Seleucid Empire (coins)

The coins and history of asia. The Seleucid empire at its greatest stretched from Thrace to India and included almost all of Alexander the Great's conquests, except Egypt. Seleucus, one of Alexander's generals, became satrap of Babylonia in 321 BC. In a prolonged power struggle between the "Successors" (Diadochoi) -- Ptolemy (Egypt), Lysimachos (Thrace), Cassander (Macedon and Greece) and Seleucus ganged up on Antigonas (Asia), defeating him at the battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. Seleucus was assassinated by the disgruntled son of Ptolemy in 281 BC. The kingdom was a major center of Hellenistic culture, maintaining the pre-eminence of Greek customs and manners over the Middle East. It began to decline in 190 BC after a first defeat by the Romans and lasted until 64 BC when the last Seleucid king, Antiochus XIII, was murdered by Sampsiceramus, an Arab emir, at the behest of Pompey. [Persian Empire] [coins]