221 b.c., picture the thoughts passing through the mind of a priest. Who was to be the victor in the coming struggle for power? Would the city be destroyed? The omen of "Who was king, who was not king?," once applied to the period of disintegration at the close of the Agade dynasty, was now fully appropriate.[1] Babylonia was secured; but Antiochus himself took the field and defeated Molon, who committed suicide (220 b.c.). Seleucia, the royal city, was recaptured, and Diogenes of Susa, who had held out against Molon, was rewarded with Media. Antiochus crossed the Zagros and invaded the kingdom of Atropatene, southwest of the Caspian, then under the control of Artabazanes, who was forced to admit vassalage.[2] Additional omen tablets from Uruk, dated February 7, 213 b.c., make more certain the identification of the Parthians with that ancient enemy from the northeast, the Guti.[3] Could the expedition of Antiochus have been a feint in the direction of a Parthia which had already begun to expand? Did Parthia lend support to Molon? These are questions which as yet we cannot answer.
Meanwhile Tiridates had employed himself in consolidating his position. He increased the army, built
- ↑ F. Thureau-Dangin, Tablettes d'Uruk à l'usage des prêtres du temple d'Anu au temps des Séleucides (Musée du Louvre, "Textes cunéiformes," VI [Paris, 1922]), No. 1 rev., esp. line 23. Cf. A. T. Olmstead, "Intertestamental Studies," JAOS, LVI (1936), 245.
- ↑ Polyb. v. 40–54.
- ↑ Thureau-Dangin, Tablettes d'Uruk, No. 3 rev., lines 28 and 43.
