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Seleucus IV Philopator reigned from 187 BC to 176 BC over the Seleucid kingdom consisting of Syria (now including Cilicia and Palestine), Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Nearer Iran (Media and Persia).
He was compelled by financial necessities, created in part by the heavy war-indemnity exacted by Rome, to pursue an ambitious policy and was assassinated by his minister Heliodorus.
The true heir, Demetrius, son of Seleucus, now being retained in Rome as a hostage, the kingdom was seized by the younger brother of Seleucus, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, even though an infant son, also named Antiochus, was formal head of state for a few years until Epiphanes had him murdered.
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