In 324 BCE, a year before his death, Alexander organized a mass wedding at Susa in present-day southwestern Iran, where he ordered his generals to marry Iranian wives. Alexander himself married Barsine, Darius’s eldest daughter, and Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Ochus (Artaxerxes III, who ruled from 359 to 338 BCE), thus linking himself with both branches of the Persian Achaemenid royal family (Arrian: 7.4). The Macedonian general Seleucus was ordered to marry Apame, the daughter of Spitaman. The “marriage ceremonies were in the Persian fashion: chairs were set for the bridegrooms in order of precedence, and when healths had been drunk the brides entered and sat down by their bridegrooms, who took them by the hand and kissed them” (Arrian: 7.5). After the end of the ceremony, “all the men took their wives home, and for every one of them Alexander provided a dowry” (Arrian: 7.5). Alexander hoped that these marriages would create unity between the Macedonians and the Iranians. The Seleucid dynasty was born from the marriage between the Iranian Sogdian Apame and the Macedonian Seleucus, who emerged as the founder of the Seleucid state after 312 BCE. Seleucus I and Apame had a son, Antiochus, who would succeed his father as Antiochus I Soter, the second monarch of the Seleucid dynasty.
See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius III; Peoples: Alexander of Macedon (the Great); Bessus; Spitaman
Further Reading
Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.
Bickerman, E. “The Seleucid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 3–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Quintus Curtius Rufus. The History of Alexander. London: Penguin, 1984.
Demetrius I Soter
A king of the Seleucid Empire, which ruled Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and parts of Iran and Asia Minor. Demetrius I Soter ruled from 162 to 150 BCE. He lived for a time as a hostage in Rome before escaping to Syria in 162 BCE and seizing the throne. Demetrius was the son of Seleucus IV, the nephew of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and a cousin of the nine-year-old Antiochus V. In 162 BCE, Demetrius escaped from Rome and was welcomed in Syria as the legitimate king. The reigning monarch, Antiochus V, and his regent, Lysias, were detained and subsequently executed.
Silver tetradrachm of the Seleucid monarch Demetrius I Soter. The son of Seleucus IV Philopator, Demetrius was sent to Rome by his father as a hostage. He escaped from Rome after the death of his father and seized Syria in 162 BCE. Though he defeated the rebellious general Timarchus, and crushed a Jewish rebellion in Palestine in 160, he was himself defeated and killed by the pretender Alexander Balas, who enjoyed the support of Rome and the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. (Yale Gallery of Art)
When the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great was defeated by the Romans in the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BCE, he renounced all his claims to any territorial possessions west and north of the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). He also agreed to pay a heavy war indemnity; surrender his fleet and elephants; and send his third son, the future Antiochus IV, as a hostage to Rome. In 175 BCE the successor to Antiochus III, Seleucus IV, sent his own son Demetrius to Rome as the new Seleucid hostage and brought his brother Antiochus home. When Antiochus IV died in 164 BCE, he was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Antiochus V, who was aided by a regent, a general by the name of Lysias. Demetrius, the older son of Seleucus IV, viewed by many as the legitimate heir to the Seleucid throne, had remained in Rome as a hostage. In 162 BCE, Demetrius escaped from Rome and was welcomed in Syria as the legitimate king. Antiochus V and Lysias were ousted and executed. Demetrius also defeated the unpopular governor of Babylonia, Timarchus, who had rebelled against the throne. For this, Demetrius received the title “Soter” (Protector) from the Babylonians (Appian: 11.8.47). After these victories, Demetrius was recognized by the Roman Senate as the legitimate king. Demetrius is best known for his brutal suppression of a Jewish uprising in 160 BCE. He was eventually challenged and killed on the battlefield by the pretender Alexander Balas, who enjoyed the support of Rome, Egypt, and Pergamum. Humiliated by the Romans and torn internally by the rivalry between various contenders to the throne, the Seleucid state began to disintegrate, with the faraway eastern provinces of the empire, namely Parthia in present-day northeastern Iran and Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan, slowly detaching themselves from Antioch, the seat of the Seleucid monarchy.
See also: K&Q, Seleucid: Alexander Balas; Demetrius II Nicator; Seleucus IV Philopator; Peoples: Seleucids
Further Reading
Appian. Appian’s Roman History. Translated by Horace White. London and New York: William Heinemann, 1912.
Bickerman, E. “The Seleucid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 3–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.
Justin. The History of the World. Translated by G. Turnbull. London, 1746.
