Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic (or Ancient Greek) successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. At its greatest extent, the Empire covered central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, Turkmenistan, Pamir and the Indus Valley.
Seleucid Empire | |||||||||||||||||||
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312 BC–63 BC | |||||||||||||||||||
Capital | Seleucia (305–240 BC) Antioch (240–63 BC) | ||||||||||||||||||
Common languages | Greek(official)[1] Persian Aramaic[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
Religion | Olympianism Babylonian religion[2] Zoroastrianism | ||||||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||
Basileus | |||||||||||||||||||
• 305–281 BC | Seleucus I (first) | ||||||||||||||||||
• 65–63 BC | Philip II (last) | ||||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Hellenistic period | ||||||||||||||||||
• | 312 BC | ||||||||||||||||||
301 BC | |||||||||||||||||||
192–188 BC | |||||||||||||||||||
188 BC | |||||||||||||||||||
167–160 BC | |||||||||||||||||||
• | 63 BC | ||||||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||||||
301 BC[3] | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||||||||||||||||
240 BC[3] | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||||||||||||||||
175 BC[3] | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||||||||||||||||
100 BC [3] | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||||||||||||||||
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Today part of | Various countries
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Primarily, it was the successor to the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, and was followed there by the Islamic Caliphate (Rashidun Empire) conquest and rule, from 650s to 660s AD. Later on, much of this area became part of the Umayyad Empire and then the Abbasid Empire.
There were over 30 kings of the Seleucid dynasty from 323 to 63 BC.
The partition of Alexander's empire (323–281 BC)
Alexander the Great had conquered the Persian Empire but later died young, leaving his huge empire of partly Hellenized culture without an adult heir.
The empire was put under the management of a regent named Perdiccas in 323 BC, and the territories were divided between Alexander's generals, who thereby became satraps, at the Partition of Babylon. Leaders who thought they should have more, started wars to get it. Soon the various parts of the empire were fighting each other.
The early Seleucid Empire
Seleucus I Nicator was one of Alexander's generals who received a portion of the huge empire Alexander had carved out. He received huge expanses of land in Syria, Babylon, Anatolia, even as far out as India. When Perdiccas was killed in a political assassination by Ptolemy of Egypt, the empire that was barely held together then splintered apart. The Seleucid Empire quickly expanded, eventually taking parts of Thrace in the west and advancing past the Indus in the East.
Seleucus I clashed several times with his southern rival for power, the Ptolemaic Dynasty. The Ptolemaic Dynasty controlled most of Egypt and the lands around it, and would fight the Seleucid Empire on many occasions for control of Syria. Seleucus I conquered much of Anatolia, and was preparing to invade Macedonia, when he was assassinated. This momentarily put an end to the Seleucid Empire's ambitions in Greece. After Seleucus I died, his heirs spent much of their time and money trying to maintain the enormous empire they had inherited. In this, they were rather successful, but the vastness of the empire defied attempts by the successors of Seleucus to control it effectively.
Seleucid Empire Media
Coin of Seleucus I Nicator
In Bactria, the satrap Diodotus asserted independence to form the Greco-Bactrian kingdom c. 245 BC.
Drachm of the Frataraka ruler Vahbarz (Oborzos), thought to have initiated the independence of Persis from the Seleucid Empire. The coin shows on the reverse an Achaemenid king slaying an armoured, possibly Greek or Macedonian, soldier. This possibly refers to the events related by Polyainos (Strat. 7.40), in which Vahbarz (Oborzos) is said to have killed 3000 Seleucid settlers.
Silver coin of Antiochus III the Great.
The reduced empire (titled: Syria, Kingdom of the Seleucids) and the expanded states of Pergamum and Rhodes, after the defeat of Antiochus III by Rome. Circa 188 BC.
Coin of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Seleucid Syria in early 124 BC under Alexander II Zabinas, who ruled the country with the exception of the city of Ptolemais
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Richard N. Frye, The history of ancient Iran, (Ballantyne Ltd, 1984), 164.
- ↑ Julye Bidmead, The Akitu Festival: religious continuity and royal legitimation in Mesopotamia, (Gorgias Press, 2004), 143.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Rein Taagepera (1979). "Size and duration of empires: growth-decline curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 115–138. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
- ↑ Cohen, Getzel M; The Hellenistic dettlements in Syria, the Red Sea basin, and North Africa, pp. 13.
- ↑ Lynette G. Mitchell; Every inch a king: comparative studies on kings and kingship in the ancient and medieval worlds, page 123.