The Seleucid Empire (312–64 BCE) was the largest of the three Macedonian empires that emerged after the death of Alexander the Great. It was created by SELEUKOS I NIKATOR (“the Victorious”), from his satrapy of Babylonia, incorporating and transforming the infrastructure of the preceding Achaemenid Empire. The Seleucid kingdom was an archetypal imperial state: a huge, composite entity characterized by wide ethnic, cultural, religious, and political diversity. The empire in its heyday stretched from the Pamir Mountains to the Aegean Sea, reaching its greatest extent around 200 BCE under Antiochos III the Great. From ca. 150 BCE, the empire rapidly declined.Its core territories were taken over by the Romans and especially the PARTHIANS, until in 64 BCE the Seleucid Dynasty disappeared from history virtually unnoticed.
The Seleucid state was in essence a military organization exacting tribute. Kingship was charismatic and intensely martial
(see KINGSHIP, HELLENISTIC). The monarchy’s heroic ethos required of the king to be a successful war leader able to defend the interests of his followers and the cities under his protection. Imperial ideology was universalistic, the self-presentation of the Seleucid monarch a continuation and elaboration of the age-old Near Eastern notion of a Great King.
The Seleucid state was in essence a military organization exacting tribute. Kingship was charismatic and intensely martial
(see KINGSHIP, HELLENISTIC). The monarchy’s heroic ethos required of the king to be a successful war leader able to defend the interests of his followers and the cities under his protection. Imperial ideology was universalistic, the self-presentation of the Seleucid monarch a continuation and elaboration of the age-old Near Eastern notion of a Great King.
(c) 2012 Rolf Strootman, Utrecht University, History and Art history, Faculty Member
Source: Academia.edu
Source: Academia.edu
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