasted a few months before he was overthrown by France and the title fell out of use.
The term Syria was first applied by Herodotus in the 5th century BC to indicate a region generally extending between Anatolia and Egypt.[1][2] With the advent of the Hellenistic period, Greeks and their Seleucid dynasty used the term "Syria" to designate the region between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates.[3] The usage of the name in referring to the region during the Iron Age (ended 586 BC) is a modern practice.[1][4]
Son of Seleucus IV and Laodice IV.[15] The minister Heliodorus held real power,[15] then Antiochus was made co-king by his uncle Antiochus IV.[note 3][17]
Son of Alexander I and Cleopatra Thea.[32] Was proclaimed king against Demetrius II by general Diodotus Tryphon who held actual power and eventually killed Antiochus.[note 6][32]
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Non-dynastic
Diodotus Tryphon, who opposed Demetrius II by raising Antiochus VI to the throne, killed his protege and declared himself king ruling until 138 when the Seleucids unified Syria again.[27]
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He rose against Antiochus VIII with the help of Cleopatra IV.[48]
Antiochus VIII died in 96 BC and Antiochus IX followed him in 95 BC;[49] the country became embroiled in a civil war in which Antiochus VIII's five sons and the descendants of Antiochus IX fought between themselves.[50] The chronology of all those monarchs is problematic and is specially vague regarding Seleucus VI's successors.[51]
Cleopatra Selene declared her son Antiochus XIII king following the deaths of both Antiochus XII and Philip I; she seems to have installed herself co-ruler.[61][62]
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Seleucid dynasty
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King of Armenia, invaded Syria; the year of the invasion is up to debate and is traditionally given as 83 BC based on the account of Appian.[57] The date of the invasion might actually be later, around 74 BC.[71] The Armenian king captured Cleopatra Selene and killed her in 69 BC,[72] but he was forced by the Romans to evacuate Syria the same year.[73]
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Seleucid dynasty
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Portrait
Monarch (and lifespan)
Reign
Consort (and tenure)
Parents, co-regents, and notes
Antiochus XIII Asiaticus (c. 94–63 BC)
69–67 BC (second reign)
The Roman general Pompey confirmed Antiochus as king following Tigranes departure.[72]
In the first translation of the Old Testament into Greek written during the third century BC (called the Septuagint),[79]Aram and Arameans were often translated as Syria and the Syrians;[80][81] hence, the king was referred to as the king of Syria,[82] and this was carried on by many English translations.[80] Aram in the Hebrew Old Testament and Syria in the translation indicated the kingdom of Aram-Damascus most of the times.[80] Occasionally, other Aramean regions were also referred to as Syria.[80] In the view of W. Edward Glenny, the rendering of Aram by Syria might be explained by an anti-Syrian bias, since at the time of the translation, Syria belonged to the Seleucids, the Jews' main enemy; Aram-Damascus was the Jews' enemy during its Iron Age prime in the 9th century BC.[83]
There is no reason to believe that Laodice III fell from grace as she survived her husband and was honoured throughout his and his successors reigns.[12] Seleucid monarchs did not engage in polygamy and even the most hostile accounts, aside from the propagandistic work of Polybius, do not accuse Antiochus III with the act.[12]Paul J. Kosmin suggests a solution for the problem of Antiochus' second wife; according to Polybius, Euboea was a name given by Antiochus to his second wife and it is the name of her island.[12] Hence, in the view of Kosmin, by marrying this girl, Antiochus signified that he was marrying the island which the girl became its symbol.[12]
Antiochus was a child of 4 or 5 years when he ascended the throne.[16] Heliodorus might have killed Seleucus IV,[15] before being removed by Antiochus IV who kept his nephew as co-king before killing him in 170 BC.[17]
Fritz Heichelheim proposed three possibilities: Antiochus was Demetrius I's son Antigonus who assumed the dynastic name Antiochus, a pretender, or Demetrius I's youngest son Antiochus VII.[24]Alfred Raymond Bellinger considered the suggestion of Antiochus VII the most credible.[25]
Appian called Balas Alexandros Nothos (Alexander the bastard); this bastardy could have been the reason for the doubts ancient writers showed regarding Alexander's paternity.[29]
Josephus placed Antiochus' murder after the end of Demetrius II's first reign and Diodorus Siculus placed the usurpation of Diodotus Tryphon in the consular year 138 BC.[33] However, the last coins struk in Antiochus' name date to the year142/141 BC indicating that he was murdered around that time.[33]
Alexander fabricated a genealogy that presented him as the son of Alexander I Balas according to Poseidonius, or the adopted son of Antiochus VII according to Justin.[38]
In 124/123 BC,[43] he married Tryphaena who was murdered in 111 BC by Antiochus IX.[44][45] By 103 BC, he married Tryphaena's sister Cleopatra Selene.[46]
Philip's death date is unknown but traditionally assumed to be the year 84 or 83 BC.[57] Although there is a possibility that he ruled until 75 BC.[58]
In 2002, numismatist Brian Kritt announced the discovery and decipherment of a coin bearing the portrait of Cleopatra Selene and a co-ruler;[64][65] Kritt read the name of the ruler as Seleucus Philometor and, based on the epithet "Philometor", meaning mother loving, identified him with Cleopatra Selene's son, unnamed by Cicero.[66] Kritt gave the newly discovered ruler the regnal name Seleucus VII, and considered it very likely that he is identical with Kybiosaktes.[67] The reading of "Seleucus VII" was accepted by some scholars such as Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Michael Roy Burgess,[68][69] but Oliver D Hoover rejected Kritt's reading, noting that the coin was badly damaged and some letters were unreadable; Hoover read the king's name as Antiochus and identified him with Antiochus XIII.[65]
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