The motives of King Ptolemy Apion of…

The civil war in Syria, the rule of which is divided between the half-brothers and cousins Antiochus VII Grypus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, continues until Grypus is killed by his minister Heracleon in 96 BCE.

Later in the year, Cyzicenus is killed in battle by his half-nephew the son of Grypus, Seleucus VI Epiphanes, in revenge for his father’s death.

The kingdom of Cappadocia has maintained a faithful allegiance to Rome since the Roman victory at Magnesia in 190.

Ariarathes VII of Cappadocia had in his first years reigned under the regency of his mother Laodice, the eldest sister of the King Mithridates VI of Pontus.

During this period the kingdom had been seized by King Nicomedes III of Bithynia, who married Laodice.

Nicomedes is soon expelled by Mithridates, who restore Ariarathes to the throne, but when the latter objects to his father's assassin and ally of Mithridates, Gordius, the Pontian monarch has him killed and puts in his place a son of his as Ariarathes IX Eusebes Philopator.

Since the new king is only eight years old, he is put under the regency of Gordius.

He is early overthrown by a rebellion by the Cappadocian nobility, who replace him with Ariarathes VIII of Cappadocia, whom Mithridates promptly expels, restoring Ariarathes IX.

Mithridates is however deprived of his advantage over Nicomedes by the Roman Senate's instructions to Lucius Cornelius Sulla, as proconsul, to install a pro-Roman king here in 96.

Sulla becomes the first Roman magistrate to meet a Parthian ambassador, Orobazus, and by taking the seat between the Parthian ambassador and Ariobarzanes I of Cappadocia (the center seat being the place of honor), he seals, perhaps unintentionally, the Parthian ambassador's fate.

(Orobazus is executed upon his return to Parthia for allowing Sulla to outmaneuver him.)

It is at this meeting he is told by a Chaldean seer that he will die at the height of his fame and fortune.

This prophecy is to have a powerful hold on Sulla throughout his lifetime.

After the short period of direct Pontic rule, the brief restoration of Ariarathes VIII and an attempted instauration of a republic, Sulla seats on the throne a man chosen by the Cappadocians, who reject the idea of a Republic: the choice falls on Ariobarzanes I Philoromaios.

Supported by Sulla, Ariobarzanes will be in on-and-off control of a kingdom that is now considered a Roman protectorate.

Antiochus IX’s mother, Cleopatra Thea, upon the death of his father in Parthia and his uncle Demetrius II Nicator's return to power in 129 BCE, had sent him to Cyzicus on the Bosporus, thus giving him his nickname, Cyzicenus.

He had returned to Syria in 116 BCE to claim the Seleucid throne from his half-brother/cousin Antiochus VIII Grypus, with whom he had eventually divided Syria.

He is killed in battle by the son of Grypus, Seleucus VI Epiphanes, in 96 BCE.

Greek culture had taken root in Gaza following the siege and conquest by Alexander the Great, and the city-state has earned a reputation as a flourishing center of Hellenic learning and philosophy.

Gaza experiences another siege in 96 BCE by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus, who, after a yearlong investment, "utterly overthrew" the city, killing five hundred senators who had fled into the temple of Apollo for safety.

During the conflict, the besieged Gazans had requested help from "Aretas, King of the Arabs", but the Nabatean monarch had not come to their aid and the city is destroyed.

This victory gains the Hasmonean kingdom control over the Mediterranean outlet for the Nabataean trade routes.

The Judeans triumph over the cities of Raffah and Antedon.

Sulla, returning to Rome, is Praetor urbanus for 97 BCE.

The next year he is appointed pro consule to the province of Cilicia (in Anatolia).

Later in 96 BCE, Sulla leaves the East and returns to Rome, where he aligns himself with the Optimates in opposition to Gaius Marius.

Antiochus X Eusebes, the son of Antiochus Cyzicenus, evens the score in the Syrian civil war in 95 BCE,decisively defeating Seleucus VI and thus avenging the recent death of his father.

The epithets he takes tell much of his story: Eusebes (being a title of his father) and also Philopator (father-loving) both honor his father.

After that, he rules Antioch and its surroundings, fighting endlessly against the four brothers of Seleucus VI, the Nabataeans and the Parthian Empire.

Seleucus VI is forced to flee from Syria to Mopsuestia in Cilicia, where he sets up his court, allegedly in luxurious style, but the inhabitants of the province, who are already troubled by pirates, cannot afford his extravagancies.

Seleucus' efforts to set up a new army is a heavy burden as well.

A rebellion breaks out and Seleucus is besieged in the hippodrome, which then seems to have been burnt down along with the king and his men.

Four of Seleucus' brothers, including Antiochus XI Ephiphanes Philadelphus, Philip I Philadelphus, and Demetrius III Eucaerus, continue the devastating civil war against the other branch of the family and each other.

Philip I takes the diadem together with his older brother (probably twin) Antiochus XI Ephiphanes.

Seleucid ruler Demetrius III, with the assistance of Ptolemy IX Lathyros, king of Egypt, recovers part of his father's Syrian dominions around 95 BCE, and holds his court at Damascus, whence he tries to enlarge his dominions.

Nicomedes had made himself master of Paphlagonia for a time.

After the deaths of his first wife and father-in-law, in order to have a claim on Cappadocia, Nicomedes had married his former mother-in-law as his second wife Laodice, who had fled to him when King Mithridates VI of Pontus (Laodice’s first brother) endeavored to annex the country.

With Laodice's two sons Ariarathes VII and Ariarathes VIII dead, Nicomedes III brings forward an impostor as a claimant to the throne; but the plot is detected.

The Roman Senate refuses to recognize the claim, and requires Nicomedes III to give up all pretensions to Cappadocia and to abandon Paphlagonia.