Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Sources for the period
- 2 The succession to Alexander
- 3 Monarchies and monarchic Ideas
- 4 The formation of the Hellenistic kingdoms
- 5 Ptolemaic Egypt
- 6 Syria and the East
- 7 Macedonia and Greece
- 8 Cultural, social and economic features of the Hellenistic world
- 9 Hellenistic science: its application in peace and war
- 10 Agathocles
- 11 The Syrian-Egyptian Wars and the new lingdoms of Asia Minor
- 12 Macedonia and the Greek leagues
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
- Map 3. Egypt.
- Map 4. Hellenistic Asia.
- Map 5. The Greek mainland and the Aegean.
- References
6 - Syria and the East
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Sources for the period
- 2 The succession to Alexander
- 3 Monarchies and monarchic Ideas
- 4 The formation of the Hellenistic kingdoms
- 5 Ptolemaic Egypt
- 6 Syria and the East
- 7 Macedonia and Greece
- 8 Cultural, social and economic features of the Hellenistic world
- 9 Hellenistic science: its application in peace and war
- 10 Agathocles
- 11 The Syrian-Egyptian Wars and the new lingdoms of Asia Minor
- 12 Macedonia and the Greek leagues
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
- Map 3. Egypt.
- Map 4. Hellenistic Asia.
- Map 5. The Greek mainland and the Aegean.
- References
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.
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- The Cambridge Ancient History , pp. 175 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984
References
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