The chancellor of Seleucus iv. Philopator. At the instigation of Apollonius he was sent by the king to plunder the private treasures kept in the Temple of Jerus.; but was prevented from carrying out his design by an apparition (2Ma 3:7 ff.). In b.c. 175. Heliodorus murdered Seleucus, and attempted to seize the Syrian crown; but he was driven out by Eumenes of Pergamus and his brother Attalus; and Antiochus Epiphanes, brother of Seleucus, ascended the throne. There is commonly supposed to be a reference to Heliodorus in Da 11:20, but the interpretation of the passage is doubtful. Further, he is frequently reckoned as one of the ten or the three kings of Da 7:7 f.