Philotas was a general in the service of 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...

, who commanded the garrison of Abydos

Abydos, Hellespont

For other uses, see Abydos Abydos , an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at Nara Burnu or Nagara Point on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont. Across Abydos lies Sestus on the European side marking the shortest point in the Dardanelles, scarcely a mile broad...

  in the Roman–Syrian War . He was besieged by the Roman fleet under Gaius Livius Salinator

Gaius Livius Salinator

Gaius Livius Salinator, son of Marcus, was a Roman consul of the gens Livia, said to have founded the city of Forum Livii , in Italy, during his consulship in the year 188 BC. He also served as admiral when he was praetor in 191 BC in the war against Antiochus III the Great and defeated his...

 (190 BC

190 BC

Year 190 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Asiaticus and Laelius...

), and was desirous to capitulate ; but before the terms could be agreed upon, the news of the defeat of the Rhodian fleet under Pamphilidas caused Livius to withdraw in all haste in order to oppose the Antiochid admiral Polyxenidas of Rhodes.