The House of Seleucus - Tapa blanda

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1902 Original Publisher: E. Arnold Subjects: Seleucids History, Ancient Middle East History / Ancient / General History / Ancient / Greece History / Middle East / General Social Science / Archaeology Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XIX THE ADVANCE IN THE WEST In the spring of 197 Antiochus launched his forces upon Asia Minor. The land forces were sent by the direct road over the Taurus under the command of the King's sous, Ardys and Mithridates,1 to Sardis, where they had orders to await his arrival. Antiochus himself went with the fleet along the coast. The immediate object indeed of the expedition was to seize the possessious of the house of Ptolemy, and these were all on the coast. Was there an ulterior design ? Had Antiochus at last made up his mind to intervene openly in the struggle going on in Greece ? On the rumour of his advance this was believed -- with what ground can never be known.' As he passed along the coast of Rugged Cilicia he summoned all the towns and fortresses subject either to local dynasts or to Ptolemy to surrender. And one after another -- Soli, Corycus, Zephyrium, Aphrodisias, Anemurium, Selinus -- they obeyed the summons without resistance.8 Antiochus met with no check till he reached Coracesium, the strongest place along that rugged coast. The steep isolated hill of Alaya, which reminds modern travellers of the Rock of Gibraltar, still shows the masonry, of every date, by which thesuccessive masters of the place, down to the Middle Ages, have laboured to make it impregnable. The determination to reduce it brought the King to a halt, and he was still lying before it when the situation was modifi...