Seleucus I

(ca. 385 b.c.- 281 b.c.)

   One of the leading figures among the so-called Successors, the generals and governors of the Macedonian Greek conqueror Alexander the Great, and the founder of the Seleucid Empire. After Alexander died in Babylon in 323 b.c., Seleucus at first worked with Perdiccas, initially the most influential of the Successors, with both men professing their desire to keep Alexander's realm intact. But soon Seleu-cus took part in the plot to murder Per-diccas and became a full-time participant in the destructive wars of the Successors that ensued. For a while Seleucus's chief opponents in his quest to expand his Near Eastern holdings were Antigonus and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes. After the dynamic father and son duo was defeated at Ipsus in Anatolia in 301 b.c., Seleucus was able to seize much of Anatolia and all of Syria. Four years before, in 305 b.c., Seleu-cus had already taken the step of proclaiming himself king of Alexander's former empire. While continuing to fight other Successors, particularly Lysimachus, Seleu-cus promoted Greek culture and language in Mesopotamia and introduced a new dating system that his successors would follow in the region. Lysimachus was finally defeated at Corpedium in western Anatolia in 281 b.c., in effect bringing the wars of the Successors to an end. But before Seleucus could make any further gains, he was assassinated. The great realm he had carved out lasted fewer than two centuries before most of it was absorbed into the Parthian Empire.

   See also: Alexander III ("the Great"); Greeks; Seleucid Empire