In 241 B.C.E., a boy named Antiochus was born in Babylon. Much later, when he regains the power of the monarchy created by his great-great-grandfather and rules the vast Hellenistic empire that stretches from the Bosphorus to the Indus, the title "Great" will be attached to his name. The empire of Antiochus the Great, oddly enough, will never receive a name. The ancient Greeks called it the "Asian kingdom," and scientists now simply speak of the "power of the Seleucids" - this is how, by the name of the founder, commander Alexander the Great, the royal family belonged to which Antiochus belonged. Expanding his boundaries, Antiochus inevitably had to meet Rome and, when this happened, was not afraid to challenge the greatest state of Antiquity, but collapsed. The book of the historian and writer Stanislav Chernyavsky tells about the great tsar, whose life was full of sudden turns, subtle intrigues, incredible adventures, whose rival was the winner of Hannibal - the commander Scipio Africanus.