The Seleucid Empire lasted from 321 to 63 BC. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator was born in Europos, Northern Macedonia, in 358 BCE. His father, Antiochus, had been a general in Philip II’s army and as a young man Seleucus was a page at the King’s court. His mother was known as Laodice and Seleucus would later name several cities after his parents. According to legend, in similar vein to Alexander the Great, Antiochus had told his son that he was a son of the god Apollo.
Seleucus had fought alongside Alexander on his campaigns throughout the Macedonian conquest of the eastern Mediterranean, across Persia and on to the Indus. He was one of the many generals who married Persian wives at the Susa Weddings in 324. The Seleucids would later claim that Apama was the daughter of Darius III in an attempt to portray themselves as legitimate successors to the Achaemenids.
Unlike the majority of the Susa marriages, Seleucus’s marriage to his Batrian wife was successful and they went on to have three children; the eldest, Antiochus I Soter (Saviour), would succeed as Basileus, or King, of the Seleucid Empire.
As mentioned above, at the Partition of Triparadisus in 321, Seleucus was made satrap of Babylon. By the end of the Wars of the Diadochi in 275, he was in possession of territory that stretched from Mesopotamia to the Indus. However, although he was now ruler of the largest portion of Alexander’s Empire, because his kingdom was landlocked, he lacked warships, unlike Ptolemy in Egypt or Lysimachus in Asia Minor. Moreover, he did not have access to the Greek territories, which deprived him of a regular supply of hoplites for his army.
Although militarily weak, Seleucus was perhaps the most inventive of Alexander’s successors. His chosen strategy for both expanding and defending his empire, was to found cities that would provide both taxation and manpower. As garrison towns, the cities served as a defence against invasion. Seleucus’s first city, that was to be his capital and contained the royal tombs, was Seleukeia-on-Tigris, in the region of today’s Baghdad. Seleukeia was later overshadowed by Antioch on the Orontes in Syria which was probably named after his father, Antiochus. Antioch also offered direct access to the Mediterranean.
A mix of Akkadian, Aramaic and Greek was spoken in most cities and an ekklesia, or assembly of citizens, was formed. Seleucus also appointed a ‘central government’, which was a court of men known as his philoi, or friends, who would perform duties such as governors, military commanders or royal advisers.
Following the peace agreement in 303 with Chandragupta Maurya, Seleucus left his eastern provinces in the hands of satraps and turned his attention to the West. His next aim was to conquer Thrace, Macedonia and Greece. With the exception of Ptolemy’s Egypt, this would have made his empire equivalent to that of Alexander the Great. But this was not to be. He failed to bring the Greek territories under his rule. Soon after crossing the Hellespont, in September 281, he was assassinated by Ptolemy Keraunos, King of Macedon.
*****
The above is an extract from the publication A History of Central Asia
댓글