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6 - Syria and the East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Domenico Musti
Edited by
F. W. Walbank ,
A. E. Astin ,
M. W. Frederiksen  and
R. M. Ogilvie
Domenico Musti
Affiliation:
University of Rome I (La Sapienza)
F. W. Walbank
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
A. E. Astin
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
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Summary

ORGANIZATION, THE MONARCHY, THE COURT

Of the various Hellenistic kingdoms which arose out of the dissolution of Alexander the Great's dominions, that which most resembled the empire conquered and for a time ruled over by the Macedonian king was the Seleucid kingdom. It was similar in size and structure, in racial and social composition, in its economic functioning and in its political ideology. This kingdom sprang from the struggles of the Diadochi and was consolidated in the battles fought by Seleucus I against Antigonus Monophthalmus, Demetrius Poliorcetes an Lysimachus. It was to last, formally, until its final subjection to Rome and the reduction of the small parts of it that still remained to the condition of a province, in the course of Pompey's reorganization of the East in 63 B.C. The conflict with Rome makes it convenient to divide the history of the kingdom (which began in 312 B.C. with the official initiation of the Seleucid era and thus lasted a little less than 250 years) into two clearly distinct periods. Following its defeat by Rome in 189 B.C. and the subsequent peace of Apamea in 188, the Seleucid kingdom finally lost its control of western Asia Minor (the part which lies to the west of the Taurus Mountains). It had ruled this region for nearly a century, with some interruptions and upheavals caused by the rebellion of Pergamum, the Galatian invasion, the civil wars and revolts led by Antiochus Hierax and Achaeus, and conflicts with other kings who tried to dispute its possession. The change in the size of the kingdom between the first and the second periods of Seleucid history also brought with it a change in its general political orientation.

Keywords

AlexanderiaHellenistic kingdomsGreek citiesMacedonian kingsSeleucid sovereignsIranian regionsSeleucid SyriaSeleucid administrative divisionsSeleucid kingdom
Type
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The Cambridge Ancient History , pp. 175 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1984

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