SELEUCIDEE have been noticed under the heading Greeks of Asia ; they got their name from the first of the dynasty, Seleucus surnamed Nicator, who ruled from B.C. 312 to 280, but the dynasty had other five of this name. The death of Alexander bad occurred in the spring of the year /Lc. 323. His colouies, and their institutions, manners, and language bad a lasting action in Central Asia, the effects of which were felt, for at least 500 years after his decease. But though he left his brother Aridmus and the posthumous child of Rashana or Roxana, called Alexander, neither of these succeeded him, for his commander and lieuteuant, Selencus surnan/ed Nicator, succeeded to the sovereignty of Afghanistan and the other Asiatic conquests.
In n.c. 315 Antigonus had assumed the regal title of king of Asia. In /Lc. 305 Sciences gained a great victory over Niconor, a /ieutenant of Antigonus, and followed it up by seizing and add ing to hia own government the whole of Media, Hyrcania, Parthia, Bactria, and Aria, and all the countries a.s far as the Indus. In B.C. 303 he crossed that river to make war on Chandragupta, who during these contentions had expelled the Grecian garrisons from the l'aujab, and had so recovered that country for the native sovereigns of India. Seleucus, being called to a final struggle with AntL,0,onus, made a hasty peace with Chandra gupta, ceding the Panjab as far as the Indus. According to Strabo, Arachotia was also ceded, but this seems doubtful. Cutchhi to the Bolan pass, with the valle of the Indus, may have been the region e,eded. beleucus drovo Antigonus into Phrygia, where he .was defeated and slain in B.C. 301.
Seleucus Nicator subsequently was assas.sinated in B.C. 280 by Ptolemy Ceraunus, from which date the whole of Asia to the Indus and Jaxartes wan under the Syrian king, Antiochus Soter, who frotn n.c. 280 to 2G1 reigned undisturbed over the same territory, and left it to his sou, Antiochus Theos.
The expedition of Sciences to the Patijab is related by Juatin (lib. xv. c. 4), and by Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17); Seleucus Niel/tor is said to have penetrated to the mouth of the Ganges, and it had been sailed up by the Romans as far a.s Palibothra, before the time of Straka Armandi notices the fact that the elephants figured on the coins of Alexander and the beleu cidaa invariably exhibit the eharacteristica of the Indian type, whilst those on the Roman medals can at once be pronounced African, from the peculiarities of the convex forehead and expansive ears. He founded 35 cities in Greater and Leaser
Asia, 16 of which he named Antioch, from Antiochus, his father ; 9 Seleucia, from his own name ; Laodicea, from Laodice, his /mother ; 3 Apamea, from Apama, his first wife (of which the city of Kurnah was the chief); and 1 Stratonicea, from Stratonice, his last wife. According to Dean Prideaux, he was a great protector of the Jews, and the first who gave them settlements in those provinces of Asia which lie on this side of the river Euphrates. As they had been faithful and serviceable to him in his wars and in many other respects, be granted them great privileges in all the cities which he built.
Under his grandson, Afghanistan was taken from the Seleucithe by the aboriginal chiefs, and soon after formed with Bactria an independent state, which existed during 150 years. After the death of Seleucus Philopater, Antiochus Epi phanes assumed the rebut of power in the empire that included Armenia and Parthia. Alexander had been favourable to the Jews, but Antiochus • Epiphanes the reverse. The first seven years of his reign were still endurable, but after that every confessor of Jehovah wlko could not be bribed or seduced over, was subjected to the most cruel forms of martyrdom. But relief came, in the uprise, in B.C. 167, of the valiant Mattathias; and B.C. 165 the temple was purified and the worship of God restored.
Antiochus Epiphanes died B.C. 164, in the year 143 of the era of the Seleucidx. But there are two eras of the Seleucid/e, the one reckoned from the date of Alexander's death, A.A.C. 323; the second has its epoch 311 years and 4 months r..c., and is used in the Book of Maccabees. These Seleucidak eras were also called Syro-3facedonian. The people of the Levant and the Jews adopted it, the Jews calling it Tariq-zul-karnain, and it is still in use amongst the Arabs.— Prinsep ; Elphinstune; As. lies. v. 285, ix. 100 ; History of the Panjab, p. 55; Prideoux's Connedion of Ote Ohl and New Testament ; Trareht, p. 4.