Journal of The American Oriental Society Volume 117 Issue 2 1997 (Doi 10.2307/605488) Dov Gera and Wayne Horowitz - Antiochus IV in Life and Death - Evidence From The Babylonian Astronomical Diaries
Journal of The American Oriental Society Volume 117 Issue 2 1997 (Doi 10.2307/605488) Dov Gera and Wayne Horowitz - Antiochus IV in Life and Death - Evidence From The Babylonian Astronomical Diaries
Journal of The American Oriental Society Volume 117 Issue 2 1997 (Doi 10.2307/605488) Dov Gera and Wayne Horowitz - Antiochus IV in Life and Death - Evidence From The Babylonian Astronomical Diaries
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WAYNE HOROWITZ
THE HEBREWUNIVERSITY
This paper discusses Babylonian astronomical diaries for the years 169-163 B.C.E.,which mention Antiochus IV Epiphanes and consequently bear chronological implications for Seleucid history.
While the documents discussed do not upset the accepted reconstruction of Seleucid history, they
add to our knowledge of the period.
The first diary discussed mentions a "procession" (pompe). We claim that this procession should
not be identified with Antiochus IV's famous procession at Daphne but was a local festival of the
Greeks of Babylon, celebrated in honor of their king's victorious Egyptian campaign.
There are two significant notices in a diary for 165. The first refers to Antiochus' Armenian expedition while the second, it is argued, alludes to his efforts to explore the Persian Gulf. The diary'sdate
and the geographical information it contains add to our knowledge of Antiochus IV's movements
during that year.
The last diary mentions a party escorting the corpse of a king, who must be Antiochus IV. On the
basis of Jewish sources, the party's leader is identified as Philip, the dead king's syntrophos. His
presence in Babylon in Tebet 163. supplies an additional argumentin favor of dating Lysias' second
campaign against the Jews to that year.
I. INTRODUCTION
THREE
HISTORICAL
NOTICES
RELATING
TO Antiochus
Although the following is a cooperative effort of the authors, the Assyriological materials are the responsibility of
W. Horowitz and the historical materials are that of D. Gera.
Assyriological abbreviations follow E. Reiner, ed., The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago, vol. 17: S, part II (Chicago: The Oriental Institute,
1992), ix-xxvi, with the following addition: Halley's Comet =
F R. Stephenson and C. B. F Walker, eds., Halley's Comet in
History (London: British Museum Publications, 1985). Abbreviations of classical journals accord with the list found in
L'Annee philologique 62 (1993): xv-xxxvii. FGH = F Jacoby, Die Fragmenteder griechischen Historiker(Berlin: Weidmann; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1923- ). CAH = The Cambridge
Ancient History, new edition (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1970- ).
Sachs-Hunger Diaries use the astronomical dating convention Year -x = x + 1 B.C.E.,e.g., -200 = 201 B.C.E.
3 T. G. Pinches, The Old Testamentin the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, 2nd ed.
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903),
480, 553.
4 "The Babylonian City," in Hellenism in the East, ed. A.
Kuhrt and S. Sherwin-White (Berkeley: Univ. of California
Press, 1987), 67-68.
240
B.C.E.
241
B.C.E.
242
...
ITU.BI al-te-e
A = BM
um-[ma]
cessions
Greeks. [. . .]"
Assyriological
line 15
Commentary
For pu-up-pe-e = pompe, "processions,"
see above, note 4.13
Historical Commentary
As noted, Geller's proposed new date for the procession and the games at Daphne is based on an identification of this event with the pompe noted in the portion
of the diary for August-September 169. This conclusion
seems to rest on the tacit assumption that a pompe was an
extraordinary event, and that there could have been no
Babylonia:A Case-studyfor the Installationand Developmentof GreekRule"in Hellenismin theEast,20-21. See also
243
wished to pay homage to the king and to reap his benefactions in return.One of the features of this festival was
the pompe reportedin the astronomical diary20
III. THE TEXT OF 165 B.C.E.
B: 15'
... ]el.BAD*.ME
sad URU Ha-bi-gal-bat
KURAr*-mi-il MU-SUSA4-U X X X X X [ ...
sa
Commentary
(London:Duckworth,1993), 155-58.
