Akademik

(305–141 B.C.)

   Dynasty founded by Seleucus I Nicator, who was one of the generals in the army of Alexander the Great. In the struggles over the succession to Alexander’s empire, Seleucus obtained most of the Asiatic territories and all of Persia, Bactria, and Mesopotamia, and he introduced a new dating system in Babylonia that began on 3 April 311. Greek became the language of administration. The capital was a new foundation, Seleucia-on-the-Tigris. He and all of his successors were engaged in constant, often violent confrontations with the Ptolemies, another Macedonian dynasty that ruled from Egypt. The objects of these fights were the fertile and wealthy regions in Syria and Palestine. The Seleucids lost Mesopotamia to the Parthians in 141 B.C.