029: The Seleucid Empire - Seleucus I & the Foundation of the Empire

Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age Podcast. Episode 29, The Seleucid Empire, Seleucus I, and the Foundation of the Empire. Of all the successors to Alexander the Great, Seleucus seemed to be among the least likely to come out of the bloody wars of the Diadohoi on top. Yet, despite being a relatively late newcomer to the candidacy, Seleucus managed to outwit his rivals and snatch the largest piece of Alexander's great imperial pie. Stretching from their political heartland in Syria and the Levantine shores to the tips of India and Afghanistan, the Seleucid Empire, as it was to become, was the largest controlled territory in the world for almost a hundred years, and the most ethnically and culturally diverse Hellenistic successor kingdom to emerge out of the ashes of the former Macedonian Empire. Persians, Bactrians, Jews, Babylonians, various nomadic tribes, and more, would be ruled over by the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator, from approximately 312 to 64 BC, when the last king, Philip II, Philoromaios, would be ingloriously deposed by a Roman commander. Over the next few episodes, we will take a look at the reign of the first two kings, Seleucus I and Antiochus I Soter, and oversee the creation of the Empire and touch upon some of its institutions. As a forewarning to this episode in particular, I will be talking about events that overlap with my series on the Wars of the Diadohoi, and unless it has a direct connection to Seleucus, I will only be marginally discussing it as per needed, so I strongly suggest that you take a listen to those series if you haven't already done so. In addition, since we are now firmly starting to cover the dynastic families that dominated the Hellenistic world, I will be providing family trees on my website to better reflect the complicated relationships of the period, so check those out at any time if you're a bit confused on who's who. First, let us look at our sources and evidence for the Empire. Unfortunately, history has not been too kind on the reputation of the Seleucids, primarily due to a noticeable lack of written materials. To begin with, we have a really tough time finding a narrative structure that continuously covers the history of the Empire. Chroniclers seem not to have been particularly interested in documenting the inner workings of the Seleucid realm, often only mentioning it in fragmentary accounts or summaries, such as the work of Diodorus Siculus or Pompeius Trogus by way of Justin's epitome. Whatever is available has often been colored by sources that are only interested in the realm because of their hostile interactions with other powers. Polybius, perhaps the greatest historian of the Hellenistic period, spent his time discussing Antiochus III largely because of the king's great wars with the Roman Republic, and the behavior of Antiochus IV's epiphanies to the peoples of Judea did not endear himself nor his kingdom to Jewish authors like the historian Josephus and the authors of books I and II Maccabees of the Bible, chronicling the rise of the Maccabean state. In addition to this, the bulk of our material focuses upon the western territories, not its eastern, so often times we can have years go by in parts like Bactria in India with only so much as a peep, and have to be reconstructed primarily through the use of numismatics, the study of coins, and archaeological evidence of famous sites like Alexandria I Canum. A glimmer of light has revealed a large amount of Seleucid history, thanks to discovery and translation of cuneiform texts, written by Babylonian and other Near Eastern scribes upon clay tablets, who carried a tradition that stretched back hundreds if not thousands of years of record keeping. The most important of these are the so-called astronomical diaries, which has given us further clues about not only the activity of the kings, but also information about the economy, the administration, and the social makeup of the empire. As mentioned before, the land controlled under the Seleucid dynasty was the largest out of all of the successor kingdoms, controlling almost all of Alexander's Asian conquests. It has been quite a while since we chronicled the initial Macedonian expeditions into these lands, and we will be talking about a considerable area and size, which will remain in focus for the next several episodes. Therefore, I believe that it is important for us to cover the exact reach and spread of the realm, which expanded and contracted over a period of 250 years, influencing the peoples they rule over and interact with. In the show notes, I have also included the map for your convenience, so please check that out if need be. Starting from the southwestern portion of Anatolia, we can trace along the southern part of modern-day Turkey, the craggy region of ancient Cilicia, pockmarked by Ptolemaic garrisons. To the north of Cilicia would be the later independent kingdoms of Bithynia and Cappadocia, and the heartland known as Galatia, the resettlement site of the Celts who invaded Asia Minor in the 280s. Wrapping around the Levantine coast, we enter into the most stable area and political heartland of the Seleucid realm, in northern Syria, so-called Seleucis, later home to the famous city of Antioch. The southern Syrian and Phoenician region, known as Coalese Syria, roughly analogous to modern-day Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, was a center of intense dispute for the Seleucids, falling in and out of their hands thanks to the efforts of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. These conflicts would include no less than six individual Syrian wars, and raiding back and forth between the two realms was not uncommon, and the site of Judea would birth the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Immediately east of Syria lies Mesopotamia, nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq. This region was initially the economic heartland of the realm, thanks to the intense urbanization stretching back millennia like Babylon, Nineveh and Uruk, but would be gradually overtaken by later settlement projects and