18Cf. B6mer,
col. 1941,no. 125;F-M. Abel,Les
"Pompa",
Livresdes Maccabees(Paris:LibrairieLecoffre,1949), 36263. E. Bickermannclaimedthatthe Greekdeities mentioned
in the sourceswith regardto the persecutionof the Jews by
Antiochus IV were in fact Semitic (Der Gott der Makkabder
[Berlin: Schocken Verlag-Jiidischer Buchverlag, 1937], 90116). Consequently, he identified Dionysus with the Nabatean
19Geller,"NewInformation,"
1-2.
20
Similarly,vanderSpek,"TheBabylonianCity,"68.
175,mubbu2. b).
22 For Uanigalbat/Iabigalbat, see RLA 4: 105-7. For Aramale/Armarili see AOAT6: 22, 30. See also I. M. Diakonoff,
The Pre-History of the Armenian People (New York: Caravan
244
here is
"the city of
Historical Commentary
245
36 For
246
45
46 6.152.
6-9.
"SomeAspectsof the SeleucidEmpire,"
Sherwin-White,
Rightly understoodby Potts, The Arabian Gulf, 2: 11. The
name of the king appears in the dative case. Many scholars
however seem to have taken Pliny's text as implying that the
king personally took part in this expedition. See Habicht, "The
Seleucids," 351-52; M0rkholm,Antiochus IV of Syria, 169.
of Artaxias I against the military might of the Seleucid king. This seems to be the reason why Antiochus was
willing to let the Armenian king remain on his throne,
albeit in a subservient position. It would seem, therefore,
that a Seleucid show of force in southern Armenia was
enough to convince Artaxias I to lay down his arms. Our
assumption then is that Antiochus IV led his army from
Antioch-on-the-Orontesto the area east of Lake Van.48
The distance between the Seleucid capital and the modern city of Van, on the eastern shore of the lake, is
approximately 869 km.49 According to D. W. Engels,
Alexander's army made an average daily progress of fifteen miles (= 24 km), with a one-day halt in seven.50
Judging from the number of troops that took part in the
pompe at Daphne, the Seleucid army that left Antioch
in 165 was approximately the same size as Alexander's
when it landed in Asia Minor,5' and presumably would
have marchedat a similarpace. It would have taken fortythree days to cover the distance from Antioch to the eastern shore of Lake Van. In other words, one may assume
that a period of a month and a half elapsed from the time
Antiochus IV set out from Antioch until he first clashed
with the Armenian army. In addition, allowance should
be made for waging the battle or battles against the Armenian army, although our impression is that the Armenian army did not prove formidable.
From Armenia, Antiochus Epiphanes would have descended to Mesopotamia. Since we assume that the Se48 Couldthe wordsof Dan. 11:45,"He shall
pitchhis palatial tentsbetweenthe seasandthebeautifulholy mountain. . ."
(NewRevisedVersion,withone change,"seas"[Hebrew:yammim]andnot"sea"),referto LakeVan,LakeUrmia,andMount
Ararat,andthusto Armenia?If so, thesecondpartof theverse,
which alludes to AntiochusIV's death, suggests Persia(see
below,note71).
49 Ourestimatehereis basedon the routewhichseemsto be
the shortest,i.e., Antioch-Gaziantep-Urfa
(Edessa)-DiarbakirBitlis-Tatvan-Van.
AntiochusIV andhis armydidnotnecessarily marchalongthisroad,butthis route(as well as othersused
in this article)providesa fair estimateof the distancesand
timesinvolved.
50 Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian
247
For this route, see AdmiraltyWar Staff: Intelligence Division, A Handbook of Mesopotamia (1917), 4: 119-21, 129-34,
Polybius(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1979),3: 473.
54 Forthe
RoyalRoad,see Herodotus5.52; andG. Le Rider,
Suse sous les Seleucides et les Parthes (Paris: Librairie orien-
taliste,1965),255, 267.
55 Arrian,Anabasis7.7.1-2 liststwowaterwaysandoneoverlandroute,all usedsimultaneously
by Alexanderandhis army.
