As the Romans were annexing territory in Europe and Asia Minor, the Seleucid Kingdom, which had never recovered from the shock of Magnesia and Apameia, began to break up. When Antiochus IV died at the end of 164 (Austin, Nr. 138), the man whom he had appointed as regent in the west, Lysias, took command in the name of Antiochus IV’s young son, Antiochus V Eupator (I Macc. III 32 and VI 17). Lysias attempted to suppress the rebellion in Judea, but in 163 made a hasty peace with Judas Maccabaeus since one of Antiochus IV’s generals, Philip, had returned from the East and claimed that Antiochus IV had appointed him instead of Lysias as regent. Lysias defeated Philip (I Macc. VI 55-63; II Macc. XI 22-26 and XIII 22-26), but was less fortunate when Seleu-cus IV’s eldest son, Demetrius, who had been sent to Rome as a hostage in place of Antiochus IV, escaped from Rome and traveled to Antioch. Demetrius I Soter quickly brought the Seleucid army to his side, defeated Lysias, and had Antiochus V put to death in very late 162 (Pol. XXXI 20-23; App. Syr. 47; I Macc. VII 1-4; Clay, Legal Documents from Erech, Nr. 40, line 37).
Demetrius I Soter strove to arrest the disintegration of the empire. He had a rebellious satrap of Babylon, Timarchus, killed and asserted Seleucid power in Cappadocia, but the Romans promptly undid his arrangements there (App.
Syr. l. c.). He also almost succeeded in quelling the Judean revolt: even if Judas Maccabaeus destroyed an army commanded by the general Nicanor in 161, in the next year another Seleucid general, Bacchides, defeated Judas who himself fell in the battle. By 157 Bacchides had managed to establish an uneasy peace with Judas’ brother, Jonathan (I Macc. VII and IX).
Unfortunately for Demetrius I Soter, a pretender claiming to be a son of Antiochus IV’s, revolted in 153. This man, known as Alexander I Balas, received aid from Ptolemy VI Philometor as well as others (Just. XXXV 1) and proved a formidable adversary. Demetrius I accordingly needed allies. Therefore he allowed the erstwhile Judean rebel Jonathan to rearm. Jonathan, sensing an opportunity, then approached Alexander I Balas to see if this ruler might offer him more. Alexander I Balas appointed Jonathan as high priest in Judea (the office was currently vacant - I Macc. IX 54-57), and Jonathan switched sides. Demetrius I thereupon made Jonathan many additional, suspiciously generous offers. In his desperation, Demetrius was probably making similar offers throughout the empire. Jonathan patently doubted Demetrius I’s ability to deliver and continued to back Balas - rightly as it turned out, for in 150 Balas defeated Demetrius I in a battle which cost Demetrius his life. Now Ptolemy VI Philometor and Alexander I Balas sealed their alliance with Balas’ marriage to Philometor’s daughter, Cleopatra Thea (“goddess”) (I Macc. X 1-58). A spectacular career lay ahead of her as the wife (and widow) of several kings until she herself at last began to rule, the first Hellenistic queen so to do. For now, however, her assignment was to make the alliance between Balas and her father work. Even if Balas never acted to meet the expectation, Philometor presumably expected to receive Hollow Syria back.
Balas would not hold his throne long - in 147 Demetrius I’s teenaged son, under the tutelage of an experienced general Lasthenes, rebelled, and Ptolemy VI Philometor entered Hollow Syria at the head of a large army. Demetrius I’s son defeated and slew Balas in 145 and ascended the throne as Demetrius II Nicator. Ptolemy VI Philometor now gave Cleopatra Thea in marriage to him - presumably in the expectation of Demetrius II’s official cession of Hollow Syria (part of which Philometor’s army already held). However, Philometor died in an accident shortly thereafter (I Macc. X 67-XI 19; Jos. Ant. XIII 4,3 [86]; Liv. Per. 52), and no cession of Hollow Syria took place.
Within two years a general in the Seleucid army, Diodotus Trypho, revolted in the name of Alexander I Balas’ young son whom he declared king under the name of Antiochus VI Epiphanes II. In Judea the high priest Jonathan, who had ingratiated himself with Demetrius II Nicator, now decided to back Trypho. Jonathan was supposed to conquer Palestine for Antiochus VI, but succeeded so well in this that Trypho came to suspect his true aims. Late in 143 Trypho took him prisoner. The last of the Maccabaean brothers, Simon, now assumed his brothers’ mantle and switched his allegiance to Demetrius II Nicator - against various concessions which the latter could not refuse. Among other things Demetrius II officially appointed Simon as high priest, and in 142 the Judeans began dating not by the Seleucid Era, but by the current year of
Simon’s high priesthood (I Macc. XI 39-XIII 42; Diod. XXXIII 4a). Judea was now independent de facto.
In that same year Trypho deposed his hapless ward and declared himself king (I Macc. XIII 31-32). His rebellion continued, and in 139 the Parthians additionally encroached on the Babylonian and Mesopotamian satrapies (Jos. Ant. XIII 5,11 [184-186]). When Demetrius attempted to deal with this new threat, the Parthians defeated him in 138 and took him prisoner. They presumably also gained control of much of Babylon and Mesopotamia in addition to Media. The King of Parthia, Mithridates I, kept Demetrius II in honorable captivity and even gave him a Parthian princess in marriage (Just. XXXVI 1 and XXXVIII 9).
In Syria, meanwhile, Demetrius II’s younger brother, Antiochus VII Sidetes took charge. He in his turn married Cleopatra Thea, defeated Diodotus Trypho, and brought some degree of stability to the rapidly disintegrating kingdom. In 133 Sidetes besieged Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus, the current high priest, in Jerusalem and succeeded in forcing John to acknowledge Seleucid overlordship and to pay a tribute. In 130 he set out for the East and recaptured for the Seleucids Mesopotamia, Babylon, and apparently even Media. In 128 the current Parthian king, Phraates II, released Demetrius II Nicator in order to foment a civil war, but shortly after Demetrius II’s release Phraates II ambushed Sidetes and killed him (Jos. Ant. XIII 7,1-8,4 [221-253]; War, I 2,2 [50] and 6 [62]; Just. XXXVIII 10; Diod. XXXIV/XXXV 15-16). This was the last Seleucid attempt to retake the East.
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