Antiochus In Greece

[Gaius Julius Trajan]

Hi, I have been a lurker on this board for a couple months and decided to register today.

 

Since a bit over a year ago I became really interested in the ancient world and started reading and getting to know much about it.

 

I had been reading Livy's books and especially the war with Antiochus has left me with some questions.

 

Basically, I have a hard time understanding Antiochus' plans and strategy for his so called 'liberation' of Greece. First of all, he crossed Aegaen sea with a relatively very small army(about 10.000 according to Livy). Offcourse he counted on his allies in Greece and probably assumed the sort of neutral states to choose his side as soon as he would invade the country. But then why did he came with such a small portion of his army? A bigger army would certainly have caused more pressure for the Greeks to join him. Offcourse some did anyway. I also read a bigger portion of his army was at Lysimachia under the command of his son Seleucus. Hannibal tried to push Antiochus to have it march towards Macedonia, destroying the land on its way to put pressure on Phillip. Antiochus never took this advice. Did he underestimate the Romans, thinking he can do it with only those 10.000 man and Greek allies with no need for futher reinforcements? And did he rushed himself into war at the first place without giving himself time to rally a full army? This sounds not too likely to me since he had been in contact with the Greeks for a while and it seemed inevitable that he would come sooner or later, so he would have had the time to prepare I would normally suppose.

 

Then there's that winter which he spent marrying a girl, drinking and partying. While I assume the Romans might have exaggerated these reports, Livy tells that after this winter Antiochus felt his own men let him down by staying in Asia. Again, this sounds like a curious passage. Why didn't more troops come over to Greece? As shown at Magnesia, Antiochus still had more than enough soldiers and support since he was able to rally an army of 70.000 man (for as far as these numbers are accurate). Were his troops only motivated to fight for their home soil?

 

Yet, he still advanced and eventually positioned himself at Thermopylae. Than there is another remarkable mistake by Antiochus. Knowing the place's history he decided to position some troops on the mountain passages to guard them and try and prevent his troops from the fate the Spartans suffered there in 480. However he choose only the Aetolians to guard these places while just one page before this Livy mentions he was very dissapointed with the Aetolians and their role in the war. Offcourse they would have been more familiar with the terrain but why have the most important places guard by the troops you think so less off? This immidiately backfired on Antiochus since half of the Aetolians stayed at Heraclea despite of the kings orders and the other half was quicly overrun by the Romans which sealed Antiochus fate.

 

I have a hard time assesing Antiochus in general since he is a man of impressive successes as well as dramatic losses and mistakes. I guess we'll never have a clear picture of him since basically only his defeats are relatively well documented while his positive achiefments are not (as far as I know).

 

Also do you think Antiochus could have had serious succes against the Romans under different circumstances and with better leadership? I guess it would have been very difficult since Roman armies seemed allready superior in the art of warfare in comparison to the Eastern armies. Magnesia seems to completely confirm this (even though the lack of cavalary control decided that battle).

 

English is not my primary language and I dont know if I can really express myself for 100% as I want to so excuse me if this comes over as just a blur of thoughts and questions but that is actually what it is.

 

Anyway, while I have read a lot on Roman history in the past year, I am far from an expert and so I would love to hear some thoughts and theories from others. While we can specualate on all details ,I am sure we'll never really know what was on Antiochus mind.

[Neos Dionysos]

A good book that you may find great interest in is:

 

The Roman War of Antiochos the Great: by John D. Grainger

 

It deals completely with the episode you are describing.