intense warfare during the fighting between Alexander's successors. Cutting across the border of eastern Mesopotamia would be the Zagros Mountains, the gate to modern Iran, and the heart of the former Persian Empire in Persis. Continuing along the coast of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, we pass the Gadroesian Desert in modern Baluchistan, the pit of despair that Alexander and his army disastrously crossed on their way home from India in the 320s, for although it technically could be considered Seleucid territory, it was essentially abandoned soon after it was captured. Eventually, we hit the mighty Indus River, marking the border between Seleucid territory and the Indian subcontinent, now the territory of the other great imperial power of the region, the Maurya Empire. The northern part of the Indian territory, areas of the Punjab, Gandhara and Khyber Pass in modern Pakistan, would not remain in Seleucid hands for long, as we soon shall see, but the realm had a sizable Greek population and would be later home to other Hellenistic conquerors. Travelling up the Indus, we head north, to the regions of Bactria and Sogdiana in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan, sites of instability and a predilection for declaring independence, thanks to their perceived distance from the Seleucid heartland, and in time would successfully do so, under the Satrap Diodotus, who would form the so-called Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, but there were also a number of oasis cities like Merv and Iqalum. Along the northern border, we travel west, back through Central Asia, into the lands of Parthia and Media in the Iranian Plateau, the burgeoning foundations of the later Parthian Empire, which would whittle away at Seleucid power in Asia for centuries afterwards. Lastly, we pass beneath the southern Caspian and Black Sea, the home of many steppe nomads, and the regions of Armenia, Media, Atropatine, peoples who sought their independence as strongly as the Bactrians did. This is quite the variety in terms of terrain and population, and given the size of the land, it is little surprise that the Seleucids had such a tough time managing it. Yet, they did, and contrary to previous views of scholars in analyzing how they failed, it should perhaps be balanced by the fact that they managed to succeed at controlling it at all for quite a long period of time. But now with a general sense of the landscape, I believe it is now time for us to take a look at our first king, Seleucus I Nikator. Without the benefit of hindsight, if we were to go back to the initial days after Alexander's death in Babylon on June 10th or 11th 323 BC and analyze the immediate contenders for control of the empire, I sincerely doubt anyone would have Seleucus on their radar of high profile figures to watch out for. Our origins on Seleucus are vague. He was born roughly in 358 to an aristocratic family, with only his mother Laodice named in the sources, and he was raised as part of the system of pagans under Philip II, further establishing his noble background. The rest has been muddled by later Seleucid propaganda. Omens of his future greatness were made apparent by his supposed fathering at the hands of the god Apollo, a birthmark in the shape of an anchor, later an important symbol of Seleucid power, or the numerous prophecies that foretold his inevitable rise to kingship, stock standard for any Hellenistic monarch of the period. His participation in the campaigns of Alexander is relatively obscure in our sources, probably serving as part of Alexander's somatophilakis, the personal bodyguard trusted to protect the king. But in the campaigns recorded by Arrian, we have his first recorded appearance in India as a commander of the Hypacipists, an infantry regiment. Seleucus must have been in Alexander's inner circle, because in 324, during the mass winnings of Susa, Seleucus was given the bride Apama, a woman of Sogdian origin, who was the daughter of a former high-ranking leader in the region. Unlike the other Macedonian officials who were given brides of Asian origin, Seleucus did not abandon Apama the moment Alexander was dead, and in fact remained married to her for many years afterwards. The political benefits of this marriage can't be ignored, as her Sogdian origins would likely be an asset during Seleucus' campaigns in Sogdiana, but they weren't immediately apparent at the time of Alexander's demise, and I think we can safely say that there was probably a degree of genuine love between the pair, and Seleucus would later found a number of cities in her honor. His connection to Alexander is also stressed through anecdotes of later propagandists, where he is alleged to have recovered Alexander's diadem when it was lost in the river, and thus unofficially marking Seleucus as Alexander's kingly successor, but the extent of this relationship may be overly stretched. When Alexander died in 323 without a direct heir to the empire, the generals and commanders, soon to be known as the Successors or Theodohoi, began to squabble amongst each other for who would be made king. Our sources do not suggest that Seleucus was a major player during the initial council sessions, but he chose to ally himself with the head commander of the companion cavalry, Perticus, who had quickly tried establishing the strongest claim by declaring himself as the acting regent for Alexander's unborn child, and the feeble-minded half-brother Philip Aridaeus, who would rule as joint kings when the former becomes of age. The other generals were not too pleased by this turn of events, with some, like Ptolemy, abandoning Babylon to squat upon Egypt, or other commanders just flat-out ignoring the orders of Perticus. The first large-scale open conflict came in 321, when the theft of Alexander's body by Ptolemy and rumors of Perticus courting an Argeat bride proved to be the final straws in plunging the remains of the empire into civil war. On the anti-Pertican side would be the likes of army favorites like Craterus and Antipater, along with other powerful leaders like Ptolemy and Antigonus the One-Eyed, while Perticus would be supported by the likes of the plucky Greek