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Rome Begins To Flex Its Muscles.


      Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and will take many of them, but a commander will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back upon him. After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country but will stumble and fall, to be seen no more.
          His successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in battle.  (Daniel 11:18-20)
 
          After Antiochus III defeated Scopas, at Panium and Sidon, Antiochus III got involved in a war against Pergamum and the island of Rhodes. The situation was complicated because the Rhodians appealed to the Romans for help and Hannibal (previously exiled) joined Antiochus as a military advisor.  In 196 BC, Antiochus crossed the Hellespont and the Aegean and conquered a good chunk of Thrace. The "coastlands" (usually "islands") included all areas contiguous to the seacoast.
          When asked for assistance against Macedon and the Peloponnesians, Antiochus III sent a small naval force that wasn't effective. Those who sought aid turned against him and with the help of the Romans, overwhelmed Antiochus' troops at Thermopylae Antiochus withdrew from the area. The Romans followed him  and defeated him with a smaller military force in 190-189. His "insolence"  met with disaster.
          The Roman who commanded this force was Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, brother to Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, who had brilliantly defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202 B.C. Among the peace terms dictated to Antiochus was turning over twenty select hostages to guarantee his obedience. One of those was his second son, Antiochus IV.
          The "tax collector" of verse 20 was Heliodorus. He was sent out by Seleucus IV (Philopator) the eldest son of Antiochus III.  A traitorous Jew named Simon supposedly sent  word of the treasures of the Temple, and Antiochus, being desperate for funds, set Heliodorus to get it; however, Heliodorus had a vision of mighty angels assaulting and flogging him. He abandoned his quest to confiscate the money, went back home, and poisoned Seleucus IV.

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