After Lysimachos’ defeat at Corupedium in 281 BCE, Seleukos became the master of nearly all of Asia Minor and Thrace. The road to the Macedonian heartland lay open before him. However, his chances to consolidate his rule in these regions and to be proclaimed king in his homeland were cut short when he was assassinated by Ptolemy Keraunos. Keraunos, originally the heir to the Ptolemaic Empire, had been set aside in favor of his younger brother, Ptolemy II Philadelphos. Seeking refuge, the Ptolemaic outcast fled to Seleukos, but the ungrateful prince harbored ambitions for a kingdom of his own. To achieve this, he assassinated his protector and exploited the ensuing chaos to seize control of Macedon.
Keraunos’ reign was brief but eventful. During his kingship, the Galatians—a confederacy of Celtic tribes gathered at the northern border of the Hellenic world—invaded Macedon and Greece. In 279 BCE, Keraunos was killed in battle against them. The Galatians then continued their advance towards Byzantion on the Bosphorus.
Meanwhile, Antiochos I (r. 281-261 BCE) succeeded his father as the new king of the vast Seleukid Empire. Antiochos, likely driven by a desire to punish Keraunos and claim Lysimachos’ former territories, was delayed by a revolt in Syria. As a result, he was compelled to accept a peace agreement with Keraunos, effectively relinquishing his claim to Macedon and Thrace, which were now under the rule of the new Macedonian king.
In the meantime, Antiochos dispatched his general Patrokles to oversee Seleukid affairs in Asia Minor. Here, the primary threat was not Keraunos but the rising power of the Bithynian kingdom. Antiochos’ campaign did not begin well, as a segment of the Seleukid army was defeated by the Bithynians.
After successfully quelling the rebellion in Syria, Antiochos traveled to Asia Minor, where he established himself in Sardis, which served as his regional capital. The king faced a formidable alliance led by the new Bithynian king, Nikomedes I, who had joined forces with Heraclea Pontica and Antigonos Gonatas, the new king of Macedonia. However, Bithynia’s alliance with Gonatas was short-lived, as Macedonia was soon beset by marauding Celtic tribes. The Macedonian king made peace with the Seleukids and turned his attention to domestic affairs.
Nikomedes, now isolated and still contending with his rebellious younger brother, resorted to desperate measures. In 278 BCE, he invited the Galatians into his kingdom to serve as mercenaries in his army. Some 20,000 Celts, led by Leonnorius and Lutarius, crossed the Bosphorus and aided Nikomedes in defeating his brother. However, this victory presented Nikomedes with a new challenge: what to do with the fierce Celtic warriors now in his kingdom? To resolve this, he pushed them to the south, effectively making them Antiochos’ problem.
The Celtic tribes were a serious menace to the city-states and countryside (chôra) of Western Anatolia. This fear for the Galatians is reflected in some inscriptions from the 270s BCE (Mitchell 1993: 1.15-18). Antiochos I decided to confront them and defeated them in the so-called “Battle of the Elephants”, sometime between 275 and 268 BCE.
Details about this encounter are scarce. Our main source is the 2nd-century writer Lucian of Samosata, who wrote the short essay Zeuxis. In this piece, the Greek author expresses his frustration at being praised for the novelty of his work rather than its inherent qualities. I will discuss this essay in greater detail in a future article.
In any case, Lucian describes how Antiochos defeated the Celts using his secret weapon: 16 war elephants. When the Celts attacked with their cavalry and chariots, the Seleukid monarch unleashed these massive beasts. The sight of the elephants, creatures the Celts had never encountered before, struck fear into their hearts. The Celts’ horses panicked, turned around, and fled into their own ranks, causing chaos among their forces.
While the historical accuracy of these details is uncertain, it is generally agreed that the victory can indeed be attributed to Antiochos’ use of elephants. The Seleukid triumph was celebrated in Asia Minor through depictions of elephants. Workshops in Myrina, a town near Pergamon, for example, produced various figurines portraying elephants trampling Celtic warriors, emphasizing the decisive role these animals played in the battle. Pierre Bienkowski, in his Les Celtes dans les arts mineurs gréco-romains, argues that these portrayals of the battle can be traced back to a trophy erected by Antiochos after his victory, as reported by Lucian.
“ἔπι τε τῷ τροπαίῳ κελεύει ἄλλο μηδέν, ἐλέφαντα δὲ μόνον ἐγκολάψαι.” (Zeuxis 11)
“He (Antiochos) then ordered the trophy to be decorated with nothing else, except for an elephant.”
It is also possible that Antiochos’ coins depicting an elephant commemorate this victory:
According to Appian, Antiochos received the title “Sôter” (“Savior”; “σωτήρ”) after this triumph, emphasizing his role as savior of Hellenic civilization against these “barbarians”:
“ὃς καὶ Σωτὴρ ἐπεκλήθη Γαλάτας ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἐς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐσβαλόντας, ἐξελάσας” (Syrian Book 65)
“He was called “the Savior” after he had driven off the Galatians who had invaded Asia from Europe”
This claim by Appian is very plausible. A similar thing happened with Antigonos Gonatas, who was granted this meaningful title after defeating an army of Galatians in 277 BCE, establishing a precedent for such honors following a triumph over the Celts. Furthermore, later Anatolian inscriptions from the 260s BCE begin referring to Antiochos I as “Sôter.” This suggests that the Seleukid monarch had accomplished something worthy of this title—most likely his victory over the Celts.
In any case, after their defeat, the Celts were driven to the remote region of Northern Phrygia, where they remained for the rest of their history. Despite this victory, Antiochos’ situation in Asia Minor deteriorated when war broke out with the Ptolemies during the First Syrian War (274–271 BCE). The capable Ptolemy II Philadelphos seized large swathes of territory from the Seleukids along the southern Anatolian coast.
Olivier Goossens
Main sources:
-Will, E., Histoire politique du monde hellénistique, 2nd ed., 1979-82, Nancy.
-Mitchell, S., “The Galatians: Representation and Reality”, A Companion to the Hellenistic World, ed. A. Erskine, 2003, Oxford, pp. 280-293.
-Bienkowski, P., Les celtes dans les arts mineurs greco-romains, 1928, Krakow.
-Loeb: Lucian, Volume VI, trans. K. Kilburn, 1959, Harvard (MA)
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