secretary Eumenes of Cardia, and, of course, Seleucus. While Eumenes would be sent to deal with the invasion force of Craterus in Asia Minor, Perticus and Seleucus would attempt to invade Egypt in order to attack Ptolemy's stronghold. The invasion was little short of disaster, with Perticus's forces suffering numerous casualties during multiple botched crossings of the Nile River. With morale plummeting and offers from Ptolemy coaxing many deserters to come to his side, it was little wonder that Perticus lasted as long as he did. One evening, he was cornered in his tent and stabbed to death by his closest confidants. Among his squad was Seleucus. We don't know if he was the ringleader of the plot or just a willing participant, but during the partition of Triperidesis in 320, Seleucus was granted the prestigious, if politically limited, position as Satrap of Babylon for his services in eliminating the usurper. The majority of imperial responsibility and territory was divided among the other major players, like Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Antipater, who had to deal with the remaining pro-Pertican forces, and above all else, Eumenes, who was still running around in Asia Minor with a sizable military force. Sure, Seleucus may have not been granted that much power on the surface of things, but Babylon was no small consolation prize. The city was economically prosperous, attracting both foreign and local traders from across the former Persian Empire, and it was also agriculturally rich thanks to the nutrient-rich silting of the land around the mighty Euphrates River. It was probably the wealthiest satrapy, second only to Egypt, and its long and great history with famous rulers such as Nebuchadnezzar II was a point of pride for its citizens and religious elite, who chafed under its rule by the Achaemenid Persian kings, having welcomed Alexander as a savior of sorts. But despite the Greek author's tendencies to assume a smooth transition from oppressive Persians to enlightened Greco-Macedonians, the nature of the city initially proved to be a challenge for Seleucus, since the vast majority of the population, including the educated elite, did not speak Greek, preferring to use languages like Aramaic, and the number of former Greeks and Macedonians living in the city was considerably smaller. The governing institutions that Alexander left behind were very much the ones left by the Persians, and much of the control was in the hands of the priests of Marduk, who acted as the scribes and safekeepers of the temples, along with owning considerable amounts of land. Much like the priests of Egypt, these men therefore had enormous pull with the local population, and in return for religious donations, i.e. bribes, the peasantry would not be incited to riot or protest. These initial frustrations would not prove too much of an obstacle, and Seleucus was showing signs of being an adept administrator. In the so-called Babylonian Chronicle, a collection of records kept by the local priests on cuneiform inscribed tablets, we get a uniquely Babylonian viewpoint, and there is no apparent hostility at the start of Seleucus' position as satrap in the year 319. From what we can gather, Seleucus managed to incorporate an administrative system staffed with the Greek-speaking body, and ensured that a Macedonian garrison was both present and sufficiently loyal. This did not seem to alienate the local population, and with the loyalty of its citizens towards Seleucus during the Babylonian War, which we will discuss later in this episode, the Babylonians seemed to have liked, or at the very least were positively inclined, towards Seleucus' rule. The way this was done was through a patronage system, whereby Seleucus would grant gifts in the form of land donatives, coined money or products in kind, to his supporters, and thereby ensuring their loyalty and cooperation. The extent of this patronage system would include both Greco-Macedonians and Babylonians, especially the priests of Esagila, showcasing that Seleucus was well aware of the need to not just cater to a cultural or ethnic Greco-Macedonian elite, but also the native subjects of the regions these foreign Macedonian warlords and later kings would rule over. From 319 onwards, Seleucus would administer Babylon with great success, managing to largely stay out of the fighting of the Second Diodo-Hoi War. The general of Asia, Antigonus Monophthalmos or Antigonus the One-Eye, was battling it out with the former Pertican supporter Eumenes of Cardia in Asia Minor, and Eumenes approached Seleucus to negotiate some sort of alliance. Though Eumenes was a former Pertican ally and was a talented general with a very large and capable army who championed the protection of the Argead House, Seleucus' authority was derived from the men opposing the Greek secretary, who also claimed to protect the Argeads as well. The answer was made apparent when Eumenes was met with resistance on the banks of the Tigris River, but the extent of Seleucus' assistance to Antigonus was somewhat limited. Clearly, he was interested in protecting the legal jurisdiction of Babylon, and by extension, his own power, rather than aggressively looking to destroy Eumenes. He left that up to the One-Eye and remained content to pursue a policy of half-hearted support in the Babylonian heartland. One of the great turning points of Seleucus' career would be in 315. With Eumenes executed, Antigonus had fulfilled his original duty set during the Treaty of Triperidesis. However, he had now found himself in control of the largest military force in the entire empire, co-opting many of Eumenes' mercenaries in the fold, and had developed a taste for power. Rather than disbanding his army, Antigonus doubled down his hold on military authority, and then some. He plundered some of the royal treasuries, taking tens of thousands of silver talents, and distributed Satrapal posts to his loyal followers, often murdering the previous administrator in the process. The bug of imperial ambition had clearly bitten the talented general, and it was only a matter of time before Seleucus came to his attention when Antigonus visited the Babylonian Satrap. A great