Final Years
Taking advantage of Antiochus' western problems, King Mithridates I of Parthia attacked from the east and seized the city of Herat in 167 BC, disrupting the direct trade route to India and effectively splitting the Greek world in two.
Recognizing the potential danger in the east, but unwilling to give up control of Judea, Antiochus sent a commander named Lysias to deal with the Maccabees, while the King himself led the main Seleucid army against the Parthians. After initial success in his eastern campaign, including the reoccupation of Armenia, Antiochus died suddenly of disease in 164 BC.
Read more about this topic: Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or years:
“Always and last, before the final ring
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A tom-tom scrimmage with a somewhere violin,
Some cheapest echo of them all—begins.”
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“I see the callus on his sole,
The disappearing last of him
And of his race starvation slim,
Oh, years ago—ten thousand years.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)