248
quem for Antiochus' exploits in Armenia and the Persian Gulf, Tishre 165 B.C.E., furnished by our astronom-
249
presumes to relate what the king thought until he decided to go eastward.ThereforeJosephuscould well have
linked the spring to the king's wish to fight the Jews,
without meaning to disengage the spring from the departure of Antiochus IV to the east. It seems that Josephus
here supplementedhis main source, 1 Maccabees, with an
item of news from another source, probably Polybius.64
We have attempted here to reconstruct the first year
of the anabasis of Antiochus IV, 165 B.C.E.One of the
problems raised by this reconstruction is whether it is
actually possible to assign so much travel to a period
of seven months. Could Antiochus IV, marching with
either his whole army or with his cavalry units, have
covered the distances suggested? Furthermore,is there
time, within this period, for the king's exploits to have
been announced in Babylon?
Here a parallel example involving Alexander the Great
is instructive. In 331 B.C.E., around mid-April, Alexander and his army left Memphis in Egypt for Mesopotamia. There, about September 30, he and his troops
won a major victory at Gaugamela, some 1,870 km from
Memphis.65Thus Alexander's army covered 1,870 km in
five and a half months, or about 350 km per month. We
are suggesting that Antiochus IV traveled 2,155 km in
seven months, just over 300 km per month. Moreover,
Alexander's speed was checked by his need to face, with
all the military forces at his disposal, the Persian army,
while Antiochus IV was probably not under such a constraint, at least during the last leg of his journey to the
Persian Gulf. Finally, Alexander's march supports the
feasibility of our proposal in yet anotherway, for Alexander's five and a half months included a break at Tyre
in orderto celebrate there gymnastic and musical games,
and to attendto importantaffairs of state.66Thus the five
and half months of Alexander'sjourney do not represent
uninterruptedtravel. These argumentsfrom Alexander's
64
travels render our assessment of the movements of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 165 all the more plausible.
IV. THE TEXT OF 163 B.C.E.
...
LU.ME9
[...]
18' ...
] x-sa-at sd mAN A sd
mAN
17' ...
Assyriological Commentary
III 17': The identities of those who came with the king's
corpse is not preserved. In the historical commentary below it will be demonstratedthat this line refers to Philip, the syntrophosof Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
and his escort.
III 18': Here "BROKEN"indicates that the notice was
copied on to the surviving tablet from a previous source (an earlier copy of the diary or some other
tablet) which was broken at this point.
Historical Commentary
If the earlier diaries refer to events closely connected
to the living Antiochus IV, the third diary refers to his
corpse, which was brought to Babylon in the month of
Tebet, i.e., between December 19, 164. and January 16,
163. The date here is approximatelyone month after the
king's death first became known in Babylon during the
month of Kislev, i.e., between November 20 and December 18, 164.68 This delay of one month not only
67 Theselines areLBAT891:7'-8'.
68 See above,"Introduction:
TheDiaryfor 163 B.C.E."Here
too theJuliandatesareslightlyrevisedaccordingto Parkerand
Dubberstein,
BabylonianChronology,23, 41. The dateof the
year of AntiochusIV's death is also confirmedastronomically by observationsof Halley'sCometduringthe fall of 164
B.C.E. (Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 3: 10 16-17; 16 C1 9' [for the
comet, see the translation,p. 17]). On this topic see A. Wolters,
250
72 The epitamator of 2 Macc. 9:29 states that Philip subsequently fled to Egypt because he feared Antiochus' son. J. A.
Goldstein, II Maccabees (GardenCity, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983),
372-73, 467, correctly understoodthe meaning of 2 Macc. 9:29,
but was wrong to conclude that the Philip mentioned there
should be distinguished from the person bearing the same name
in 2 Macc. 13:23. D. Gera will discuss this issue elsewhere.
73 1 Macc. 6:55-63; 2 Macc. 13:23-26; Jos. Ant. 12.379386. These events are recordedin summaryfashion by Josephus
in BJ 1.46. Many scholars believe the royal letter in 2 Macc.
11:22-26 to be the fruit of these negotiations. However, see
C. Habicht, "Royal Documents in Maccabees II," HSPh 80
(1976): 15-17.
74 163 B.C.E.: J. Wellhausen, "Uber den geschichtlichen Wert
des zweiten Makkabaerbuchs,im verhaltnis zum ersten,"Nachrichten von der Konigl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu
Gottingen, phil.-hist. K1. (1905), 151-52; M0rkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria, 153; K. Bringmann, Hellenistische Reform
und Religionsverfolgung in Judaa (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1983), 19-20, 27, n. 50. 162 B.C.E.: V. Tcherikover,
251
252
80 1 Macc. 6:16.
81
Bickermann,Der Gott der Makkabaer, 157.