feast was held in Antigonus' honor, and though the atmosphere superficially appeared to be merry, there was clearly enough tension to make things politically awkward. A sort of standoff had occurred, with each one's desires incompatible with the others. Seleucus would not let go of any legitimate powers granted to Satrap, but Antigonus expected full submission, and none dared intentionally give a pretext for war, so things were a bit uncomfortable for a few weeks. However, Antigonus soon had his cast to spell out. Seleucus had disciplined the governor for unruly behavior, which there was nothing inherently wrong with, since it was quite entirely within his right to do so as per his position of Satrap, but Antigonus made it apparent that somehow Seleucus had disrespected him by flaunting false authority in the face of a superior. In response, Antigonus demanded that Seleucus should produce the accounting books for the revenues and resources that he had pocketed during his tenure as Satrap. This was rich, coming from the man who had plundered the royal treasuries entirely out of self-interest, but the purpose was clear to Seleucus. Even if he never touched a single drachmae, Antigonus would accuse him of having fleeced the wealth of Babylon and have him suffer a quote-unquote accident, or outright imprison and execute him like what was done with the non-Antigonid Satraps. The safest move for our protagonist was to make haste in the cover of night with Apama and his young children, including the soon-to-be Antiochus I, and flee Babylon. From Babylon, Seleucus and his entourage travelled all the way to Egypt to the household of Ptolemy. Antigonus' ambitions were relayed to the Egyptian warlord and a series of dispatches would be sent to the other marshals of the realm, that of Lysimachus and Thrace and Cassander and Macedon, encouraging a diplomatic alliance to buffer against Antigonus' power. Negotiations broke down between them and the Antigonid coalition, which included the son of Antigonus, Demetrius, better known as Demetrius Polyarchetes, who was a charismatic, if hot-headed military talent. By the beginning of 314, the Third War of the Diadohoi was in full swing, and Seleucus served as Ptolemy's admiral to sail the waters of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, striking at Antigonid strongholds and cities. We do not have much word of his actions over the next few years, but we know that he assisted the Rhodian defenders during the famous Siege of Rhodes, which earned Demetrius the rather ironic nickname Polyarchetes, meaning taker of cities, despite failing to actually capture anything. He is also thought to have served alongside Ptolemy at the Battle of Gaza in late 312, early 311, where Demetrius invaded Egypt by way of Syria. Demetrius' impetuous nature got the better of him, and his army was scattered by the combined efforts of Seleucus and Ptolemy, and Egypt was safe from further invasion for the moment. Even more important for Seleucus, however, was that the corridor to Babylon was once again open. From the battle, Seleucus led a contingent of horsemen and infantry at full speed towards the city. The area was still hot with Antigonid-friendly satraps, but they either did not notice or did not care to pursue this small body, which grew larger when Seleucus managed to reach the city of Carai in Mesopotamia and recruited many more men to his side. According to the recovered Babylonian Chronicle, on the 1st of Nisan, April the 3rd, 311, a date that would officially mark the beginning of the Seleucid kingship era, the prodigal son returned. Seleucus was back in Babylon, and the seeds of a new kingdom would begin to sprout upon his arrival. Seleucus' return to Babylon was met with a celebration of loyal supporters from all walks of life, who were jubilant to see their former satrap return. The good work Seleucus had done during his previous tenure had paid off, but it wasn't as simple as walking through the door and holding out. The Antigonid supporters inside of the city had locked themselves in the citadel, and if Seleucus was to fortify his own position, lest Antigonus or Demetrius swing back round to Babylon to recapture the city, he needed to get them out. The sources from this point on are extremely fragmented. We only have a few bits and pieces from the Greek sources discussing what would be called the Babylonian War, which would last from 311 down to 309. We thankfully are able to get a better picture, thanks to the recovered Babylonian Chronicle tablets. And the results of this does not appear to be pretty. Seleucus besieged the citadel for a number of months, capturing it by August of 311. Word of Seleucus' return had meanwhile alerted the Antigonids and their supporters, including the satrap of Media named Nicanor. Demonstrating his military acumen, Seleucus managed to outmaneuver and rout the much larger force by launching a daring night attack, killing Nicanor in the process, and convinced many of the Antigonid troops serving in Nicanor's ranks to join up his cause, thus bolstering his own army into something along the lines of 20,000 to 25,000 men. This army, and the fact that the Antigonids were still tied up for the moment in the west, allowed Seleucus to consolidate the territories surrounding both Mesopotamia and parts of eastern Iran. Throughout 310, he had captured the former Persian capital cities of Susa and Ecbatana, redistributed the satrap's positions to loyal followers, and even managed to earn himself a new epithet, Nikator, meaning victory or bringer of victory. It seems that Seleucus was not above the tactics of his foes, and clearly showed the signs of kingly ambitions in subjecting the region to his own personal control. However, he favored he may have been by the local Babylonians. Sometime in 310, the first wave of the Antigonid response had finally left Mesopotamia's shores. Demetrius, sent by his father at the head of a preliminary invasion force, had directed an attack against Babylonia, while Seleucus was still dealing with his consolidation of eastern Iran. Thankfully, a trusted commander named Patroclus was left behind to safeguard the city. The population of Babylon was deported