Seleucid Empire: A Visual History

The Seleucid Empire was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's generals, who took Babylon in 312 BC and by 281 controlled most of Alexander's Asian conquests. It founded Greek cities across the Near East, notably Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris, but lost the far east to the Parthians and Bactrian Greeks, Anatolia to Rome after Magnesia in 190 BC, and Judea to the Maccabees. Reduced to a Syrian rump torn by civil war, it was annexed by Pompey in 63 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Seleucid Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Seleucid territory

Timeline of the Seleucid Empire

1. 312 BC
   Seleucus retakes BabylonThe Seleucid era begins.
2. 305 BC
   Peace with ChandraguptaIndia ceded for elephants.
3. 301 BC
   IpsusAntigonus killed; Syria gained.
4. 281 BC
   Corupedium; Seleucus assassinated
5. 245 BC
   Parthia and Bactria break away
6. 190 BC
   MagnesiaRome defeats Antiochus III.
7. 167 BC
   Maccabean revolt
8. 141 BC
   Parthians take Babylonia
9. 63 BC
   Pompey annexes Syria

Seleucus

Seleucus fled Babylon in 316, returned in 312 with a few hundred men and rebuilt his position, then took the eastern satrapies, ceded the Indus lands to Chandragupta Maurya for 500 war elephants, and used them to help win Ipsus in 301. After defeating Lysimachus at Corupedium in 281 he held almost all of Asia and was about to take Macedon when he was assassinated.

Antiochus III

The empire lost Bactria and Parthia in the 240s and fought Ptolemaic Egypt in six Syrian Wars. Antiochus III (223-187) restored it in a great eastern expedition to India, took Coele-Syria from Egypt at Panium in 200, and then invaded Greece, where Rome smashed him at Thermopylae and Magnesia (190). The Treaty of Apamea stripped him of Anatolia and imposed a huge indemnity.

Decline

Antiochus IV was humiliated by a Roman envoy who drew a circle round him in the sand and ordered him out of Egypt in 168; his attempt to Hellenise Jerusalem provoked the Maccabean revolt. The Parthians took Media and Babylonia by 141. Two branches of the family fought for the shrinking kingdom for 60 years until Pompey abolished it and made Syria a Roman province in 63 BC.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Macedonian Empire (359 BC to 323 BC)
• Ptolemaic Kingdom (305 BC to 30 BC)
• Parthian Empire (247 BC to 224)
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (256 BC to 125 BC)
• Maurya Empire (322 BC to 185 BC)
• Kingdom of Armenia (ancient) (331 BC to 428)
• Roman Empire (27 BC to 476)

Wars of the same era and region

• Wars of Alexander the Great (335 BC to 323 BC)
• Roman-Greek wars (214 BC to 148 BC)
• Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC)
• First Punic War (264 BC to 241 BC)
• Social War (91-87 BC) (91 BC to 87 BC)
• Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BC)

8 surprising things about the Seleucid Empire

1. The Seleucid era, counting from 312 BC, was the first continuous numbered year system in the world and stayed in use for centuries.
2. Seleucus traded the Indus valley for 500 elephants, which decided the Battle of Ipsus.
3. Antioch was one of the four largest cities of the ancient Mediterranean, alongside Rome, Alexandria and Carthage.
4. The 'line in the sand' story: a Roman envoy drew a circle round Antiochus IV and told him to answer before stepping out of it. He backed down.
5. Antiochus IV nicknamed himself Epiphanes ('God Manifest'); contemporaries called him Epimanes ('the Mad').
6. The Jewish festival of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple after victory over the Seleucids in 164 BC.
7. The Seleucid army fielded scythed chariots and elephants until the very end.
8. In 250 years the dynasty had over 20 kings, most of them called Seleucus or Antiochus.

Sources

• Seleucid empire Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Seleucid Empire Wikipedia
• Seleucid Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Paul Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings (2014) Harvard University Press

Back to all empires and wars