so willed, and
have, at any rate, greatly protracted the struggle. He had a mountain
region--Mount Zagros, probably--within a short distance of him, and
might have fallen back upon it, so placing the Parthian horse at great
disadvantage; but he was still at an age when caution is apt to be
considered cowardice, and temerity to pass for true courage. Despite the
advice of one of his captains, he determined to accept the battle which
the enemy offered, and not to fly before a foe whom he had three times
defeated. But the determination of the commander was ill seconded by his
army. Though Antiochus fought strenuously, he was defeated, since his
troops were without heart and offered but a poor resistance. Antiochus
himself perished, either slain by the enemy or by his own hand. His son,
Seleucus, a boy of tender age, and his niece, a daughter of Demetrius,
who had accompanied him in his expedition, were captured. His troops
were either cut to pieces or made prisoners. The entire number of those
slain in the battle, and in the previous massacre, was reckoned at
300,000.

Such was the issue of this great expedition. It was the last which any
Seleucid monarch conducted into these countries--the final attempt made
by Syria to repossess herself of her lost Eastern provinces. Henceforth
Parthia was no further troubled by the power that had hitherto been her
most dangerous enemy, but was allowed to enjoy without molestation from
Syria the conquests which she had effected. Syria, in fact, had from
this time a difficulty in preserving her own existence. The immediate
result of the destruction of Antiochus and his host was the revolt of
Judaea, which henceforth maintained its independence uninterruptedly.
The dominions of the Seleucidae were reduced to Cilicia and Syria
Proper, or the tract west of the Euphrates, between Amanus and
Palestine. Internally, the state was agitated by constant commotions
from the claims of various pretenders to the sovereignty: externally,
it was kept in continual alarm by the Egyptians, Arabians, or Romans.
During the sixty years which elapsed between the return of Demetrius
to his kingdom and the conversion of Syria into a Roman province, she
ceased wholly to be formidable to her neighbors. Her flourishing
period was gone by, and a rapid decline set in, from which there was no
recovery. It is surprising that the Romans did not step in earlier and
terminate a rule which was but a little removed from ana