Antiochus IV Epiphanes (icon; Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

: , 'God Manifest'; c. 215 BC – 164 BC) ruled the Seleucid Empire

Seleucid Empire

The Seleucid Empire was a Greek-Macedonian state that was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.The Seleucid Empire was a major centre...

 from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. He was a son of King Antiochus III the Great

Antiochus III the Great

Antiochus III the Great Seleucid Greek king who became the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. Antiochus was an ambitious ruler who ruled over Greater Syria and western Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BC...

. His original name was Mithridates; he assumed the name Antiochus after he ascended the throne.

Notable events during the reign of Antiochus IV include his near-conquest of Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter invaded Egypt and declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to...

, which led to a confrontation that became an origin of the metaphorical phrase, "line in the sand

Line in the sand (phrase)

A line in the sand is a metaphor with two similar meanings:*The first meaning is of a point beyond which one will proceed no further...

" (see below), and the rebellion of the Jewish Maccabees

Maccabees

The Maccabees were a Jewish rebel army who took control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel and reducing the influence...

.

He assumed divine epithets, which no other Hellenistic king had done, such as Θεὸς Ἐπιφανής 'manifest god' and after his defeat of Egypt, Νικηφόρος 'bringer of victory'.