for their own safekeeping, spread among the recently captured territories under Seleucus' protection, while a scorched earth policy was enacted, where the many dams and canals lining the Euphrates River were destroyed, as to make Demetrius' camp life more difficult, and Patroclus' much smaller force engaged in a sort of guerrilla warfare, bushwhacking the Antigonid troops rather than getting involved in a large open battle, or they holed up in some of the city's citadels for a number of months, while Seleucus further harried enemy forces. The fighting was devastating to the region, one of the accounts shows that the price of grain had skyrocketed, and at least more than one Babylonian chronicle author records, quote, There was weeping and mourning in the land. The fighting had dragged long enough into 309, that it forced Antigonus to come to his son's aid, culminating at least in one major battle. Since we have such poor records of this war, there may indeed be more than one, but the writer Polyianus recalls a clever tactic employed by Seleucus, where he ordered his soldiers to remain in their kit throughout the night, and upon the arrival of dawn, they bum-rushed the sleeping and unprepared Antigonid camp. At this point, enough was enough for the Antigonids, they were getting nothing but hostility from the local populace, and frustration from the brilliant generalship of Seleucus, and they were being harassed near their center of power in the Mediterranean by the other successor generals. Antigonus and Demetrius signed a treaty with Seleucus, renouncing their claims to the territory east of Syria, and promised to leave Mesopotamia for good. Amazingly, Seleucus had managed to fend off the largest military power in the Hellenistic world, headed by two extremely talented generals, and came out on top, despite having less manpower. This victory did not come without a price, however. We may have been largely looking at the wars for Alexander's empire from a macroscopic level, where generals and kings fought great battles with one another, but we must not forget the cost to the everyday citizens and civilians that lived inside the territories ravaged by the armies of the successors. Babylonia and Babylon were completely torn apart by the scorched earth tactics of its defenders, and thanks to the raiding and pillaging of its attackers. The city itself, formerly the great core of Alexander's empire, and a number of empires before it, was nearly in ruins by the end of the war. Seleucus, in time, would turn his attention away from Babylon, taking many of its citizens and dispensing them over the cities he would later found, thus reducing it from a jewel of the Near East to an economic and political backwater. With the threat of the Antigonids dealt with, and Babylonia, or whatever that wasn't totally destroyed, securely in the hands of Seleucus, it was now time for Seleucus to turn east, while the rest of the fighting between the successors would take place in the west. In my episodes on the wars of the Diadohoi, I primarily focused around the western regions of Alexander's former empire, the Greek peninsula, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Levant. However, I neglected to discuss the chaos in the east that also ensued in the wake of Alexander's death, and the campaigning of Seleucus to re-establish control over the regions east of Babylon. Indeed, the territories of Bactria, Sogdiana, and the outermost edge of the empire in India were never particularly stable areas, even when Alexander was still alive. And when word of his demise reached them, the Satrap of the Indian province was assassinated, and Bactria suffered a huge revolt from the Greek mercenaries stationed there. Control of these regions was only barely sustained by the Satraps, many of whom were operating in a state of quasi-independence. And if Seleucus was going to act upon his ever-increasing imperial ambitions, he was going to have to launch a great eastern campaign to reclaim control, lasting roughly four years from the beginning of 306 to the end of 303. Sounds like a great setup for an episode on its own, right? Well, here's the account of the campaigns in their entirety, according to Justin's epitome. Quote, He first took Babylon, and then, his strength being increased by the success, subdued the Bactrians. End quote. That's it? Well, no, we also have the account of the writer Appian. Quote, End quote. How lucky for us that we have a grand total of four lines referring to the conquest of a region the size of modern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Bactria would be of substantial importance, given the high presence of Greek and Macedonian settlers, but it is unfortunate that we know so little about its incorporation into the Seleucid fold, where it would remain until the Satrap Diodotus would declare independence, creating the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in approximately 250 BC. That is a story for another day, however, but it should be mentioned, though, that the level of fighting probably did not match the initial campaigns of Alexander, neither in terms of scale nor savagery, and it was most likely via reassertion of authority over these territories through negotiation, rather than an epic conquest. But with Bactria and Sogdiano incorporated, like Alexander, Seleucus had to carry his great campaign to India. Unlike Alexander, India at this point was very different than the innumerable Rajas fighting for control of the region. We know more about Seleucus's war in India than in Bactria, though not substantially so. Perhaps this is because of the nature of the opponent that Seleucus faced, a man known to the Greeks as Sandrakotis, better known to us as Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the great Mauryan Empire of India. We will be discussing Chandragupta and the rise of the Mauryan state in an upcoming episode, but suffice it to say that in approximately 322 BC, Chandragupta led a great rebellion which helped ultimately overthrow the previously ruling Nanda Empire, and established an empire himself covering the vast majority of the Indian subcontinent, including reclaiming the Macedonian territories in modern Pakistan and the Indus Valley, stretching into the Khyber Pass along the border of Bactria by 307. Seleucus's war with Chandragupta is not well covered, but as far as we can tell, Seleucus penetrated the Indus River and fought against the massive number of forces at the Mauryan ruler's disposal. Besides this, we do not know of any specific battles nor the degree of success that Seleucus had. At a certain point, the war was concluded in roughly 303 by a mutual treaty brokered between Seleucus and Chandragupta by a man called Megasthenes, who would play an important role in furthering Seleucus-Mauryan relations. This treaty contained three specific arbitrations. 