Historical Survey

After the death of Alexander in 323 bce, the incapacity of his two successors (his infant son and his mentally handicapped half-brother) immediately generated conflicts between his generals, known as the Successors (Diadochi).

They became governors of the various provinces of the empire but engaged in endless war against one another, mobilizing large armies and plundering vast territories.¹³ It has long been assumed that some of the Successors aimed at reconstructing Alexander’s empire while others, like Ptolemy and Lysimachus, who had secured their bases in Egypt and in Thrace, respectively, were “separatists.” In contrast, the most recent studies on the Successors emphasize how each of them, using different strategies, aimed at conquering as much territory as possible.¹⁴

The development of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires is inextricably linked.¹⁵ Here, we divide their development into three periods: Period A (from 323 to ca. 220 bce) was marked by the establishment and organization of their respective imperial spaces; Period B (from ca. 220 to ca. 160 bce) saw intensive warfare between the two empires which involved transfer of territory, interaction with Rome, as well as domestic revolt and reform; Period C (from ca. 160 to 30 bce) was territory. Instead, he considers that the Hellenistic monarchies were “empires” because the kings ruled over an unspecified territory.

¹¹ Erskine 2003.

¹² Especially the work of Polybius, Diodorus, Flavius Josephus, Plutarch, Appian, and Justin’s Epitome (“summary”) of Pompeius Trogus.

¹³ Waterfield 2012; Braund 2003.

¹⁴ Hauben and Meeus 2014; Strootman 2014b.

¹⁵ For the Ptolemies, see Holbl 2001 and Huss 2001; for the Seleucids, Sherwin-White and Kuhrt 1993 and Kosmin 2014; more generally, Errington 2008; on Rome, Gruen 1984, Eckstein 2006.

characterized by long- lasting dynastic conflict and growing external pressure from Rome and Parthia.

Ptolemy, son of Lagos, one of the close friends of Alexander, became governor of Egypt in 323 bce and twice prevented the invasion of his province by other Successors (i.e., by Perdiccas in 320 bce, and by Antigonus and his son Demetrius in 306 bce). Ptolemy then expanded his territory to Cyrenaica, Cyprus, small areas of Anatolia, and (intermittently) parts of Coele-Syria. Seleucus, previously satrap of Babylon, had found refuge in Egypt and served as one of Ptolemy's commanders. In 311 bce, with a few hundred troops he received from Ptolemy, Seleucus seized Babylon back from their common enemy Antigonus. This year was later chosen to mark the beginning of the Seleucid kingdom and Year One of the Seleucid era, a new dating system employed by the dynasty. In the following years, Seleucus conquered the eastern provinces (which were called “satrapies”) of Alexander's former empire in Iran and central Asia. By 304 bce, all the Successors had taken the title of king (basileis). Ptolemy I, Seleucus I, and Lysimachus made an alliance against their common rivals, Antigonus and Demetrius, and defeated them at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 bce. However, the events of 301 bce were to have long-lasting consequences for both the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. Indeed, Ptolemy had not sent troops to Ipsus but instead had reoccupied Coele-Syria, although Seleucus was supposed to receive this region, in addition to northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia. It remains unclear whether Seleucus consented to grant Coele-Syria to Ptolemy, his former ally, but this ambiguous settlement became the alleged reason for the six so-called Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids from 274 to 168 bce.^[400]

Seleucus I had built an empire from the Aegean to Afghanistan, thanks notably to elephants he had obtained by ceding his Indian territories to Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan Empire.

His son Antiochus I consolidated the empire, greatly developed its administrative and financial organization, and in the 270s bce was able to defeat a Celtic (Galatian) invasion into Asia Minor. He also managed to seize back Ptolemaic territories in the Aegean and in southern Anatolia. On the Ptolemaic side, Ptolemy I's son, Ptolemy II, expanded and strengthened the administrative, fiscal, and economic organization of Egypt. He and his son, Ptolemy III, continued the expansionist policy of the dynasty's founder and collected taxes throughout their territories. The Ptolemaic fleet became the most important navy of the Eastern Mediterranean, and both kings established strongholds in the Aegean Sea and on Crete, as well as provinces in southern Anatolia and Thrace. Ptolemy III even reached Babylon and created the short-lived province of Transeuphratene (“beyond the Euphrates”) during the Third Syrian War (246-241 bce). This war, also called the Laodicean War after the Seleucid queen Laodice, illustrates how dynastic conflicts entangled the two dynasties. After the death of the Seleucid king Antiochus II, his two successive wives, Laodice and Berenice, each tried to impose her own son as the new king. Since Berenice was Ptolemy Ill’s sister, the Egyptian king seized the opportunity to invade the Seleucid kingdom. However, most of the territorial gains in Asia were lost to the Seleucids by the end of the war. Dynastic conflicts continued after the war, this time between the two sons of Laodice—Seleucus II and Antiochus Hierax (“the Hawk”). This War of the Brothers had a disastrous effect since Hierax established himself as an independent king in Asia Minor and, by the early 220s bce, these territories were seized by the king of Pergamon, Attalus I. In addition, the governors of the eastern provinces, Parthia and Bactria, took the opportunity to secede.

