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The Milesian Connection: Dan 11:23 and Antiochus IV’s Rise to Power

2013; Brill; Volume: 63; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/15685330-12341097

1568-5330

Benjamin Scolnic,

Historical and Linguistic Studies

Abstract The phrase bm‘t goy in Dan 11:23 has been called “barbarous” and “curious.” In the context of a verse that seems to say that Antiochus IV will rise to power with the help of a small band of conspirators, it seems quite strange to call the group a “little nation.” The phrase may refer to several members of one small nation, Miletus, who formed a network that brought Antiochus IV to the Seleucid throne. Two powerful families of officials in the kingdom of Antiochus IV, those of Apollonius son of Menestheus and Timarchus, came from Miletus in Asia Minor, an independent city that was not part of the Seleucid kingdom. I will suggest that the Milesians Apollonius, governor of Coele Syria and Phoenicia, and Timarchus, later satrap of Babylonia, and his brother Heraclides, later treasurer of the kingdom, formed a web that helped to bring Antiochus IV to the Seleucid throne with the essential help of Eirenias, the Milesian statesman who was an ambassador to both Eumenes II, king of Pergamon, and the Seleucid court.