Western Asia Minor Cities Surrender

Fear travels faster than an army. After Magnesia and the armistice at Sardis, towns across western Asia Minor calculated their position. Without a Seleucid fleet on their flank and with Antiochus’ field army scattered, the costs of resistance soared. Britannica notes a “widespread” wave of surrenders; Livy’s arc shows delegations arriving with keys and arguments for leniency [13][2].

In Ephesus, the harbor that once serviced Polyxenidas’ fleet fell quiet except for the slap of water against empty quays. In Tralles and Smyrna, magistrates convened hurried councils under torchlight, the smoke coiling black against whitewashed walls. The sound of decision was mundane: styluses scratching wax tablets, seals pressed into clay, and the low murmur of factions deciding to bend [13][2].

Eumenes II’s agents moved quickly. They accepted submissions, inventoried granaries, and identified families with history on the Attalid side—a local web that would matter when Rome redrew borders. Pergamon’s expectation of reward—Hellespontic and Greater Phrygia, Lydia, and more—felt less like a boast and more like a checklist [6][7].

For Rhodes, the moment to press claims approached. Polybius’ record would later show Lycia and Caria south of the Maeander assigned to the island city-state, a maritime sphere that made commercial sense and complimented Rhodian seamanship [6][1]. But in 189 this outcome was still an argument, supported by the sight of Rhodian ships at Chios and Samos and by the memory of Myonessus.

The Seleucid retreat west of Taurus accelerated. Where garrisons remained, they negotiated withdrawal rather than risk isolation. Where loyalists spoke, they spoke softly. The geography of allegiance shifted along the roads from Sardis to Pergamon and down the Maeander to Miletus, visible in the simple fact that gates opened before rams appeared [13][12].