The Ptolemaic front line was four kilometers wide.[2] The left wing was deployed on the plain below the Panium plateau.[3] It consisted of the 25,000–32,000 strong Macedonian settler phalanx under the command of Ptolemy son of Aeropus, a Macedonian settler himself.[3] These were the Kingdom's best troops.[3] The supreme command was held by the Aetolianmercenary general Scopas of Aetolia, who brought with him 6,500 Aetolian mercenaries, including 6,000 infantry and 500 cavalry.[4]
Antiochus the Younger, the firstborn son of Antiochus III, commanded the elite cataphracts of the Seleucid army and seized Tel Hamra, a foothill of Mount Hermon, in the night.[4] The cataphracts opened the battle by attacking and quickly routing the hapless Ptolemaic cavalry under Ptolemy.[4]
In the center, the Ptolemaic phalanx forced back their Seleucid counterparts.[4] The Seleucid elephants neutralized this Ptolemaic success by charging through the gaps in the Seleucid phalanx and halting their advance.[4] The cataphracts under Antiochus the Younger ended their pursuit of the enemy cavalry and charged the rear of the Ptolemaic phalanx.[4] Pressed from two sides by war elephants, phalangites, and cataphracts, the relatively immobile Ptolemaic phalanx was almost annihilated where they stood.[4] Scopas, situated on the right wing, fled the field, taking 10,000 troops with him.[5]
Aftermath
Scopas led 10,000 men to seek refuge at Sidon; other Ptolemaic contingents fled to Jerusalem, Phoenicia, Samaria and Decapolis.[6] All of them were forced to surrender by the end of 198 BC.[6] Coele-Syria came under Seleucid control and the Ptolemies were compelled to sign a peace treaty with Antiochus in 195 BC. As one of the battle's results, the Ptolemaic state was forced to scale down the role of the Macedonian settler phalanx in the years that followed.[7]
Some biblical commentators see this battle as being the one referred to in Daniel 11:15, where it says, "Then the king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city."[8]
Casualties
Based on the loss rates of the phalanxes at the battles of Magnesia in 190 BC and Pydna in 167 BC, the 25,000 Ptolemaic phalangites may have sustained 17,500–20,825 losses, killed or captured.[9]
Johstono, Paul (2017). ""No Strength To Stand": Defeat at Panium, the Macedonian Class, and Ptolemaic Decline". In Clark, Jessica H.; Turner, Brian (eds.). Brills Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN978-9004298583.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Battle_of_Panium, and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.