On the Sources and Chronology of Antiochus I's Battle against the Galatians

Abstract

The Galatian invasion of Asia Minor, which shook the foundations of the ancient Ionian civilization, finds echoes in a considerable number of epigraphical documents, all of which have been analysed several times over in the course of the complicated discussions of the chronology of the First Syrian War. In this paper I shall concentrate on the sources which have been related to Antiochus I's decisive battle against the Galatians, weigh their relevance to that battle and their authenticity, and attempt to date the events reflected in them. The battle was probably commemorated in a comprehensive epic by Simonides of Magnesia. The Suda s.v. Σιμωνίδης reports: Σιμωνίδης Μάγνης Σιπύλου, ἐποποιός. γέγονεν ἐπὶ Ἀντιόχου τοῦ Μεγάλου κληθέντος, καὶ γέγραφε τἁς Ἀντιόχου τοῦ Μεγάλου πράξεις καὶ τὴν πρὸς Γαλάτας μάχην, ὅτε μετὰ τῶν ἐλεφάντων τὴν ἵππον αὐτῶν ἔφθειρεν. The difficulty of calling Antiochus τοῦ Μεγάλου has led some to suggest that the Suda is referring to Antiochus III, but the reference to the victory of the elephants over the Galatian cavalry, known from Lucian to have decided the battle of Antiochus I against the Galatians, excludes any alternative. Lucian, however rhetorical and inaccurate, can be trusted when he attributes the victory to the elephants (see below). The conjecture that the latter reference was a gloss, inserted by the compiler or someone acquainted with Lucian, might have been given credit had we information about any campaign conducted against the Galatians by Antiochus III. But for the period of Antiochus III, which is covered in the most comprehensive way, we have no record, not even the slightest indication, of a military operation against the Galatians, and if there had been some confrontation which escaped notice, it could only have been on a small scale, and would not have been commemorated as the most prominent achievement of this king, as the phrasing of the Suda seems to suggest.