SELEUCUS I NICATOR

SELEUCUS I NICATOR: translation

(reigned 305–281 B.C.)

Macedonian general who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaign to India. After Alexander’s death in 321, Seleucus assumed the office of regent after the murder of Perdiccas. When the empire was partitioned, he became satrap of Babylonia. He was dislodged by Antigonus, fled to Egypt to Ptolemy I, and eventually returned to Babylonafter 315. He then campaigned to gain control over the Iranian provinces. His coronation as king of Babylonia was hotly contested by Antigonus, who continued to raid and devastate the country but was finally defeated in 301 at Ipsus in Syria.

Seleucus now controlled the former satrapy of Syria and half of Anatolia and thus commanded an empire almost the size of Alexander’s (with the exception of Egypt). He founded several new cities, including the new capital Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, initiated a new dating system and the era of the Seleucids, made Greek the official language, and promoted Hellenistic culture in Mesopotamia.