Abstract
The Seleucid kingdom under the successors of Antiochus IV was in a state of political decay and gradually reduced to a small territory in Syria. The kings made efforts to suppress the rise of internal native monarchies and to check the advance and intrigue of foreign enemies, but the great factor which hastened political decay was dynastic strife, which continued among rival claimants to the throne after the battle between Demetrius I and Alexander Balas. On the contrary the prosperity of Syria never declined; many cities were still wealthy, probably wealthier than before. This was the remarkable politico-social aspect of the Syrian State in the last decades of the second century B. C.
Under such a state of affairs it was natural that the cities in Syria secured the right of asylia, that is to say, recognition of holiness and inviolability by kings. There was furthermore the progress from holiness and inviolability to autonomy, which was characteristic in the history of many Syrian cities. It seems that such a tendency was comparatively striking in the last of the second century B. C. Considering this reason we can see that the cities made use of the long strife between Antiochus VIII and Antiochus IX.
At any rate, the kings, financially supported by Syrian prosperity, were well-off. Accordingly the kings had many mercenaries, for example, from literary sources we infer that the military strength of Antiochus VII was never inferior to that of Antiochus III, who had been one of the powerful Seleucid kings. Nevertheless our information on the substantial relations of the late Seleucid kings and the cities are scanty. It is therefore needless to say that the Delian inscriptions relating to the Seleucids are important.