Demetrius II Nicator
A king of the Seleucid monarchy, which ruled Syria, Mesopotamia, and parts of Iran. Demetrius II Nicator ruled from 145 to 139 BCE and again from 129 to 125 BCE. A son of the Seleucid monarch Demetrius I Soter, Demetrius fled to the island of Crete after his father was defeated and killed by Alexander Balas in 150 BCE. In 147 BCE, with support from the king of Egypt, Ptolemy VI, Demetrius organized an army of Cretan mercenaries and attacked Syria to regain his father’s lost throne. In 145 BCE, Demetrius defeated the usurper Alexander Balas and ascended the throne as the king of Syria. The reign of Demetrius II corresponded with the rapid expansion of the Parthian domains under the dynamic leadership of the Arsacid (Parthian) king Mithridates I (r. 171–139/138 BCE). Mithridates defeated the Greco-Bactrian kingdom based in Bactria (present-day northern Afghanistan) and seized “the satrapy of Turiva and that of Aspionus” (Strabo: 11.11.2). Mithridates I then pushed westward and conquered Media sometime in 148 or 147 BCE. The Parthian armies then moved into Mesopotamia and captured Seleucia-on-Tigris in Babylonia in 141 BCE. Before he could complete his conquest of Mesopotamia, however, Mithridates I was forced to return to Central Asia to pacify the invading Scythian nomads, who had breached the northeastern frontiers of his kingdom. In the absence of their king, Arsacid commanders continued their military operations in southern Mesopotamia. Between 139 and 132 BCE, they captured the semi-independent state of Elymais in present-day southwestern Iran.
The victories of Mithridates I forced Demetrius II to respond by invading southern Mesopotamia. This campaign proved to be disastrous. Demetrius was defeated and captured by Arsacid forces in 139 BCE. The humiliated Seleucid king was first paraded in public and then transported to Hyrcania (modern-day Gorgan) in northern Iran, where he was received with kindness by Mithridates I. Mithridates arranged a marriage between his daughter Rhodogune and Demetrius, but the Seleucid monarch was determined to return to Syria. He therefore tried twice to escape Iran and reach Syria, but on both occasions he was captured. Meanwhile back in Syria, Cleopatra Thea, the wife and queen of Demetrius II, had ascended the throne as regent. A usurper named Tryphon, however, emerged as a pretender to the throne. To save the Seleucid state, the younger brother of Demetrius II, Antiochus, returned to Syria in 139 BCE. He ascended the throne as Antiochus VII and married his brother’s wife, Cleopatra Thea. In 138 BCE Antiochus defeated Tryphon before moving against Jerusalem, which he captured in 135/134 BCE. With Palestine under his rule, Antiochus shifted his focus to the east. He was determined to restore Seleucid rule in Iran. In 130 BCE, Antiochus attacked and defeated Parthian armies, recapturing Mesopotamia and parts of Media. In response, the Arsacid monarch Phraates II sent a delegation to negotiate a peace agreement. Antiochus VII responded that he would be willing to cease hostilities and conclude a treaty if the Ars
acid monarch would release his brother Demetrius II from captivity, withdraw from the provinces the Parthians had seized, and pay tribute to the Seleucid king as his overlord. Phraates rejected these demands and instead released Demetrius II, allowing him to return to Syria. Phraates probably hoped that the return of Demetrius would result in discord and civil war between the two brothers. With winter approaching, Antiochus divided his large army and scattered its various units across several cities in western Iran. The arrogant and oppressive behavior of these army units, who demanded food and supplies from the local population, caused the populace in a number of urban centers to revolt against Antiochus VII (Justin: XXXVIII.X). Phraates II used this golden opportunity to march against Antiochus, defeating and killing the Seleucid monarch on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Demetrius II returned to Syria and regained both his queen and his throne, but he never managed to reestablish his control east of the Euphrates River. The defeat suffered by Antiochus VII at the hands of the Arsacid monarch Phraates II put an end to Seleucid rule in Iran. Merely four years after he had returned to Syria, Demetrius II was assassinated.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Mithridates I; K&Q, Seleucid: Antiochus VII Sidetes; Peoples: Arsacid Parthian Empire; Arsacids; Seleucids
Further Reading
Appian. Appian’s Roman History. Translated by Horace White. London and New York: William Heinemann, 1912.
