The painting was awarded the 1774 Prix de Rome by the Aca… Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus' Disease (French: Érasistrate découvrant la cause de la maladie d’Antiochius dans son amour pour Stratonice) is a 1774 oil painting by French neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David. Se… Stratonice of Syria was the daughter of king Demetrius Poliorcetes and Phila, the daughter of Antipater. Notwithstanding the disparity of their ages, she appears to have lived in perfect harmony with the old king for some years. The work is a history painting depicting an episode from Plutarch's Lives in which Greek court physician Erasistratus diagnoses the illness of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus I, as lovesickness for his stepmother Stratonice. In 300 BC, at which time she could not have been more than seventeen years of age, her hand in marriage was sought by Seleucus, king of the Seleucid Empire. She was accompanied by her father Demetrius to Rhosus (on the Pierian coast in Macedonia) where the nuptials were celebrated.