The Legend of Seleucus

The Legend of Seleucus
Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107164788

The first full reconstruction of and investigation into the vibrant and fascinating legend of King Seleucus, successor to Alexander the Great.

The Legend of Seleucus

The Legend of Seleucus
Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 601
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316738442

In the chaos that followed the death of Alexander the Great his distinguished marshal Seleucus was reduced to a fugitive, with only a horse to his name. But by the time of his own death, Seceucus had reconstructed the bulk of Alexander's empire, built Antioch, and become a king in his turn, one respected for justness in an age of cruelty. The dynasty he founded was to endure for three centuries. Such achievements richly deserved to be projected into legend, and so they were. This legend told of Seleucus' divine siring by Apollo, his escape from Babylon with an enchanted talisman, his foundations of cities along a dragon-river with the help of Zeus' eagles, his surrender of his new wife to his besotted son, and his revenge, as a ghost, upon his assassin. This is the first book in any language devoted to the reconstruction of this fascinating tradition.

Nicator - Seleucus and his Empire

Nicator - Seleucus and his Empire
Author: Lise Hannestad
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2020-06-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 8771248137

When the vast empire of Alexander the Great broke up, the Macedonian general Seleucus secured the lion’s share for himself and went on to become the longest-lived of Alexander’s successors. His tactical skills and his military innovations – including his use of war elephants on a scale never seen before in the West – earned him the epithet Nicator, “victorious”. When he died at the hands of an assassin in 281 BC, Seleucus ruled over a larger territory than any Hellenistic monarch before or since his time, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. This book is a study of his life and achievements, his time and his legacy. It is based on Graeco-Roman and Babylonian written sources as well as on the rapidly growing body of archaeological evidence. Lise Hannestad is professor emerita of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University. Her main research areas are the Near East in the Hellenistic period, the Etruscans and Black Sea archaeology.

The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins

The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins
Author: Karsten Dahmen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2007-01-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134159706

This outstanding introductory survey collects, presents and examines, for the very first time, the portraits and representations of Alexander the Great on the ancient coins of the Greek and Roman period. From 320 BC to AD 400, Karsten Dahmen examines not only Alexander’s own coinage and the posthumous coinages of his successors, but also the re-use of his image by rulers from the Greek world and the Roman empire, to late antiquity. Also including numismatic material that exceeds all previous published works, and well-illustrated, this historical survey brings Alexander and his legacy to life.

Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires

Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires
Author: Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2021-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108479251

First comparative analysis of the role of local elites and populations in the formation of the two main Hellenistic empires.

Ghost on the Throne

Ghost on the Throne
Author: James Romm
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2012-11-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307456609

When Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-two, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs—a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death—were jointly granted the kingship. But six of Alexander’s Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule “to the strongest,” fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander’s former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family. James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world’s greatest empire.

Antioch in Syria

Antioch in Syria
Author: Kristina M. Neumann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2021-09-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 110883714X

Combines ancient coins and innovative digital technologies to study the citizens of Syrian Antioch and their imperial conquerors.

Alexander the Great and Propaganda

Alexander the Great and Propaganda
Author: John Walsh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2021-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351627597

Alexander the Great and Propaganda explores the use of propaganda - whether literature, coinage, or iconography – in the court of Alexander the Great, as well as those of his Successors, demonstrating that it was as integral to Hellenistic courts as it was to Imperial Rome. This volume brings together ten essays from leading international scholars in Alexander studies. There is currently no equivalent collection which has a specialist focus of themes or issues relating to the use of propaganda in the courts of Alexander or his Successors. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Alexander studies, as well as those studying the use of propaganda across the ancient world, and to the more general reader with an interest in Alexander the Great and his reign.

The Early Seleukids, their Gods and their Coins

The Early Seleukids, their Gods and their Coins
Author: Kyle Erickson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 135181107X

Before Alexander, the Near East was ruled by dynasts who could draw on the significant resources and power base of their homeland, but this was not the case for the Seleukids who never controlled their original homeland of Macedon. The Early Seleukids, their Gods and their Coins argues that rather than projecting an imperialistic Greek image of rule, the Seleukid kings deliberately produced images that represented their personal power, and that were comprehensible to the majority of their subjects within their own cultural traditions. These images relied heavily on the syncretism between Greek and local gods, in particular their ancestor Apollo. The Early Seleukids, their Gods and their Coins examines how the Seleukids, from Seleukos I to Antiochos IV, used coinage to propagandise their governing ideology. It offers a valuable resource to students of the Seleukids and of Hellenistic kingship more broadly, numismatics, and the interplay of ancient Greek religion and politics.