Seleucid Dissolution

The result of the 2008 conference Seleucid Dissolution: The Sinking of the Anchor held at the University of Exeter, this volume brings together from around the globe new approaches to the study of the Seleucid empire. The various papers edited by Kyle Erickson and Gillian Ramsey approach the questions of how the empire was held together and how and where the bonds linking the Seleucid rulers with their subjects and territories began to break. Following recent research, the papers go beyond the issue of Greek impact to discuss the empire in its entirety, and they carefully reassess the question of whether the empire was “strong” or “weak”. The volume focuses on the themes of political organization, regional responses and problems, the archaeological footprint, the Seleucids’ interaction with multiple cultural milieus throughout the empire and their reception in Hellenistic literature, a topic from which they are often excluded. Matching the scope of the empire, it covers several regions and localities that experienced significant cross-cutting processes of political violence, conciliation and cultural interchange, from the Galatian invasions into Asia Minor, to Mesopotamia, Syria, Jerusalem, Iran and Afghanistan. The results of the conference led to a new consideration of the political and cultural structures of the empire and how the Seleucids fit into a longe durée model of empires.