Period B (ca. 220 to c. 160 bce) begins with one of the most important military encounters between the two empires—the Fourth Syrian War (219-217 bce), between the two young kings Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III.

The latter spent more than 30 years trying to reconquer all of the territories that had been part of the original Seleucid Empire. He began by invading Coele-Syria, which belonged— from his point of view unjustly—to the Ptolemies. Ptolemy IV gathered all his resources, adding to his forces 20,000 Egyptian soldiers in phalanx formation, to defeat Antiochus III (if barely) at the Battle of Raphia, thereby regaining CoeleSyria. Twenty years later, in the Fifth Syrian War (202-195 bce), Antiochus was able to reverse this and to integrate Coele-Syria into his empire. He and his ally, the king of Macedonia, Philip V, seized most of the Ptolemaic territories with the exception of Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica. They had profited from a unique opportunity, with Ptolemy V being only a boy and part of his army being engaged in repressing domestic revolts, in particular the secession of Upper Egypt—the so-called Great Revolt (206-186 bce). By that time, Antiochus III again controlled large sections of Asia Minor and had launched two successful expeditions (anabaseis) to regain the eastern satrapies (in 220 and 212-205 bce). Antiochus III’s expansionist policy was stopped by a failed attempt to conquer Greece, which had become a Roman protectorate in 197 bce. His subsequent defeat at Magnesia, by Roman forces led by Scipio Asiaticus, and the peace of Apamea in 188 bce had serious consequences, since he had to pay a huge war indemnity to the Romans, reduce the size of his army and fleet, and give up all the Anatolian territories west of the Taurus Mountains. Although Antiochus III died the following year during a third expedition to the east, his successor, Seleucus IV, paid off the war indemnities and was rather successful in stabilizing the state, until he was murdered in 175 bce. His younger brother, Antiochus IV, left Rome where he was a political hostage in order to become king and appeared to be a dynamic ruler, engaging in administrative and military reforms. He was in fact able to gather the resources necessary to launch a military expedition against Egypt, between 170 and 168 bce, ignoring the limitations the Romans had imposed on the size of the Seleucid army.

The timing was extremely well chosen, since Ptolemy VI was only about 16 years old. Antiochus IV held parts of Egypt and was besieging Alexandria when the Roman envoy, Popillius Laenas, met him near Alexandria and forced him by ultimatum to leave Egypt with his army. Things might have turned out differently if the Romans had not had a large army ready to intervene, an army with which they had defeated the king of Macedonia, Perseus at Pydna a month earlier. The potential unification of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires was a threat to Roman power in the eastern Mediterranean.

Period C, from ca. 160 to 30 bce, is highly complex, but two interrelated patterns emerge: intense dynastic conflicts and the increasing involvement of Rome in the eastern Mediterranean. Dynastic conflicts sometimes crossed over between the two kingdoms when Ptolemaic princesses married Seleucid kings-to-be. Likewise, rival heirs within the same dynasty lobbied Rome to support their claim. Ptolemy VIII, and later Ptolemy Apion, even chose the Romans as heir to their portion of the empire—Cyrenaica in both cases—were they to die without children.^[401] Both dynasties had long diplomatic relationships with the Romans, holding the status of “friend” to the Roman people. In the end, however, power tilted in favor of the Romans.^[402] The Seleucids, furthermore, faced serious pressure on their eastern borders from the expanding Parthian Empire. After the loss of Media and Babylonia in the 150s- 140s, their resources became very limited. Antiochus VII's failure to recapture Media (129 bce), combined with the policy of expansion of the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, reduced the Seleucid Empire to a rump state in northern Syria and Cilicia. It was seized by Tigranes of Armenia and finally by the Romans in 64 bce. On the Ptolemaic side, the administration of Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus remained functional. However, in 94 bce, the Romans took control of Cyrenaica according to Apion's will.

From the 80s onward, the Romans began to dominate the region more directly and, following the seizure of Cyprus (58 bce), Ptolemy XII was expelled from Egypt by the Alexandrians and fled to Rome to seek political, military, and financial support from members of the Senate. He needed the military support of some Roman troops to regain his place on the throne in 55 bce. In his will, he established the Roman people as official testator, which afforded Julius Caesar the opportunity to intervene in the conflict between Cleopatra VII— the famous Cleopatra, whom he supported—and her brother, Ptolemy XIII (48 bce). A few years after Caesar's death, Cleopatra was able to reconstruct most of the former Ptolemaic Empire, though with limited autonomy and through unique circumstances. Those circumstances included her political alliance with Marc Antony and the birth of four children and potential heirs, the first one by Caesar. After their defeat by Octavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus) and their subsequent suicides, Egypt became a Roman province in 30 bce.

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Source: Bang Peter F., Bayly C.A., Scheidel Walter (eds.). The Oxford World History of Empire. Volume Two: The History of Empires. Oxford University Press,2020. — 1352 p.. 2020

Historical Survey

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