Hi there. You're listening to The Hellenistic Age podcast. Bonus episode. Anchors Away. The Salucid Anchor and Imperial I iconography.

Traditionally, the Seleucid Empire has never been categorized as a major maritime power,

akin to classical Athens or contemporary Ptolemaic Egypt.

It is an unusual stance in retrospect,

when you consider that the borders of their empire included much of the eastern Mediterranean,

the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. While archaeological evidence points to the sponsorship of extensal naval activity, most accounts, both ancient and modern, tend to fixate on imagery that is land-based, such as elephants.

Yet of the many symbols that could be chosen to represent the imperial power of their dynasty, the Seleucids consistently relied on one above all others.

The Anchor. It was stamped on coins, weights, and seals as markers of their authority,

and was also employed in the architecture and decorations adorning buildings across the empire.

But why was it so ubiquitous among the Syrian kings? And how did it become this way?

To find its origins, we need to return to the time of the dynasty's founder, Salukas

the first Nicator. His ancestral homeland of Macedonia never possessed a powerful navy,

as the Argiate kings could not afford a fleet rivaling anywhere near the likes of Athens

of the Persian Empire. The role of the navy was important in the beginning and ending

stages of the campaigns of Alexander,

but the emphasis on sea power did not come into play until after Alexander's death, in the subsequent wars of the successors.

It is during this period that Seleucus moves from a shadowy background character to an important player,

claiming the title of King after overtaking the city of Babylon in

312 or 311 BC, the effective foundation date of his family's empire.

Accounts of Seleucus' early life and the assumption of the title of King in Babylon are

deeply interwoven with the adoption of the imperial anchor, and there are two main extant sources which we can investigate,

that of Appian of Alexandria, a Greek historian during the second century in AD, and that of

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