Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire

Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire
Title Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire PDF eBook
Author Paul J. Kosmin
Publisher Harvard University Press
Pages 393
Release 2018-12-03
Genre History
ISBN 0674989619

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Winner of the Runciman Award Winner of the Charles J. Goodwin Award “Tells the story of how the Seleucid Empire revolutionized chronology by picking a Year One and counting from there, rather than starting a new count, as other states did, each time a new monarch was crowned...Fascinating.” —Harper’s In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests, his successors, the Seleucid kings, ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia and Anatolia to the Persian Gulf. In 305 BCE, in a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, Seleucus I introduced a linear conception of time. Time would no longer restart with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years—continuous and irreversible—became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire and identical to the system we use today, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world. Some rebellious subjects, eager to resurrect their pre-Hellenic past, rejected this new approach and created apocalyptic time frames, predicting the total end of history. In this magisterial work, Paul Kosmin shows how the Seleucid Empire’s invention of a new kind of time—and the rebellions against this worldview—had far reaching political and religious consequences, transforming the way we organize our thoughts about the past, present, and future. “Without Paul Kosmin’s meticulous investigation of what Seleucus achieved in creating his calendar without end we would never have been able to comprehend the traces of it that appear in late antiquity...A magisterial contribution to this hitherto obscure but clearly important restructuring of time in the ancient Mediterranean world.” —G. W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books “With erudition, theoretical sophistication, and meticulous discussion of the sources, Paul Kosmin sheds new light on the meaning of time, memory, and identity in a multicultural setting.” —Angelos Chaniotis, author of Age of Conquests

The Land of the Elephant Kings

The Land of the Elephant Kings
Title The Land of the Elephant Kings PDF eBook
Author Paul J. Kosmin
Publisher Harvard University Press
Pages 440
Release 2014-06-23
Genre History
ISBN 0674728823

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A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year The Seleucid Empire (311–64 BCE) was unlike anything the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds had seen. Stretching from present-day Bulgaria to Tajikistan—the bulk of Alexander the Great’s Asian conquests—the kingdom encompassed a territory of remarkable ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; yet it did not include Macedonia, the ancestral homeland of the dynasty. The Land of the Elephant Kings investigates how the Seleucid kings, ruling over lands to which they had no historic claim, attempted to transform this territory into a coherent and meaningful space. “This engaging book appeals to the specialist and non-specialist alike. Kosmin has successfully brought together a number of disparate fields in a new and creative way that will cause a reevaluation of how the Seleucids have traditionally been studied.” —Jeffrey D. Lerner, American Historical Review “It is a useful and bright introduction to Seleucid ideology, history, and position in the ancient world.” —Jan P. Stronk, American Journal of Archaeology

Beyond Alexandria

Beyond Alexandria
Title Beyond Alexandria PDF eBook
Author Marijn S. Visscher
Publisher
Pages 277
Release 2020
Genre History
ISBN 0190059087

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Beyond Alexandria argues for the existence of a distinctive Seleucid literature, with its own preferred genres and thematic concerns. It proposes new readings of these authors and argues that they can be understood only in the wider political context, especially in relation to the Ptolemies as the Seleucids' main rivals.

Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires

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

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

From Samarkhand to Sardis

From Samarkhand to Sardis
Title From Samarkhand to Sardis PDF eBook
Author Susan M. Sherwin-White
Publisher Univ of California Press
Pages 292
Release 1993-01-01
Genre History
ISBN 9780520081833

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Persian empire and earlier Middle Eastern states. They investigate the economies, social structures, political systems and cultures of the many peoples making up the empire, and analyse, in the context of colonialism and imperialism, such evidence as exists for cultural changes, including Hellenisation. The book makes accessible the great variety of new and important documents, Greek and non-Greek, that have been recently discovered. It will be of interest to students,

The Seleucid Army of Antiochus the Great

The Seleucid Army of Antiochus the Great
Title The Seleucid Army of Antiochus the Great PDF eBook
Author Jean Charl Du Plessis
Publisher Pen and Sword Military
Pages 480
Release 2022-04-06
Genre History
ISBN 1399091808

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*The Seleucid Empire was a superpower of the Hellenistic Age, the largest and most powerful of the Successor States, and it’s army was central to the maintenance of that power. Antiochus III campaigned, generally successfully, from the Mediterranean to India, earning the sobriquet 'the Great'. Jean Charl Du Plessis has produced the most in depth study available in English devoted to the troop types, weapons and armor of Antiochus’ army. He combines the most recent historical research and latest archaeological evidence with a strong element of reconstructive archaeology, that is the making and using of replica equipment. Sections cover the regular, Hellenistic-style core of the army, the auxiliaries from across the Empire and mercenaries, as well as the terror weapons of elephants and scythed chariots. Weapons and armor considered in great detail, including, for example, useful data on the performance of slings and the wounds they could inflict, drawing on modern testing and the author’s own experience. The army’s performance in its many battles, sieges and campaigns is analysed and assessed.

New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics

New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics
Title New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics PDF eBook
Author Roland Oetjen
Publisher Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Pages 913
Release 2019-12-16
Genre Literary Criticism
ISBN 3110388553

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Dedicated to Getzel M. Cohen, a leading expert in Seleucid history, this volume gathers 45 contributions on Seleucid history, archaeology, numismatics, political relations, policy toward the Jews, Greek cities, non-Greek populations, peripheral and neighboring regions, imperial administration, economy and public finances, and ancient descriptions of the Seleucid Empire. The reader will gain an international perspective on current research.