Readings: Walbank, p. 123-124; Austin, chapter 5.
The larger kingdom in superficies.
Stretched from Thrace in Europe to the border of India.
Founded by Seleucus I Nicator.
Son of Antiochus, a general of Philip II.
Seleucus, one of Alexander's officers.
The only one who did not divorce his native wife.
Seleucus was given the command of the hetairoi (companions) cavalry.
He betrayed Perdiccas and was given the satrapy of Babylon.
He helped Antigonus against Eumenes.
But in 317 he had to flee to Ptolemy in Egypt.
316-312: in Ptolemy's service.
Part of coalition against Antigonus as one of Ptolemy's generals.
He defeated Demetrius at the Battle of Gaza (312).
Able to reconquer Babylon.
Beginning of the Seleucid era.
King in 305.
301 Antigonus is defeated at the Battle of Ipsus (Asia Minor).
Seleucus received Syria.
But Coele Syria occupied by Ptolemy.
Beginning of the long series of Syrian wars between Seleucids and Ptolemies.
Later, war between Seleucus and Lysimachus (master of Thrace).
In 281 Seleucus vanquished Lysimachus and gained control of Thrace.
But he was murdered by Ptolemy Ceraunus.
Antiochus I Soter could not continue his fathers conquests.
But he controlled nearly all of the Asian portions of the Empire.
His competitors: Antigonus II Gonatas and Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
The Seleucid empire included a multitude of races.
Policy of racial unity.
Hellenic ideas spread in the Empire.
Establishing of hundreds of Greek cities.
Varying degrees of success.
Overpopulation in Greece helped to find colonist.
Plots of land.
Diminution over time (wars).
Greek influences continued (accommodation and assimilation in Mesopotamia).
Separate agreements with the Greek officials.
Native cities continued with their old systems.
Development of syncretism.
Greek ideas influenced the local educated classes.
Local practices gradually adopted by the Greeks.
But no evidence from the east on the popularity of Greek beliefs among the local population.
Local religious practices favored.
Administration of the countryside of Mesopotamia remained even more traditional.
Satrapy, the basis for Seleucid control of the countryside.
Both Greek and Aramaic were used as the written languages of the government.
Use of cuneiform continued in religious texts.
Financial officials (oikonomoi) oversaw royal possessions, and others managed local taxes.
Both local Mesopotamian laws and Greek laws.
Greek language in the Seleucidan empire
Greek was the principal language of government.
Some authors wrote in Greek (Berosus & Apollodorus of Artemita).
After the 2nd century BC, the Greek language lost ground.
In Iran, the Elites only borrowed from Hellenism its exterior forms.
The eastern domains difficult to assert control over.
304 BC: Seleucus abandon the Indian territories.
East neglected in Seleucids politics.
Seleucus successors faced with:
challenges in the west,
repeated wars with Ptolemy II
Celtic invasion of Asia Minor
Confrontation with two human factors:
The powerful local aristocracy,
The nomad population.
Alexander had understood the importance of the Bactrian nobles and allied himself with them.
He also founded many new cities there.
But his policy would soon be abandoned by the Seleucids (concentrated on the West).
The nomads inhabited the immense territories beyond the northern frontiers.
They fought constantly with the settled populations (hard to catch).
Cyrus II and Darius I defeated by them in the past.
Two dominant factors in the decline of the Seleucid kingdom in the east.
Under Antiochus II's reign (250 BC), Bactria and Parthia will become independant.
Seleucus II defeated in the Third Syrian War.
Civil war against his brother Antiochus Hierax.
In Asia Minor: Galatia, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Pergamum.
Revival under Antiochus III the Great, who took the throne in 223 BC.
Antiochus III the Great (223187 BC)
Asia Minor had become detached.
The further eastern provinces had broken away.
During all his reign he did his best to reconquer as much as he could from the former Seleucid empire.
