When Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BC with no adult heir, his generals carved up his empire. Seleucus, commander of the elite companion cavalry, received Babylonia, was driven out by the more powerful Antigonus, fled to Ptolemy in Egypt, and fought his way back in 311 BC. Babylon’s grain surpluses and trade routes paid for his armies. He hid his outnumbered men in the Tigris marshes to defeat Nicanor in a night attack, ceded eastern lands to Chandragupta for a marriage alliance and 500 war elephants, and used those elephants to beat Antigonus at Ipsus in 301 BC. He founded Antioch as his capital and was assassinated in 281 BC as he tried to claim Macedonia.
His successors ran a Hellenizing state of Greek colonist cities that taxed local farmers hard and raided temple treasuries for cash. Antiochus III, called the Great, marched east to bring breakaway Bactria and Parthia back as vassals, then lost to Roman legions at Magnesia in 190 BC and died raiding a temple to pay Rome’s indemnity. His son Antiochus IV conquered Egypt only to be ringed in the sand by a Roman envoy and sent home. His plunder of the Second Temple and ban on Judean religious practice sparked the Maccabean revolt, Parthia took Babylon, and Pompey annexed the Syrian remnant in 63 BC.
- Greek colonists received prime farmland in exchange for military service in the phalanx.
- The Seleucid phalanx carried pikes up to 18 feet long, which proved useless once Roman maniples slipped through gaps on uneven ground.
- At Ipsus, Seleucus used his elephants to block Antigonus’s cavalry from returning to the main battle line.
- Antiochus III renewed the old elephant treaty with India during his ten-year eastern campaign.
- Antiochus VII was ambushed and killed by the Parthians in his winter quarters while trying to retake Babylon.
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