ANTIOCHUS THE SAVIOUR
147BC: Alexander’s main sponsor, King Ptolemy VI Philometor, switches his support from the pretender to the legitimate claimant, the teenage Demetrius II, who is in exile on Crete.
146BC: Roman armies raze the cities of Corinth and Carthage to the ground. Ptolemy VI invades Syria at the head of a large army to support the claims of Demetrius.
145BC: At the Battle of Antioch, the Ptolemaic armies prove to be victorious, and Alexander Balas is overthrown. He flees to Arabia, hoping for sanctuary there, but is captured and executed en-route. Demetrius II, together with his even younger brother Antiochus, enters Antioch in triumph. Ptolemy VI, meanwhile, has been killed in battle, and Egypt falls into a brief civil war.
144BC: Riots break out in Antioch against the perceived savagery of King Demetrius’ Cretan mercenaries. The King retreats to Syria, and the infant son of Alexander Balas, Antiochus VI, is proclaimed King by the army. The Parthians take advantage of the chaos to begin a full scale invasion of Mesopotamia.
143BC: The Hasmonean dynasty is restored to power in Jerusalem by Diodotus Tryphon, the backer of the infant Antiochus VI. Tryphon hopes to build up an alternate power-base to remove Demetrius II altogether.
142BC: Diodotus Tryphon deposes Antiochus VI, and names himself sole king. He rules little more than Antioch and its hinterlands, but is a constant thorn in the side of the legitimate dynasty.
141BC: Simon Maccabeus becomes King of the Jews, imposed by Diodotus Tryphon. Demetrius II, now seriously alarmed by Parthian successes, marches east in an attempt to win back his lost provinces.
140BC: Demetrius II wins several victories over the Parthians and initially seems to have cleared them out of Mesopotamia. He now plans to expel them from Media and the Iranian plateau too.
139BC: King Demetrius is defeated in battle somewhere in the Zagros, and begins a chaotic retreat back to Babylonia. He is captured and held prisoner by the Parthians.
138BC: Antiochus VII, brother of King Demetrius, takes power in Seleucia-on-the-Tigris. He immediately marches west to deal with the pretender Diodotus Tryphon. The Jews betray their notional protector, and ally with King Antiochus. At the battle of Dora, Diodotus Tryphon is defeated and executed. In Parthia, Phraates II becomes King.
137BC: The third Numantian war begins. The Roman army suffers a crushing defeat at the hands of the Spaniards, which provokes a major slave revolt in Sicily. The Republic appears to be in a state of chaos, emboldening the Hellenistic states.
136BC: King Antiochus defeats a few small revolts, and spends the year consolidating his rule in Syria, Cilicia, and Judea. The Parthians take advantage of the preoccupation of the Basileus with the west to invade Mesopotamia again.
135BC: Simon Maccabeus, a close ally and friend of Antiochus VII is assassinated. Immediately, the Jews rise in revolt against the Seleucid Empire. The King marches on Jerusalem, and besieges it.
134BC: The young son and heir of Simon Maccabeus, John Hyrcanus, is forced to surrender to Antiochus, and his low status as a client monarch is reasserted. The Jews are forced to pay huge sums in tribute, and to provide men to participate in Antiochus’ planned campaign east.
133BC: Numantia falls to the Romans, and is violently sacked. The Kingdom of Pergamum is bequeathed to the Roman Senate, which leads to a young tribune named Tiberius Gracchus proposing that the wealth be spent on providing land for the poor.
132BC: Antiochus VII marches east at the head of a gigantic royal army. Tiberius Gracchus is clubbed to death in Rome by a fearful aristocracy.
131BC: The Parthians suffer several serious defeats, and are once again forced out of Mesopotamia. Antiochus enters Babylon.
130BC: Another triumphant year of campaigning expels the Parthians from Media. The year ends with Antiochus VII settled relatively comfortably in Ecbatana. His army is dispersed for the winter.
129BC: Attempting to take advantage of the break-up of the Seleucid army, King Phraates of Parthia counter attacks, and occupies several Median towns. Antiochus is initially tempted to attempt to ambush the Parthian king with a small force, but is dissuaded from this plan by his advisers. Seleucid garrisons are advised to hunker down in the towns, and ignore the Parthians.* (Here's the POD. IOTL, Antiochus rashly attempted to attack the Parthians accompanied by little more than his royal bodyguard, and was unsurprisingly defeated. The Seleucids were then expelled from the East for good)
128BC: The Seleucids consolidate their control over Media. In an attempt to start a civil war, the Parthians release Demetrius II, but this ends in failure when the former monarch’s brother greets him peacefully. Demetrius is sent back to Seleucia to reinforce Seleucid control over Mesopotamia.
127BC: Phraates of Parthia is cornered in an obscure mountain fortress somewhere in the Zagros by the Seleucid army. Antiochus is more than happy to bottle him up there, and instead concentrates on mopping up small Parthian nobles on the plateau itself. He winters in Persepolis, and begins a new building project there. About this time he starts to adopt the title "Soter"- saviour.