1. Seleucus would relinquish control over the regions of Arakosia and Gedrosia, which would be the portions of central and southern Pakistan which contained the severely inhospitable desert that challenged Alexander so much. This meant limiting his kingdom to the border of the Indus River. 2. Chandragupta would gift 500 Indian war elephants, the very best of their kind, to Seleucus. 3. A marriage contract between the Seleucus and the Maurya. Analyzing the treaty, it is interesting to note the exchanges that occurred. To Seleucus, abandoning the Indian provinces was not truly a huge loss, given the tenacity and size of the Indian fighters, and the difficulties of maintaining control over the region that would entail if he kept it. And it must be noted that Seleucus kept Bactria, which was still the most important. The granting of 500 elephants, which would prove to be decisive at the upcoming Battle of Ipsus, was the first in a series of gift exchanges between the two rulers, as the Seleucus and Maurya would form a relatively amicable partnership in the decades following, and it was a huge boon to the Seleucid military might. The last cause, the marriage contract, needs to be clarified a little further though. Traditionally, most scholars have interpreted this marriage contract, in Greek, known as the Pygamia, as a royal marriage alliance, whereby Seleucus handed over one of his daughters to Chandragupta, providing the entrancing idea that the successive Mauryan kings were of half Greek ethnicity. This has been considerably challenged in modern scholarship, however, because there is no real suggestion in the sources that an exchange of daughters actually occurred. It is now thought that the Pygamia refers instead to the laws regarding intermarriages between Greeks and Indians, especially involving the issues of the caste system of India, since, by definition, Greeks would be seen as casteless, and therefore incapable of being legally recognized as a candidate for marriage to Indian brides. Although he ultimately came away from the Indian campaign short of a few provinces, it ultimately resulted in two positive outcomes for Seleucus. The first being the establishment of a healthy diplomatic relationship with the Mauryan Empire, where they would both mutually benefit in keeping the peace between one another, and foster communication and trade to a level hitherto unknown between Greek and Indian worlds. The second, and most immediately apparent, was the huge propaganda value of the campaign. Seleucus would match Alexander's feats, even if he wasn't as successful in acquiring territory, and later used the iconography of the elephants, which became quintessentially Seleucid in style, to add to the luster and credibility as a worthy successor king to the former conqueror, so much so that Demetrius Polyarchetes would half-jokingly refer to Seleucus as the Elephant Lord. The eastern campaigns in general were a success, since Seleucus was able to reorganize the disjointed remains of Alexander's eastern provinces into a cohesive unit, which would not stir trouble for many decades afterwards, and his army had been both strengthened by the gift of the war elephants, and honed through experience. In addition, by 305, Seleucus officially declared himself king, Basileus. Given the amount of conquest and resources at his command, he felt more comfortable with following the trends set by his fellow Diodohoi, like the Antigonids, Ptolemy, and Cassander. It was a good thing, too, because word came back from the eastern Mediterranean, where a battle between kings was about to take place at the plains of Ipsus. As a brief refresher to the events that transpired in the west during Seleucus's campaigns in the east, the area of the eastern Mediterranean had been in a state of nearly perpetual warfare since the death of Eumenes in 316. Antigonus and his son Demetrius had attempted to conquer Macedon multiple times, which was in the hands of Cassander, a son of Antipater, who had usurped power, and had the surviving Argeid family members murdered. By the 300s, almost all of the successors had given up the charade that they were anything but independent warlords, and everyone would declare themselves king, claiming the territories they ruled over as dynastic property, rather than some sort of politically defined state. The Antigonids had forced their opponents into an alliance in order to stifle their power, and when the father and son were out fighting Seleucus in Babylon, the other kings had picked away at their territories. Upon the conclusion of the Babylonian War, Antigonus and Demetrius returned to fend off the other encroaching Diodohoi. The conflicts eventually culminated in the year 301, when the anti-Antigonid coalition recalled Seleucus back from Asia, to help assist against the father and son's massive expeditionary force of approximately 80,000 men, poised on reclaiming Macedon and rebuilding Alexander's empire. Seleucus and his troops arrived on Mos, along with his son Antiochus I, and with about 400 war elephants, the other 100 either not showing up or having been lost thanks to attrition. These elephants would prove to be a decisive factor in one of the largest battles in antiquity, when the 80,000 Antigonid forces squared off against the opposing coalition's roughly 75,000 on the plains of Anatolia in modern Turkey. Both Seleucus and Antiochus proved to be talented enough to handle it. The hot-headed Demetrius, emulating the style of Alexander, had attempted to win the