From Samarkhand to Sardis : a new approach to the Seleucid Empire
Susan M. Sherwin-White (Author), Amélie Kuhrt (Author)
The empire created by Alexander the Great's general Seleucus constituted the largest Hellenistic kingdom of the successor states; yet this is the first substantial treatment of Seleucid history to appear for fifty years. The authors approach this important and successful state from new perspectives, seeing it as part of the Middle Eastern world rather than solely in Greco-Roman terms, and arguing that the Seleucid state is best understood as heir to the great Achaemenid
Print Book, English, 1993
University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993
History
ix, 261 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9780520081833, 0520081838
26263528
1. Building the Seleucid Empire. From satrap to king. The scope of the empire by c. 300. Consolidation and colonisation. Seleucus' last years: the acquisition of Asia Minor. Creating a dynastic identity. Conserving Seleucus' heritage: Antiochus I
2. The Seleucid Empire in the Third Century. Defining the Seleucid state. Administration and bureaucracy. Relations between the centre and the constituent elements. The Seleucid war machine. 'Temple-states'. Communications. Coinage. Trade. The king and the economy
3. The Seleucid Empire in Iran and South-West Central Asia. Western Iran: Media and Persis. Mia. Drangiana. Hyrcania. Margiana. Parthia
4. The Eastern Frontiers and Beyond. Late fourth- and third-century India and the Greeks. The Mauryan state. Asoka, Greeks and Iranians. Bactria. Transoxiana and beyond. The revolt of Bactria. Social and economic structures
5. Kings and Kingship. Formulating kingship. Legitimacy and the dynastic factor. The ideology of kingship. Power and patronage. Loyalism and resistance
6. Colonialism and Imperialism: aspects of the problem of 'hellenisation' and Greek interactions with non-Greek civilisations in the Seleucid empire. Introduction to the question. The case of Babylonia. Royal policies and colonial activity. Seleucid colonies: literary representations and archaeological remains. Sardis and its transformation. 'Hellenisation': real or apparent?
7. Antiochus III: imperialist and warrior. Armenia in the third century. The campaigns of Antiochus III. Royal state cults. The Seleucid conflict with Rome
8. The Disintegration of the Seleucid Empire. Roman intervention. The growth of Parthian power. The formation of new political units within the empire. 'Decadence'
Chronology of Seleucid and Parthian Kings
The Seleucid Family in the Third Century