NICATOR: Seleucus I and his Empire

by Lise Hannestad

Overview

When the vast empire of Alexander the Great broke up, the Macedonian general Seleucus secured the lion's share for himself and went on to become the longest-lived of Alexander's successors. His tactical skills and his military innovations - including his use of war elephants on a scale never seen before in the West - earned him the epithet Nicator, "victorious". When he died at the hands of an assassin in 281 BC, Seleucus ruled over a larger territory than any Hellenistic monarch before or since his time, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. This book is a study of his life and achievements, his time and his legacy. It is based on Graeco-Roman and Babylonian written sources as well as on the rapidly growing body of archaeological evidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788772191737
Publisher:	Aarhus University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2020
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lise Hannestad is professor emerita of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University. Her main research areas are the Near East in the Hellenistic period, the Etruscans and Black Sea archaeology.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Chapter 1 Campaigning with Alexander 15

Chapter 2 The death of Alexander and the first struggles for power 25

Chapter 3 Satrap of Babylonia 35

Chapter 4 The years in the Mediterranean and the return to Babylonia 43

Chapter 5 Seleucus' co-regency with his son, victory over Lysimachus and death 67

Chapter 6 Economy and administration 79

Chapter 7 Royal propaganda and ideology 93

Chapter 8 The coloniser 111

Chapter 9 From palaces to pottery: material culture in the Seleucid realm 129

Chapter 10 Conclusion 157

Abbreviations 163

Bibliography 165

Index 175

Photo credits 181