battle with a decisive blow via a flanking cavalry charge, but had been tricked by Antiochus, who was leading the Seleucid cavalry wing into a feigned retreat, and dragged Demetrius off the battlefield in eager pursuit. When Demetrius learned of his mistake, he tried to return back to the battlefield to save his father, but Seleucus deployed a body of elephants to screen the cavalry. In the meanwhile, the other Seleucid elephants crushed the Antigonid elephant force, and the 80-year-old Antigonus was killed in action, and the remaining Antigonid force was scattered across Anatolia. With Antigonus dead, and Demetrius escaped to one of his strongholds in Greece, this left much of the Antigona territory to be carved up among the victors. Ironically, much like the Treaty of Versailles after the ending of the First World War, the actions of the victors helped sow the seeds for future conflicts. Despite Seleucus' important contribution to the victory at Ipsus, his interests were frustrated by the actions of the other kings. Lysimachus, the commander ruling in Thrace and the Bosporus, claimed the lion's share of Asia Minor based on the fact that he provided the most troops at the battle, and Seleucus could do little about it. Instead, Ptolemy, who did not even show up to the battlefield, was the focus of Seleucus' ire, for Ptolemy had captured the southern part of the province known as Coalesia during the fighting. This province, roughly analogous to modern-day Syria, but also the regions of Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon, is a mountainous territory that served as a major corridor for any invader of Egypt. Both Cambyses II of Persia and Alexander the Great took this route, and it was in Ptolemy's best interest to secure it, lest any of the other kings would lay their eyes on Egyptian wealth and become envious of it. However, the problem was that Coalesia technically belonged to Seleucus, as per the division of the Antigonid spoils, and with Ptolemy camped on the southern part of the province known as Palestine, this left Seleucus with the poor scrap to the north. For the moment, Seleucus would only have to satisfy himself with a very public decree, for although Ptolemy was a cowardly, backstabbing, and greedy little man, Seleucus does not wage war against friends. No conflict over this region would occur for almost thirty years, but this ancestral dispute over Seleucus and Ptolemy's claims to Syria would result in no less than six Syrian wars between the descendants in a period of a hundred years. Consistent with the politics of the Hellenistic world, all enemies can make new friends, as Demetrius Polyarchides, still alive and itching for imperial domination, approached Seleucus in 298 with the proposal of an alliance, whereby he would give his daughter Stratonike to Seleucus in marriage, in order to act as an arbiter and mend the relations between Ptolemy and Demetrius. It's rather confusing, I know, so I will spare you the details, but also consistent with Hellenistic politics, new friends can be made into old enemies, as the alliance quickly fell apart when Seleucus demanded Cilicia and Tyre as part of a wedding dowry, which Demetrius sharply rejected, claiming that he would not pay to be Seleucus' son-in-law. The rest of the 290s was marked by internal reworking of the administration of the Seleucid kingdom, making sure that the new territories were consolidated, especially in Syria, when many Macedonian colonists were settled, in order to solidify Seleucus' claims over the remaining bits left over, or perhaps more pragmatically to provide soldiers, lest Ptolemy decide to ever expand northwards. City founding, much like Alexander and the other Diadohoi, was nothing unfamiliar to Seleucus, who himself engaged in a number of city development projects over the course of his reign. The first major city he practiced with was Saluki-on-the-Tigris, located approximately 70 km from Babylon on the western flank of the Tigris river, situated in an excellent location for both a fresh supply of water, which is worth its weight in gold in the drier regions of Mesopotamia. It was under construction for some time, started in roughly 3082 or 307, and its scale was certainly impressive. Historian John D. Granger argues that the most interesting point about the city was how it was designed and built in such a way, so that Seleucus' stamp upon the region was most felt. Competing against a famed city like Babylon was difficult, and if Seleucus just built on top of it, then people would just continue to call it Babylon, and not give his actions the same sense of dynasty-founding weight that it otherwise would, hence why he named it after himself. In fact, the greatest of his cities were all given dynastic titles. Apamea, after his Sogdian wife, Seleucia in the west, Laodicea, his mother, and lastly Antioch, named after his son Antiochus. These four cities in particular were part of a major building program in northern Syria begun under Seleucus, and were arranged in a quadrilateral shape. The purpose was to, pardon the expression, Seleucidize the region, which had a large number of former Antigonid supporters, and was in close proximity to Ptolemy, and would also serve as a fertile soil to place many Macedonian colonists in order to have a sufficient number of loyal Phalangite troops to form the Macedonian phalanx that remained the bedrock of all Hellenistic warfare. These four cities were essentially designed to act as a single unit, with Seleucia initially being the most prominent, thanks to its status as a port city. But in time, it would be Antioch that would become the most prestigious, becoming one of the great cities of the Roman world, and well into the Crusader period in the Middle Ages. Out of purpose, or as a side effect, Syria would transform into the core of the Seleucid Empire, and to outsiders like the Romans, the Seleucids would be synonymous with Syrian kings. In addition to provincial maintenance, the Seleucids also managed to do some in-house maintenance with the royal dynasty. We have not talked much about Antiochus thus far in the episode, though we will go way more in-depth in the next one. But in 292, he was crowned joint king with his father to assist in the management of the realm. In a rather complicated maneuver, Antiochus was given his mother-in-law, Thradonike, as his wife. Yeah, pretty weird, but again, we will go into more depth in the next episode about this whole scenario. Antiochus was then sent out east to manage the territories taken in Seleucus' Asian campaign. While Seleucus would handle affairs in the west. In the west, affairs were quickly taking a turn for the worse. The squabbling children of Cassander I in Macedon had quickly plunged the state into a civil war, allowing Demetrius to finally take over as king in the mid-290s. He would build up an enormous invasion force bent on recapturing Anatolia and the Levant before proceeding to Asia. Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus had quickly allied once again to repel the invader. But it would also be thanks to Demetrius' own arrogance that the Macedonians would tire of him. And with the combined invasion of Lysimachus and King Pyrrhus of Epirus in 289, Demetrius was kicked out. He still attempted to invade Anatolia and managed to make his way into Seleucid Cappadocia. Seleucus' response was to surround the ex-Macedonian king's army in a night attack. And in a brilliant move of propaganda, marched towards the Antigonid forces with little else but a wicker shield and no helmet, and convinced them all to join his side with his open display of trust. With the notion of better prospects, such as not dying, the Antigonid army collapsed and moved en masse into the Seleucid camp. Demetrius had attempted suicide, but was quickly caught, and was convinced to surrender himself into the Seleucid household, where he would remain in a velvet prison as a court guest before dying of alcoholism-related causes just a few years later in 283. With the Antigonid threat firmly eliminated, and with Ptolemy having died in his bed in 283, Seleucus would turn to quarrel with the other last surviving Diodorus, Lysimachus, who had become increasingly obvious in his own imperial ambitions. Lysimachus was suffering from some internal issues, such as warring with Pyrrhus over control of Macedon, and his condemnation and execution of his main heir, Agathocles, thanks to the machinations of the renegade Ptolemy Kerenos, who was the half-brother of the new Egyptian ruler Ptolemy II Philadelphos. Kerenos, an exile to the court, and his half-sister Arsinoe, who was married to Lysimachus, convinced the king to murder his supposedly treasonous son, to ensure that Arsinoe's children would succeed to the throne. A rather complicated series of events occurred that resulted in Lysimachus' unpopularity, and a number of refugees heading to Seleucus' court, including Ptolemy Kerenos himself. Seleucus decided to take advantage of the situation, launching an invasion of Asia Minor, and captured many areas along the southern coast. In February of 281, the armies of Lysimachus and Seleucus would engage in their final confrontation at Corupedium, both of them still in their 70s, and still commanding from horseback. Lysimachus was killed in action, and the day belonged to the Seleucus, and shockingly, it was Seleucus that was the last king to have been serving with Alexander to survive. In effect, the way to Macedon was now free. After 40 years, Alexander's great empire, stretching from Macedon to India, was now closer than ever to being re-established. Seleucus just needed enough time to prepare his forces to finally take Macedon and secure his newly conquered regions in Asia Minor, founding ten different cities along the coast. One day, in late August of that year, Ptolemy Kerenos had invited the king on horseback tour near a local site, and when the king's back was turned, Ptolemy plunged a dagger into Seleucus' back and fled towards Macedon to claim the kingship for himself. It was there that Seleucus, roughly 75 years of age and ruler for over 25 years, would die, ending a generation that had fought with Alexander across the New World. The career of Seleucus, though ended at knifepoint in much a similar fashion as had been done to Perticus by him some 40 years later, was truly remarkable. Thanks to his own skill in matters of both military and political savvy, he managed to move from a relatively low-ranking position in the initial struggle for Alexander's empire to the king of almost all of it, besting some of the greatest military minds of the era, Antigonus Monophthalmos, Demetrius Polyarchides, Lysimachus, and went toe-to-toe with Chandragupta Maurya. Unlike many of the later Seleucid kings, authors of both Greek and Roman origin considered Seleucus a king worthy of being emulated in both deed and character. The author Arian refers to Seleucus as, As a ruler, Seleucus was seen favorably by his subjects, both native and Greco-Macedonian, as demonstrated by the loyalty of his Babylonian supporters during the Babylonian war against the Antigonids and his ability to win over many supporters from opposing sides. He was able to effectively consolidate the most diverse territories of Alexander's empire. But with him now gone, would his own empire crumble under the strain, or will Antiochus I be able to deal with the consequences of being abroad and an approaching Celtic horde just upon the horizon? And with that, I leave you listeners to until the next episode. In the meantime, if you have liked what you've just listened to, please consider subscribing to me on the platform of your choice, iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, and more. If you could take a moment of your time, please leave me a review and comment to help the show grow. Or you can contact me directly at a number of options, including the show's Facebook page, Twitter account, or you can email me at hellenisticagepodcast at gmail dot com. And with these links, I will provide them in the show notes. The show notes will also link you to my website, where I have a couple of helpful tools to aid in the episode materials, such as the family tree and map I talked about earlier. As a final remark, thank you all so much for listening and your support. I will see you next time on the next episode of the Hellenistic Age podcast.