selucid dynasty

A detailed Summary of selucid dynasty

The study of the vast Seleucid colonization campaign has been plagued by a deficient amount of informative ancient sources and a lack of modern scholarly interest. To date only one work has been produced which focuses exclusively on the organization and administration of the colonies and within this work the author qualifies his study by stating that "having completed this work I am painfully aware of how little we actually know about the Seleucid colonization program. My own conclusions are tentative and much of what I say is conjectural. This cannot be avoided. The evidence is scrappy and spread over the whole Middle East. And even the little that is available must be used with great caution".

We only have one connected account of how a colony was founded; Josephus describes the installation of two thousand Jewish families in Lydia and Phrygia by Antiochus III. Besides this, there are references to Seleucid colonies scattered throughout the writings of various ancient authors including Strabo, Appian and Pliny. In many cases, however, they only refer to the colonies existence or location and rarely consider their structure and administration. Admist this need for information lies a wealth of detail in the combined knowledg

However, the plots of land that were given out were not always equal in size or quality and the process by which these lands were distributed is extremley difficult to reconstruct. Some scholars have distinguished that the recipiants rank was the primary factory influencing the quality and quantity of land recieved. Since the majority of the Seleucid settlements were military colonies and the officers were organized into different grades, it would make sense that the land would have been given out according to these gradations. Furthermore, it would be sensible to state that the relative arrival time at the colony may have been a factor in determining the value of the kleros. Regardless, it was the land, one of the only products that the Seleucid's were rich in, that enticed the population to settle.

There were many institutions within the settlements which served to inhibit the interaction between natives and colonists. In particular, the gymnasium, the institution which had been a Greek hallmark for eduction and military training throughout the Classical and Hellenisitic periods, assumed a central position in the life of the Greek and Macedonian colonists and was a most important means of inhibiting the mixing between colonists and natives. The gymnasium became the repository of Hellenic culture and likely was one of the first institutions organized after the establishment of a colony. The extensive references to gymnasia in the newly founded Seleucid settlements make it clear that most of the colonies had a gymnasium; for instance there were gymnasia in Laodiceia-ad-Lycum, Hierapolis, Thyaas, Antioch-Pisidia, Seleuceia-ad-Calycadnum, Antioch-ad-Orontem and Laodiceia-ad-Mare. Jerusalem also had a gymnasium as did Seleuceia-ad-Tigrim, Susa and Babylon. Membership in the gymnasia was limited to the Greco-Macedonian settlers and their offspring and local inhabitants were initially excluded. In time, however, hellenized non-Greeks were probably admitted into the Seleucid institutions and we even have evidence of natives attempting to found their own gymnasium.

It was into this precarious situation that Antiochus III 'the Great' entered in 198BC. Throughout his reign, Antochios donated much of resources to gaining back what Seleucus I had won and was succesful on most fronts from Asia Minor to Bactria. His numerous campaigns , however, were not mirrored by an extensive colonization program and relatively few foundations are attributed to Antiochus III. It remained for Antiochus IV Epiphanes to try to consolidate an empire still large but very tenuously held. True to the Seleucid tradition, Antiochus IV attempted to found and refound settlements throughout the empire. In most every remaining province in the empire there were colonies established and evidence for foundations remain in Cicilia, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Media, Armenia and Babylonia. However, the process of colonization that Antiochus IV regualted was often simply the formality of a name change; merely giving a name associated with his reign to an earlier settled colony or village. Antiochus IV is not well liked by the ancient sources and is credited as a ruler leading to the deterioration of Seleucid Syria. His death in 164BC ended the life of the last Seleucid kings of any great significance and the end of all Seleucid colonization campaigns, Epiphanes' successors carried on a series of continuous civil wars and eventually had to bow down before the ever present power of Rome.

cities he gave names from Greece or Macedon... in the barbarous regions of

Some common words found in the essay are:
Greek Macedonian, Geeks Macedonians, Samarkhand Sardis, Cappadocia Strabo, Seleucid Syria, Antiochus IV, Mesopotamia Babylonia, , Babylon Membership, Asia Minor, antiochus iv, asia minor, antiochus iii, seleucid colonization, antiochus soter, greeks macedonians, seleucid settlements, greek macedonian, colonization program, seleucid kings, extent cultural borrowing, colonist plot land, thousand jewish families,

Approximate Word count = 3523
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History