261 BCE, winter

In the autumn of 261 BCE, the Seleucid high command had sent a small mercenary unit under the command of strategos Euphorion Abaiou Arabikou to guard the mountain passes leading into Anatolia from Ptolemaic Kilikia. Controlling these passes allowed them to bring up armies from their central Anatolian holdings right on top of Antiocheia and despite the horrific loss of the 3rd Battle of Syria in the spring of the same year, they were still determined to recapture the city that holds the name of their basileos. Timon Arrhidaeos had set out to keep the city safely in the hands of his basileos Ptolemy however and this small army represented a much larger threat from the north. Having chased a small Seleucid army out of Syria a few months earlier, he expected this army would be chased away too, but the Seleucid commander Euphorion trusted the experience of his mercenaries and his advantageous position. But as the battle commenced, Euphorion quickly found the numerical superiority of Timon's army meant that he was forced on the defence and Timon outmanoeuvred him rapidly. Euphorion made one last daring attempt to change the tide of the battle by attacking Timon's archers, but they held their ground and Euphorion was surrounded and killed. With their general dead, the mercenaries had lost their chance of getting paid as well and routed immediately. Most were captured before the day was done.