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Seleucid Empire

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Syria

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A Greek-ruled Hellenistic state founded by Seleucus I from Alexander's conquests. At its height it stretched from Anatolia to Afghanistan. It lost the east to Parthia and Bactria, Anatolia to Rome, and ended when Pompey made Syria a Roman province.

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Key events

  1. Seleucus I takes Babylon, the starting point of the Seleucid eraDisputed

    Sources count the Seleucid era from 312 or 311 BCE.

  2. Seleucus I and his allies defeat Antigonus I at Ipsus; Seleucus's war elephants block the enemy cavalry
  3. Seleucus I founds Antioch on the Orontes, which becomes the Seleucid capital
  4. – Parthia and Bactria break away from Seleucid ruleDisputed

    Parthia's revolt is dated about 247 BCE. Historians date Diodotus's secession of Bactria to about 255 BCE (high chronology) or about 246 BCE (low chronology), and the question is not settled.

  5. – Rome defeats Antiochus III at Magnesia; the Treaty of Apamea strips the Seleucids of Anatolia west of the Taurus
  6. – The Maccabees rise against Antiochus IV in Judea, take control of the Temple in Jerusalem and rededicate it

    The main accounts are 1 and 2 Maccabees and Josephus, which favour the Maccabees. The wider revolt ran from 167 to 160 BCE.

  7. Mithridates I of Parthia takes Babylonia from the Seleucids
  8. Pompey removes Antiochus XIII and makes Syria a Roman province, ending Seleucid ruleDisputed

    Sources date the end to 64 or 63 BCE.