The Hellenistic Age Podcast

As the army of Antiochus VII goes down in Media, Demetrius II returns to Syria after being released from Parthian captivity. Nobody is particularly happy to see him, including his (former) wife Cleopatra Thea, and the Syrians' hatred of their former king inspires the arrival of a Ptolemaic-backed claimant to the throne, Alexander II Zabinas. With three husbands having come and gone, Cleopatra makes her own bid for power as the sole ruler of kingdom, willing to eliminate any who oppose her - including her own children.

Episode Notes:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/123-the-seleucid-empire-wrath-of-the-goddess/)

Episode Transcript:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/123-the-seleucid-empire-wrath-of-the-goddess-transcript.pdf)

Family Tree - Demetrius II to Antiochus VIII:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/reign-of-demetrius-ii-to-antiochus-viii.pdf)

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Nearly twenty years of exile from Egypt did little to improve the mood of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Physcon ("Potbelly" or "The Fatty"), and upon his return in 145 he unleashed a wave of violence and terror against his enemies. Family was not spared either, as he orchestrated the murder of his own flesh and blood on multiple occasions, and forcibly took his niece Cleopatra III as his second wife alongside her mother Cleopatra II. Through his machinations, a heated rivalry between mother and daughter led to a civil war starting in 132, driving Ptolemy and Cleopatra III out of Egypt while leaving Cleopatra II as sole queen.

Episode Notes:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/122-ptolemaic-egypt-the-good-the-bad-and-the-fatty/)

Episode Transcript:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/122-ptolemaic-egypt-the-good-the-bad-and-the-fatty-transcript.pdf)

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Demetrius' disastrous campaign against the Parthians meant that the Seleucid Empire was on its last legs. The only man capable of bringing the realm back together was his brother, Antiochus VII Sidetes, who managed to slay the pretender Diodotus Tryphon and subdue the new Hasmonean high priest John Hyrcanus. With the Parthian kingdom in the hands of the inexperienced Phraates II, Antiochus gambled everything on a final anabasis in 130 B.C. to recover Babylonia and restore the empire to its former glory.

Episode Notes:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/122-the-seleucid-empire-the-man-they-called-sidetes/)

Episode Transcript:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/121-the-seleucid-empire-the-man-they-called-sidetes-transcript.pdf)

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The death of both Alexander Balas and Ptolemy VI in 145 meant that the throne belonged to Demetrius II Nicator. Yet another round of civil war would soon follow Demetrius' increasingly unpopular reign, as the official Diodotus Tryphon would endorse the infant Antiochus VI Dionysius as king, before proclaiming himself one too. The Hasmoneans in Judea hoped to leverage the situation to their advantage until the death of Jonathan Apphus, who was replaced by his brother Simon Thassi as High Priest. Such instability in Syria allowed the Parthian ruler Mithridates I to conquer Babylonia in 141, forcing Demetrius to make a desperate attempt to reclaim the Upper Satrapies before his empire crumbled around him.

Episode Notes:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/120-the-seleucid-empire-writing-on-the-wall/)

Episode Transcript:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/120-the-seleucid-empire-writing-on-the-wall-transcript-1.pdf)

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As Rome consolidated the Mediterranean under their hegemony, the Parthians were poised to overrun Iran and Mesopotamia. Leading a small tribe from the steppes during the mid-third century B.C., the Arsacid dynasty established themselves as vassal-rulers in the Seleucid Empire, but the turmoil in Syria during the second century allowed the Arsacids to challenge the Seleucids for mastery over the Hellenistic Middle East. In this episode, we chronicle the origins of the Parthian Empire from its foundation to the reign of Mithridates I, exploring how the Arsacids forged a realm that they would oversee for nearly five hundred years.

Episode Notes:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/119-the-rise-of-the-parthian-empire-from-arsaces-to-mithridates-i/)

Episode Transcript:
(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/119-the-rise-of-the-parthian-empire-from-arsaces-to-mithridates-i-transcript.pdf)

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