162: The Great Revolt

Gold Stater depicting Antiochus III via Wikimedia

The Seleucid narrative is back, and Antiochus III is the new king. Fresh off the death of his father and brother, the young Antiochus found himself pulled in three different directions by his nobles as rebellions, wars, and scheming advisers took their toll on the Empire.
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161: Meet the Neighbors Speed Round

Map of key locations in the Cleomenean War via Wikimedia

Prepare for a return to the narrative with a quick round of catch up with the Seleucids’ neighbors: Egypt, Macedon, India, and surprisingly, Sparta one last time before the famed warriors of Ancient Greece fade into history.
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Intelligent Speech 2026!!!

Title card featuring cuneiform and the Behistun Inscription. Text: Darius: The Great (Big Liar) Host: Trevor Culley, HoPful Media: History of Persia & America: Secret Wars

Intelligent Speech Online 2026 is almost here, and if I haven’t yet sold you on attending the conference on February 28, 2026 (starting at 9am US Eastern Time), you might be interested in my presentation from last year’s event.

When he seized the Persian throne in 522 BCE, Darius the Great made a public declaration explaining his coup in the Bisotun Inscription. Details changed with each retelling, but that version of story is the only one that survived in ancient sources. Modern historians are pretty sure that it’s one of the most successful lies ever told.
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IntelligentSpeechOnline.com – Intelligent Speech Online 2026 Tickets available now!

Watch the video version of this presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uAFcxdySfI

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156: Babylon Drift

Silver tetradrachm coin featuring Seleukos II Kallinikos, complete with beard, via Wikimedia

With Babylonia and the Seleucis of Syria under Ptolemaic occupation, it’s entirely possible that the only thing that saved Seleucus II was an Egyptian famine. Free to go on the offensive, Seleucus turned the tide of the Third Syrian War.
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155: The War of the Mothers

Gold octodrachm coin depicting Ptolemy III Euergetes via Wikimedia

Antiochus II Theos was dead and his wives, Laodike and Berenike, were both trying to get their sons on the Seleucid throne. Both sides called on their relatives, the Achaeids and Ptolemies, to plunder and retake the vulnerable Empire.
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153: Blood Relations

Antiochus II’s probable tomb, the Belevi Mausoleum via Wikimedia

It’s time to wind down Antiochus II Theos and talk about his extended royal family, from his various siblings spread out across the Hellenistic world to the powerful cousins entrenched in Anatolia. Then we’ll wrap up with his two wives, Laodike and Berenike, and their three sons, Seleucus, Antiochus, and Antiochus.
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151: 2 Syria 2 War

Coin depicting Antiochos II Theos via Wikimedia

Trevor’s WiFi is back, and so is the History of Persia. Although he started in a relatively strong position, the new Seleucid king Antiochus II’s reign was immediately derailed by the Second Syrian War. Rebellions, invasions, and alliances ensue.
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146: Dating in the Family

The Xian Stele, Chinese with a Syriac translation date Year of the Greeks 1092, over 1000 years into the Seleucid Era via Wikimedia

Like any good king, Antiochus I Soter had a royal family, and as his reign comes to an end, it’s time to talk about them, from his brother in Anatolia to troublesome sons and wide ranging in-laws. He’s in his Seleucid Era.
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145: From Antiochus to Ashoka

Sketch of the Aramaic inscription of Ashoka at Khalsi

After losing a large piece of the eastern empire to Chandragupta Maurya, the Seleucids didn’t just ignore their eastern neighbors. In the later decades of Seleucus’ reign, Megasthenes established diplomatic ties between the two eastern kingdoms. In the generations that followed, diplomacy and trade helped to stabilize both the Maurya and the Seleucids.
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