He also tried to gain new territories from the other Hellenistic kingdoms.
Defeat in the Fourth Syrian War (Battle of Raphia, in 217 BC).
Ten years of campaing through the eastern parts of his domain.
He take back Parthia and Bactria.
Expedition into India.
205 BC: death of Ptolemy IV (good opportunity).
Secret treaty with Philip V, king of Macedonia: they plotted the division of the Ptolemaic empire outside Egypt.
Antiochus invaded Coele Syria and gained control of Palestine.
But Philip fought against Rhodes and Pergamum: Rome intervened (Philip defeated).
Antiochus conquered southern Syria and the Egyptian territories in Asia Minor (195).
Matrimonial alliance with Ptolemy V.
Egypt practically a Seleucid protectorate.
He also occupied parts of the kingdom of Pergamum.
196 BC: he claimed sovereignty over Thracian territories.
War of harassment and diplomacy with Rome.
Tensions increased when Antiochus welcomed Hannibal.
Philip, Rhodes, Pergamum, and the Achaean League joined Rome.
His only allies in Greece: the Aetolians.
Antiochus defeated at the pass of Thermopylae (191 BC) and in the Battle of Magnesia (190).
Treaty of Apamea: he renounced to his conquests in Europe and in western Asia Minor and:
Indemnity of 15,000 talents.
Surrender of his elephants and his fleet,
Hostages.
Kingdom reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran.
In 187 Antiochus was murdered.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes lead a successful war against Egypt.
But forced to withdraw by the Romans.
Further disintegration of the Empire.
East still uncontrollable (Parthians).
Maccabee revolt.
Antiochus died during an expedition against the Parthians in 164 BC.
Seleucid Empire increasingly unstable.
Civil wars, tenuous central authority.
143 BC: the Jews established their independence.
Parthian expansion.
139 BC: Demetrius II defeated and captured by the Parthians.
Loss of the Iranian Plateau and Babylonia.
Unending civil war.
By 100 BC, empire limited to Antioch and some Syrian cities.
Civil wars still continued.
Romans increasingly alarmed at the constant problems in Syria.
63 BC: Pompey remade the Hellenistic East (client kingdoms, provinces):
He made Syria into a Roman province.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (God Manifest) (175-164)
Best known for his encouragement of Greek culture and institutions.
His attempts to suppress Judaism brought on the Wars of the Maccabees.
Tried to strengthen his kingdom by founding and fostering Greek cities.
He enlarged Antioch.
Babylon was given a Greek colony.
Epiphania founded in Armenia.
Ecbatana (in Persia) became a Greek city.
Conflict with the Oriental temple organizations and the Jews.
Jews: extensive autonomy under their high priest since Antiochus III's reign.
Two parties:
Orthodox Hasideans (Pious Ones)
Reform party favoring Hellenism.
Antiochus supported the reform party and permitted Jason to introduce the Greek mode of educating young people.
Later, he appointed Menelaus in place of Jason.
In 169 Jason conquered Jerusalem.
In 167 Antiochus took back Jerusalem and enforced its Hellenization.
Permanent garrison.
Worship of Yahweh forbidden on pain of death.
In the Temple an altar to Zeus Olympios was erected.
Idol in the image of the King.
Judas Maccabeus, leader of the anti-Greek Jews, led Hasideans in a guerrilla war.
He defeated Antiochus generals several times.
He conquered Judaea with the exception of the citadel in Jerusalem.
In 164 he tore down the altar of Zeus and reconsecrated the Temple.
Antiochus had underestimated the strength of the Hasidean movement.
They maintained an independent Judaean state for about a century, despite Antiochus impressive armies.
Judas successfully continued the war in Galilee and in Transjordan.
Succeeded by his brother Jonathan.
Alexander Balas finally made peace with Jonathan.
153-152 BC: Jonathan, high priest in Jerusalem.
Hasmonean line.
Jerusalem, capital of an independent state.