Seleucid Empire (312-63 BC): Greek Kingdom From Syria to Bactria

The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic kingdom founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, which at its height ruled from the Aegean coast of Anatolia to Central Asia. Its traditional starting point is 312 BC, when Seleucus regained Babylon. For about 250 years its Macedonian kings governed a vast mix of peoples from cities such as Seleucia on the Tigris and Antioch, until the last remnant in Syria was annexed by Rome in 64–63 BC.

Origins: Seleucus and the struggle for Babylon

Seleucus, born around 358 BC, served Alexander in the conquest of Persia and India. After Alexander’s death he helped murder the regent Perdiccas in 320 BC and was rewarded with the satrapy of Babylonia. In 316 BC the powerful Antigonus I drove him out, and he fled to Ptolemy in Egypt.

After Ptolemy and Seleucus defeated Antigonus’ son Demetrius at Gaza in 312 BC, Seleucus returned to Babylon with only about 1,000 soldiers, according to Diodorus, and won back the province. This return became the start of the Seleucid era, used as a calendar across the Near East for many centuries. Over the next years he secured Mesopotamia and Iran in the conflicts known as the Wars of the Diadochi.

Expansion under Seleucus I

Around 305 BC Seleucus took the title of king and marched east to reclaim Alexander’s Indian provinces. There he met the rising power of Chandragupta Maurya. In the treaty that ended the Seleucid-Mauryan War, Seleucus gave up lands in what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan in return for 500 war elephants and an alliance that included a marriage agreement.

Those elephants helped win the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, after which Seleucus gained northern Syria. In 281 BC he defeated Lysimachus at Corupedium and added most of Asia Minor. He was murdered later that year while crossing into Europe, but his son Antiochus I inherited the largest of all the successor kingdoms.

Cities and government

The Seleucids were great founders of cities. Seleucus established Seleucia on the Tigris around 305 BC and, around 300 BC, four cities in northern Syria known as the Tetrapolis: Antioch on the Orontes, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea and Laodicea. Many smaller Greek-style cities and military colonies followed, from Dura-Europos on the Euphrates to Ai Khanoum in Bactria.

The kings ruled through governors and a professional army of Macedonian and Greek settlers, supported by local troops. They continued many Persian and Babylonian traditions. In Babylon, Seleucid kings sponsored temple building, and scribes kept writing cuneiform texts, including astronomical records, into the 1st century BC.

Greek culture and language spread through the cities, while local languages such as Aramaic remained widely spoken. The result was a mixed society in which Greek, Babylonian, Persian and Jewish traditions met.

Wars with Egypt and the loss of the east

From the 270s BC the Seleucids fought a long series of Syrian Wars against the Ptolemies of Egypt, mainly over Coele-Syria, the region of southern Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine. The struggle drained both kingdoms.

In the mid-3rd century BC the empire began to lose its eastern lands. The Greek governor Diodotus made Bactria independent, and the Parni, led by Arsaces, took Parthia, founding what became the Parthian Empire (see Arsaces I and the founding of Parthia).

Antiochus III: revival and defeat by Rome

Antiochus III, who ruled from 222 to 187 BC, tried to restore the empire. He lost to Ptolemy IV at Raphia in 217 BC but then led a great eastern campaign between about 212 and 205 BC, forcing Parthia and Bactria to recognise his overlordship. This earned him the title “the Great”. In 200 BC he defeated the Ptolemies at Panium and took Coele-Syria.

His expansion into Asia Minor and Greece brought him into conflict with Rome. Defeated at Thermopylae in 191 BC and at Magnesia in 190 BC, he accepted the Treaty of Apamea in 188 BC. He gave up Asia Minor north of the Taurus Mountains, surrendered his war elephants and most of his fleet, and agreed to pay a huge indemnity of 15,000 talents.

Decline and end

Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) invaded Egypt but was forced to withdraw in 168 BC by a Roman envoy, Gaius Popillius Laenas. His attempt to suppress traditional Jewish practice in Judea provoked the Maccabean revolt, which eventually led to an independent Jewish state.

From around 148 BC the Parthian king Mithridates I conquered Media and then Babylonia, taking Seleucia on the Tigris in 141 BC. Attempts to win back the east failed: Demetrius II was captured by the Parthians in 139 BC, and Antiochus VII was killed fighting them in 129 BC. The kingdom was now limited to Syria and torn by civil wars between rival branches of the dynasty.

Tigranes II of Armenia controlled most of Syria from about 83 to 69 BC. After his defeat by Rome, a Seleucid king, Antiochus XIII, briefly returned. In 64 BC the Roman general Pompey deposed him and made Syria a Roman province, a process completed in 63 BC.

Culture and legacy

The Seleucid court attracted Greek scholars and writers. The envoy Megasthenes, sent by Seleucus to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra, wrote an influential account of India, now known only from quotations. The Babylonian priest Berossus wrote a history of Babylon in Greek, dedicated to Antiochus I, to explain Mesopotamian traditions to the new rulers.

Seleucid coins spread royal portraits and Greek gods across Asia, and their designs influenced later Bactrian, Parthian and Indo-Greek coinage. The Parthians themselves used Greek on their coins and kept many Seleucid cities as centres of trade.

Antioch, in particular, outlived the dynasty. Under Roman rule it became the capital of the province of Syria and one of the largest cities of the eastern Mediterranean. According to the Book of Acts, it was there that followers of Jesus were first called Christians.

Key people

• Seleucus I Nicator (c. 358–281 BC): Founder of the empire and builder of Antioch and Seleucia.
• Antiochus I Soter (ruled 281–261 BC): Defended the kingdom against the invading Galatians in Asia Minor.
• Antiochus III the Great (ruled 222–187 BC): Restored Seleucid power in the east but was defeated by Rome.
• Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ruled 175–164 BC): Invaded Egypt; his policies in Judea sparked the Maccabean revolt.
• Pompey (106–48 BC): Roman general who ended the kingdom.

Timeline

• 320 BC: Seleucus becomes satrap of Babylonia.
• 312 BC: After the Battle of Gaza, Seleucus regains Babylon; start of the Seleucid era.
• c. 305 BC: Seleucus takes the title of king; treaty with Chandragupta Maurya follows.
• 300 BC: Antioch on the Orontes is founded.
• 281 BC: Victory at Corupedium; Seleucus is murdered.
• 217 BC: Antiochus III is defeated by Ptolemy IV at Raphia.
• 190 BC: Rome defeats Antiochus III at Magnesia.
• 167 BC: The Maccabean revolt begins in Judea.
• 141 BC: The Parthians take Seleucia on the Tigris.
• 64–63 BC: Pompey annexes Syria as a Roman province.

Why it matters

The Seleucid Empire carried Greek cities, language and ideas deep into Asia, from Syria to Afghanistan. Antioch, which it founded, became one of the great cities of the Roman and early Christian world. Its long struggle with Egypt, Parthia, Rome and the Jewish people of Judea shaped the political and religious history of the Near East.