Antiochus IV Epiphanes

Antiochus IV Epiphanes ('God Manifest'; c. 215 BCE – 164 BCE) rules the Seleucid Empire from 175 BCE until his death in 164 BCE.

He is a son of King Antiochus III the Great.

His original name was Mithridates; he assumes the name Antiochus after he ascends the throne.

Notable events during the reign of Antiochus IV include his near-conquest of Egypt, which leads to a confrontation that became an origin of the metaphorical phrase, "line in the sand" , and the rebellion of the Jewish Maccabees.

Antiochus is the first Seleucid king to use divine epithets on coins, perhaps inspired by Bactrian Hellenistic kings who had earlier done so, or else building on the ruler cult that his father Antiochus the Great had codified within the Seleucid Empire.

These epithets include 'manifest god', and, after his defeat of Egypt, 'bringer of victory'.

However, Antiochus also tries to interact with common people, by appearing in the public bath houses and applying for municipal offices, and his often eccentric behavior and capricious actions lead some of his contemporaries to call him Epimanes ("The Mad One"), a word play on his title Epiphanes.

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