Seleucidae

Seleucidae, the dynasty of kings to whom fell that portion of Alexander the Great's Asiatic conquests which included Syria, a large portion of Asia Minor, and the whole of the eastern provinces (Persia, Bactria, &c.). The founder of the dynasty was SELEUCUS I., surnamed Nicator, who in the second partition of Alexander the Great's empire obtained Babylonia, to which, with the aid of Antigonus, he subsequently added Susiana; but a quarrel having arisen with that powerful chief, Seleucus took refuge in Egypt (316 B.C.). The course of events, however, allowed him to return to his satrapy in 312; his re-entry into Babylon marked the beginning of the era of the Seleucidae. Having recovered Susiana, he conquered Media, and extended his power to the Oxus and Indus. In 306 he assumed the regal title; and four years afterwards he joined the confederacy of Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander against Antigonus, and obtained the largest share in the conquered territories of that ruler, a great part of Asia Minor and the whole of Syria falling to him. Towards the close of his reign he gained by war the rest of Asia Minor, but was assassinated (280) by one of his own officers. Seleucus cherished the ambition of building up a second empire equal in extent to Alexander's, and he pursued with great zeal the plan of 'Hellenising' the East, by founding numerous Greek and Macedonian colonies in various parts of his dominions; he also built numerous cities, several of which—as Antioch in Syria and Seleucia on the Tigris—rose to be among the most populous and wealthy in the world. In the reign of his feeble grandson, ANTIOCHUS II. (260–246), Bactria was lost and the foundations were laid of the kingdom of Parthia. His son, SELEUCUS II. (246–226), surnamed Callinicus, was greatly beset by Ptolemy of Egypt, by his own brother, and by the Parthian prince, but managed to hold his own with some difficulty. The glories of Seleucus I. were revived in the second son of Seleucus II., ANTIOCHUS III. (q.v.), 'the Great,' who was the first of the Eastern 'great kings' of Iran to come into collision with the Romans. His second successor was his own able son, ANTIOCHUS IV. (q.v.), Epiphanes (I.; 'the Illustrious'), who conquered Coele-Syria and Palestine from the Egyptians, but withheld his hand from Egypt at the bidding of the Romans. He practised atrocious cruelties on the Jews, whose religion he endeavoured to root out in favour of the Greek religion; but the heroic resistance of the Maccabees (q.v.) completely foiled his project. He died in a state of raving madness, which was attributed by his subjects to his sacrilegious crimes, and so they in derision converted his surname into Epimanes ('the Madman').—The succeeding rulers were for the most part a set of feeble and incompetent sceptre-holders, none of whom was able to delay the gradual disintegration of the empire. Babylonia, the original centre of their power, was conquered by the Parthians in the reign of Demetrius II. (146–125). From that time the Seleucidae were restricted to Syria, until that region was taken from them by Ptolemy and converted into a Roman province (65 B.C.).