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Cassius Dio. Dio’s Roman History. Translated by Earnest Cary. London: William Heinemann, 1928.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh, and Sarah Stewart, eds. The Age of the Parthians. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.
Justin. The History of the World. Translated by G. Turnbull. London, 1742.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.
Seleucus I Nicator
A Macedonian officer in the army of Alexander the Great and the founder of the Seleucid dynasty. Seleucus I Nicator was the son of Antiochus, a commander in the army of Phillip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander. Seleucus’s mother was Laodice (Justin: XV:IV). Seleucus participated in Alexander’s campaigns against the last Persian Achaemenid monarch, Darius III, and led the Macedonian army in the battle of the Hydaspes against the Indian prince Porus in 326 BCE. In 324 BCE, a year before his death, Alexander organized a mass wedding party at Susa in present-day southwestern Iran and ordered his generals to marry Iranian wives. He hoped that these marriages would create unity between the Macedonians and Iranians. Seleucus was ordered to marry Apame (Apama), a daughter of the Sogdian dignitary Spitaman (Spitamenes). Spitaman had served as the governor of Sogdiana, the region lying between the Oxus River (Amu Darya) and the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya). The Seleucid dynasty “sprang from this Macedonian-Iranian union” (Bickerman: 4). After Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his generals fought over control of the vast and short-lived empire he had left behind. Initially Seleucus supported Perdiccas, who served as the regent to Alexander. When Perdiccas invaded Egypt, which was ruled by another of Alexander’s generals, Ptolemy, Seleucus accompanied him. In Egypt, Seleucus joined a group of officers who rebelled against Perdiccas and assassinated the Macedonian commander. In 321, Seleucus became the governor of Babylon. Initially he was closely allied with Antigonus, the powerful ruler of Asia Minor. In 316, however, Seleucus broke his alliance with Antigonus and fled to Egypt, where he sought refuge with Ptolemy. From 316 to 312 BCE, Seleucus served under Ptolemy. Seleucus initiated the process of organizing a coalition of four kings who opposed Antigonus, the ruler of Asia Minor, who dreamed of imposing his rule over Alexander’s empire. This coalition included Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt; Lysimachus, the ruler of Thrace; and Cassander, the master of Macedonia and Greece (Diodorus Siculus: XXI.1. 2–4b). In 312 BCE Ptolemy and Seleucus defeated Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, in the Battle of Gaza in southern Syria. A short time later with support from Ptolemy, Seleucus marched to Babylon and captured it in 312 BCE. This marked the beginning of the Seleucid era.
A commander in the armies of Alexander the Great, Seleucus I Nicator founded the Seleucid kingdom, centered in Syria and Iran in 312 BCE. (Jupiterimages)
In response to Seleucus’s conquest of Babylon, Antigonus dispatched two armies, the first under the command of his general, Nicanor, and the other under the leadership of his son, Demetrius, to force Seleucus out of Babylon, but they both failed. In 305 BCE, Seleucus assumed the title of king and established his capital at Seleucia-on-Tigris in present-day southern Iraq. He also used Babylon as a territorial base to extend his rule over Iran. He seized Media and Susiana and soon extended his control as far east as Bactria in northern Afghanistan. Media Atropatene (present-day Azerbaijan) in present-day northwestern Iran and Chorasmia in Central Asia remained independent under their own kings. Seleucus also failed to capture the Indus River basin, which was ceded to Chandragupta, the founder of the powerful Maurya dynasty based in northern India. After the end of his campaign in the east, Seleucus returned west in 303 BCE. He joined the coalition of Ptolemy of Egypt, Lysimachus of Thrace, and Cassander of Macedonia, which was formed to contain and defeat the powerful and ambitious Antigonus. In 302 Seleucus arrived in Asia Minor, and in 301 BCE Seleucus and Lysimachus marched against Antigonus and defeated him at Ipsus in Phrygia in west-central Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) in the Battle of the Kings. Antigonus was killed, and his son Demetrius fled (Justin: XV:IV). The victors then divided the kingdom of Antigonus. Seleucus received Syria, although Ptolemy of Egypt had already occupied the southern part of the country, known as Coele Syria. This move caused a conflict between the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria that continued for over a century. In 300 BCE, Seleucus transferred the Seleucid capital from Seleucia-on-Tigris to a new capital, Antioch, in northern Syria (present-day southern Turkey), which he built on the shores of the Orontes River. In 294 Antiochus, the son of Seleucus and Apame, fell in love with his stepmother, Stratonice. Seleucus allowed his son to marry his stepmother. He also appointed Antiochus as the ruler of the empire’s eastern provinces and bestowed upon him the title of co-regent. Seleucus became increasingly entangled in the internal conflicts that were tearing asunder the ruling house of Lysimachus, the ruler of Thrace, who had ordered the execution of his son, Agathocles. In the winter of 281 BCE, Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus at Corupedium in western Asia Minor. As he crossed into Europe to consolidate his rule over Macedonia, he was murdered by the son of Ptolemy of Egypt, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who had been passed over by his father as successor to the Egyptian throne. Seleucus I was succeeded by his son and co-regent, Antiochus.
