Antiochus III the Great

Antiochus III the Great was the sixth ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 223 BC to 187 BC. He came to the throne at eighteen after the murder of his brother Seleucus III Ceraunus and inherited an empire in turmoil. After an early campaign against Ptolemaic Egypt ended in defeat at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC, he spent the next decade reasserting Seleucid authority over central Asia Minor, Parthia and Bactria, and led an expedition as far as the Kabul valley. These campaigns earned him the epithet the Great and the title Great King. A second war against the Ptolemies brought Coele-Syria, Phoenicia and Judea under Seleucid control after the Battle of Panium in 198 BC. His designs on Greece brought war with Rome from 192 BC, and he was defeated at Thermopylae and Magnesia, losing most of Seleucid Asia Minor in the Treaty of Apamea. He was killed on an eastern expedition in 187 BC.