A pretender to the name and titles of Antiochus, surnamed the Great,
King of Syria, is mentioned by several ancient historians as having
appeared after the death of that monarch. There is an unfathomable
mystery, however, about the whole affair. This celebrated sovereign
having acquired considerable renown by his wars against the Romans, and
his efforts on behalf of Greek freedom, eventually falsified his
subjects' expectation by giving way to all kinds of debaucheries and
enervating excesses. The last scene of his life's tragedy, which
followed fast upon his misdoings, is so variously stated by different
writers, that it is absolutely impossible to extract the truth from
their divers accounts. He is generally supposed, after having been
defeated and put to flight by the Romans, to have been assassinated.
Pliny the Younger asserts that after his overthrow he fled to Mount
Tamus, and there endeavoured to drown his troubles in wine; but that at
last, growing quarrelsome and tyrannical towards the companions of his
debaucheries, they one day put an end to his existence. Whatever may
have been the manner of this monarch's death, all historians agree that
after that event an impostor named Artemion was induced by the wife of
the deceased king to come forward and pretend that he was Antiochus.
Solinus states that this man was of ignoble birth, whilst according to
other authors, he was a relative of the late monarch. Instructed by
the queen, he appealed to the people to protect the interests of his
putative wife and children; and the people, believing in his identity,
at once declined to elect any one for sovereign not approved of by the
queen, and she (Laodice), if Pliny's somewhat ambiguous terms are read
rightly, placed the diadem upon the head of Artemion. Nothing is
recorded of his subsequent fate.