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ZAKHORIUM
PTEN

Date

202BCE

202–200 BCE

Antiochus III wrested Judea from the Ptolemies and, at first, confirmed the right of the Jews to live according to their laws.

Political history36.2226°N 36.1832°E
300 BCE
250 BCE
200 BCE
150 BCE
100 BCE
Jews and Greeks: each bar is an event of the period; this one is in coral.

Sourced narrative

Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.

4 statements

Between 202 and 200 BCE, the Seleucid kingdom of Antiochus III seized Judea from the Ptolemaic kingdom; Antiochus seems to have confirmed the Jews' right to live by their ancestral customs, a policy maintained by his successor Seleucus IV. From 200 BCE, Judea belonged to the Syrian kingdom founded by Seleucus I, which held it until Rome took over the region early in the first century BCE.

02First signs of conflict

Seleucus IV, who reigned from 187 to 175 BCE, is said to have attempted to plunder the Temple in Jerusalem. His official Heliodorus failed (according to the Jewish account, angelic beings knocked him off his horse). After Seleucus's assassination, attributed to Heliodorus, his brother Antiochus IV ascended the throne.

Context

Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, secured Egypt and founded a dynasty that continued until Rome's conquest in 30 BCE. Judea remained under Ptolemaic rule until 200 BCE. The book's timeline records that, upon Alexander's death, Ptolemaic control extended over Egypt and Judea.

§ 01Geography

Where it happened

Gazetteer coordinates (Pleiades for ancient places; Natural Earth and Wikidata for modern ones) over modern physical geography (Natural Earth). Coastlines and the Dead Sea have changed since antiquity.
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§ 04Network

Connections

§ 05Bibliography

Further reading

No specific reading recorded for this event.

§ 06Apparatus

Sources on this page

  1. 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 72; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 519inspect
  2. 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 65inspect
  3. 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 72inspect
  4. 04Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 65; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 519inspect
  • Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
  • Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
  • Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
  • Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
  • Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.