Title: Benefactors, kings, rulers : studies on the Seleukid Empire between East and West /
Authors: Engels, David,
Year: 2017
Subjects: Seleucids; Syria Kings and rulers History.; Syria History; Middle East History
Abstract: "The present volume contains a series of critical studies devoted to the political, institutional and ideological construction of the Seleukid empire, with particular focus on the complex interplay between the Seleukids' Graeco-Macedonian background and their Achaimenid heritage. In order to explore to what extend the Seleukids can be considered heirs to the Achaimenids and precursors of the Parthians, and to what extent they simply 'imported' cultural and political behavioural patterns developed in Greece and Macedonia, the studies collected here adopt a decidedly interdisciplinary and diachronic approach. They investigate diverse fields, including the construction of the Seleukid royal court; the title of 'Great King'; the prosopography of early Seleukid Iran; the integration of the 'Upper Satrapies' into the new Seleukid empire; the continued importance of the Iranian religions under the early Seleukids; the reign of the Persian Frataraka; the 'feudalisation' of the Seleukid empire under Antiochos III; the construction of a Hellenistic gymnasion in Seleukid Jerusalem; the importance of the Seleukid kingdom as a model for Eunous' Sicilian slave-state; the evolution of the Syrian civic elite; and the potential influence of Seleukos' royal propaganda on the religious self-legitimation of Augustus. Finally, a general comparison is proposed between the Seleukid empire and 19th century European colonialism."--
Contents: Benefactors of the Greeks, Kings of the Macedonians and Rulers over as many Barbarians as possible? Reassessing the Seleukid Empire -- Middle Eastern ‘Feudalism’ and Seleukid Dissolution -- Some Reflections on the Use of the Titles ‘Great King’ and ‘King of Kings’ from the 3rd to the 1st Century BC -- The Achaimenid and the Seleukid Court: Continuity or Change? -- Conquest and Administration: The ‘Upper Satrapies’ under the Early Seleukids -- Creating a New Empire: Colonisation, Syncretism, Exploration and Defence -- Apama, the Fire Sanctuary of Antiocheia and the Persian Feast of Damaskos: The Early Seleukids and the Religions of Iran -- A New Frataraka Chronology -- Antiochos III the Great and His Empire: Some Thoughts on the ‘Feudalisation’ of the Seleukid Periphery -- The Gymnasion of Jerusalem and the Revolt of the Maccabees: Sports, Religion and Politics -- A Syrian Sicily? Seleukid Aspects of the First Sicilian Slave War and the Reign of Eunous-Antiochos -- The Civic Elites of the Colonies of the Syrian Tetrapolis between Seleukids, Armenians, Parthians and Romans -- Prodigies and Religious Propaganda: Seleukos and Augustus -- The Man Who Would Be King: 19th Century Colonialism and the Construction of the Hellenistic Empires. An (Im)possible Comparison?