Antiochus X Eusebes
Antiochus X Eusebes Philopator was another contestant in the tangled-up family feuds among the last
Seleucids. Beginning his reign in
95 BC his first achievement was to defeat his double half-cousin/second cousin
Seleucus VI Epiphanes, thus avenging the recent death of his father
Antiochus IX Cyzicenus. The epithets he took tell much of his story: Eusebes (being a title of his father) and also Philopator (father-loving) both honoured his father. After that, he ruled
Antioch and its surroundings, fighting endlessly against the four brothers of Seleucus VI, the
Nabataeans and the
Parthians. The date of his downfall are ambigious;
Josephus reckons he was killed around
90 BC fighting the Parthians - and his possession of
Antioch was certainly lost to
Philip I Philadelphus around then - whereas for instance Appian speaks of him being defeated when the
Armenian king
Tigranes invaded
Syria by
83 BC, but in that case his actions in the meantime remain unrevealed. A son of Antiochus X, by the name of
Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, was made client-king in Syria after the
Roman general Pompey had defeated Tigranes.