Editing Demetrius III Eucaerus (section)

===Policy===

[[File:Demetrias Damascus.jpg|280px|thumb|Coin from Demetrias]]
[[File:Demetrios III Eukairos. 97-87 BC.jpg|280px|thumb|Demetrius III wearing the radiate crown]]

Demetrius III seems to have been content with leaving the struggle against Antiochus IX and his heirs to his brothers; he took advantage of the chaos in the north to consolidate his authority in Damascus.{{sfn|Newell|1939|pp= 82, 83}} Drawing his legitimacy from his father, he appeared on his coinage with an exaggerated hawked nose in the likeness of Antiochus VIII.{{sfn|Wright|2011|p= 46}} Coins from a city named Demetrias, bearing on their reverse a portrait of the [[Tyche]] of Damascus, are evidence that Demetrius III might have refounded Damascus and given it the dynastic name Demetrias.{{#tag:ref|It is not certain that the founder was Demetrius III; it could have been Demetrius II or Antiochus VIII.{{sfn|Cohen|2006|pp= [https://books.google.com/books?id=RqdPcxuNthcC&pg=PA242 244, 244]}} The historian [[Alfred Bellinger]] rejected the identification of a king's portrait on one of Demetrias' coins with Demetrius III or that he refounded it.{{sfn|Bellinger|1949|p= 78}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Cohen|2006|pp= [https://books.google.com/books?id=RqdPcxuNthcC&pg=PA242 242, 244]}}{{sfn|Rigsby|1996|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y5Ur_7lPW4C&pg=PA511 511]}} Damascene coins mention the city as "holy"; it must have been a privilege bestowed upon it by Demetrius III who possibly also conferred the right of [[Asylum (antiquity)|asylum]] on his capital.{{sfn|Ehling|2008|p= 240}}

Seleucid kings mostly depicted Greek gods on their coinage,{{sfn|Wright|2010|pp= 193, 199}} but Demetrius III ruled a contracted realm, where the local cults gained more importance as the Seleucids no longer ruled a heterogeneous kingdom.{{sfn|Wright|2010|p= 199}} Local cults came under royal patronage as Seleucid kings attempted to gain the support of their non-Greek subjects.{{sfn|Wright|2012|p= 15}} On his royal silver coins from Damascus, the supreme [[Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|Semitic]] goddess [[Atargatis]] appeared on the reverse,{{sfn|Wright|2010|p= 198}} while municipal coins continued to use the portraits of traditional Greek deities.{{sfn|Ehling|2008|pp= 240, 241}} The radiate crown, a sign of divinity,{{sfn|Wright|2005|p= 79}} was employed by Demetrius III on some of his coins; this can be an indication that he ritually married Atargatis.{{#tag:ref|Historian Nicholas L. Wright proposed the hypothesis regarding the connection between the Seleucid radiate crowns and Atargatis. He considered it likely, but difficult to prove, that a radiate crown indicates a ritual marriage between the goddess and a king.{{sfn|Wright|2005|p= 79}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Wright|2005|p= 80}} Marrying the supreme goddess indicated that the king considered himself the manifestation of Syria's supreme god and Atargatis' partner, [[Hadad]].{{sfn|Wright|2005|p= 79}} The practise was started at an unknown date by [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes|Antiochus IV]] (died 164 BC), the first king to employ the radiate crown, who chose [[Manbij|Hierapolis-Bambyce]], Atargatis's most important sanctuary, to ritually marry [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], the manifestation of Atargatis in Syria.{{sfn|Wright|2005|pp= 74,78}}

As was typical for a Seleucid king, Demetrius III aimed to acquire as much territory as possible and sought to expand his domains in Syria.{{sfn|Newell|1939|p= 86}} The city of [[Umm Qais|Gadara]] was conquered by Alexander Jannaeus in 100 BC,{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=82Kdj8orBm0C&pg=PA361 361]}} but the city freed itself and reverted to the Seleucids after the defeat of the [[Judea|Judaean]] king at the hands of the [[Nabataean Kingdom|Nabataeans]],{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=82Kdj8orBm0C&pg=PA363 363]}} an event that happened in 93 BC at the latest.{{#tag:ref|The Nabataean king [[Obodas I]] defeated the Judaeans at some point before 93 BC; this is deduced from the account of Josephus, who stated that following the defeat, Alexander Jannaeus was caught in a civil war that lasted six years. Since this civil war ended only with the intervention of Demetrius III, who lost his throne in 87 BC, then the year 93 BC is the ''terminus ante quem'' for the defeat.{{sfn|Bar-Kochva|1996|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=1bowDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 138]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Bar-Kochva|1996|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=1bowDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 138]}} Gadara was of great strategic importance for Demetrius III as a major military hub for operations in the south; controlling it was vital to the war effort against the Judaeans.{{sfn|Mittmann|2006|pp=28, 33}}