Seleucid Dynastic Wars

Seleucid Dynastic Wars
Coin of Demetrius II, one of the principal figures in the dynastic wars of the later Seleucid Empire
Date 157–63 BC Location Seleucid Empire Result Decline and collapse of the Seleucid Empire; Annexation by the Roman Republic
Belligerents
Line of Seleucus IV 157–63 BC	Line of Antiochus IV 157–123 BC	Line of Antiochus VII 114–63 BC

The Seleucid Dynastic Wars were a series of wars of succession that were fought between competing branches of the Seleucid royal household for control of the Seleucid Empire. Beginning as a by-product of several succession crises that arose from the reigns of Seleucus IV Philopator and his brother Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 170s and 160s, the wars typified the final years of the empire and were an important cause of its decline as a major power in the Near East and Hellenistic world. The last war ended with the collapse of the kingdom and its annexation by the Roman Republic in 63 BC.