The Seleucid Conquest of Jerusalem

After defeating Ptolemy V Epiphanes and his general Scopas in 200 BCE, Antiochus III the Great (r. 223–187 BCE) annexed Judaea. According to Josephus (who relied in part on the account of Polybius of Megalopolis), the Jews welcomed Antiochus III and his conquest of the southern Levant, including Palestine, billeting his army and assisting in his siege of the Jerusalem citadel, which was still held by Scopas’ troops.

The Hefzibah inscription dates from the 190s BCE, very soon after the Seleucid conquest of the southern Levant, and pertains to developments from the beginning of the Fifth Syrian War, initiated by Antiochus III’s attack on Coele-Syria in 202 or 201 BCE. Discovered in 1960 about four miles northwest of Beth Shean, this stela presents a dossier of royal correspondence between the military governor and chief priest of Coele-Syria, Ptolemaios (Ptolemy) son of Thraseas, and Antiochus III concerning the quartering of soldiers in the villages, among other matters. Ptolemaios requests that Antiochus III prevent his soldiers from forcibly dislodging villagers and pressing the locals into service. The king obliges. Correspondence between the king and his administrators was often publicized on limestone stelae such as this one.