029: The Seleucid Empire - Seleucus I & the Foundation of the Empire

The Hellenistic Age Podcast

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4.7 • 558 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The founder of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus I Nicator, had an extraordinary career. From a minor player in Alexander's campaigns to king of the largest realm in the Hellenistic world, we cover the origins of the empire in its entirety, taking us from administration in Babylon to the wars against Chandragupta Maurya and the Diadochi. Title Theme: Seikilos Epitapth with the Lyre of Apollo, played by Lina Palera (https://soundcloud.com/user-994392473) Show Links: Website/Show Notes (https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/029-the-seleucid-empire-seleucus-i-the-foundation-of-the-empire/) Social Media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/HellenisticPod) Facebook (www.facebook.com/hellenisticagepodcast/) Discord (https://discord.gg/VJcyUcN)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 29, the Salucid Empire, Salukas I and the foundation of the empire.
0:29.5	Of all the successors to Alexander the Great,
0:34.3	Salukas seemed to be among the least likely to come out of the bloody wars of the Diodohoi on top. Yet, despite being a relatively late newcomer to the
0:39.4	candidacy, Salukas managed to outwit his rivals and snatch the largest piece of Alexander's
0:45.1	great imperial pie. Stretching from their political heartland in Syria and the Levantine shores to the tips
0:51.6	of India and Afghanistan, the Salucod Empire, as it was to become, was the
0:56.6	largest controlled territory in the world for almost a hundred years, and the most ethnically
1:01.3	and culturally diverse Hellenistic successor kingdom to emerge out of the ashes of the former
1:06.3	Macedonian Empire. Persians, Bactrians, Jews, Babylonians, various nomadic tribes, and more
1:13.0	would be ruled over by the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator, from approximately 312 to 64 BC,
1:20.5	when the last king Philip II, Philharomios, would be ingloriously deposed by a Roman commander.
1:27.6	Over the next few episodes, we will take a look at the reign of the first two kings,
1:32.4	Salukas I and then Tyakus I first Sotere, and oversee the creation of the empire,
1:38.2	and touch upon some of its institutions.
1:41.1	As a forewarning to this episode in particular, I will be talking about events that overlap with my series on the Wars of the Diodohoi.
1:48.8	That would be episodes 14 through 18 in case you were wondering.
1:53.2	And unless it has a direct connection to Seleucus, I will only be marginally discussing it as per needed.
1:59.4	So I strongly suggest that you take a listen to those
2:02.5	series if you haven't already done so. In addition, since we are now firmly starting to cover
2:08.1	the dynastic families that dominated the Hellenistic world, I will be providing family
2:12.4	trees on my website to better reflect the complicated relationships of the period. So check those out at any time if you're a bit confused on who's who.
2:21.3	First, let us look at our sources and evidence for the Empire.
	...

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