See also: K&Q, Seleucid: Antiochus I Soter; Apame/Apama; Peoples: Alexander of Macedon (the Great); Seleucids
Further Reading
Appian. Appian’s Roman History. Translated by Horace White. London and New York: William Heinemann, 1912.
Bickerman, E. “The Seleucid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 3–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.
Justin. The History of the World. Translated by G. Turnbull. London, 1746.
Sherwin-White, Susan M., and Amélie Kuhrt. From Samarkand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Seleucus II Callinicus
The fourth king of
the Seleucid dynasty, which ruled vast territories in Iran, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. Seleucus II Callinicus ruled from 246 to 225 BCE. He was the son of Antiochus II Theos (261–246 BCE) and his first queen, Laodice. In 253 BCE, Antiochus II separated from Laodice and married Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy II of Egypt. In 246, Antiochus II separated from his second queen and decided to return to his first wife. Laodice, however, poisoned Antiochus II and proclaimed her eldest son, Seleucus, as the new king. Another son of Antiochus II, Antiochus Hierax, was sent to Asia Minor to rule as the governor for his brother. As Seleucus II ascended the throne, Antiochus’s two queens, Laodice and Berenice, began a civil war. This conflict came to an end when the agents of Laodice killed Berenice. When the news of the murder of Berenice arrived in Egypt, her brother, King Ptolemy III, raised an army and invaded Seleucid territory, while his navy landed on the coasts of Asia Minor. With Ptolemy III on the offensive, Seleucus II played defensive and bid for his turn in Asia Minor. When the king of Egypt returned home, Seleucus II recaptured northern Syria and the western provinces of Iran. In 236/235 BCE, however, Seleucus II was challenged by his brother Antiochus Hierax, who was now supported by their mother, Laodice. The two brothers fought in the Battle of Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) around 235 BCE, where Seleucus was defeated.
Consequently, the Seleucid domains were divided between Antiochus Hierax, who emerged as the ruler of Asia Minor north and west of the Taurus mountain range, and Seleucus II, who held on to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran. The Seleucid interdynastic rivalries and wars allowed the provinces of the Seleucid state in eastern Iran to break away and proclaim their independence. Thus, sometime between 250 and 239 BCE the governors of Parthia and Bactria revolted and proclaimed their independence.
In 238 BCE, a Scythian leader named Arsaces led his people, the Parni or Aparni, in the invasion and conquest of Parthia. The self-proclaimed independent ruler of Parthia, Andragoras, was killed, and his small kingdom emerged as the new home and operational base for Arsaces. With the conquest of Parthia, the dynasty of Arsaces called the Arsacids came to be known as Parthians, or as those who hail from Parthia, a name the Greek and Roman authors used when referring to them and their empire. A short time after the conquest of Parthia, Arsaces marched west and seized Hyrcania (Justin: XLI.4). The acquisition of Parthia and Hyrcania allowed Arsaces to raise a large army to defend himself against a possible attack from the Seleucids to the west and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom to the east. After Theodotus I, the founder of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, died, Arsaces I made peace and entered into an alliance with his son, Theodotus II (Justin: XLI.4). When Seleucus II invaded eastern Iran to punish the Parthians, Arsaces I scored a victory against the Seleucid monarch, a momentous milestone that the Parthians would observe “with great solemnity as the commencement of their liberty” (Justin: XLI.4). When Seleucus II was forced to return west to quell disturbances, Arsaces I used the respite as an opportunity to lay the foundation of the Parthian government, “levy soldiers, fortify castles, and secure the fidelity of his cities” (Justin: XLI.5.1). He built a city called “Dara,” which was designed and built in such a way that it did not need a “garrison to defend it” (Justin: XLI.5.1–2). In 226 BCE, Seleucus II died suddenly after falling from his horse. He was succeeded by his son Seleucus III.
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