On the death of Alexander, in 323 B. C., a struggle of more than twenty
years’ duration ensued among his principal generals and their
heirs--Perdiccas, Ptolemy, Antigonus, his son Demetrius Poliorcetes,
Cassander, Seleucus, and others. At last, in 301 B. C., a decisive
battle was fought at Ipsus, in Phrygia, between Antigonus (with his son
Demetrius) and a confederacy of his rivals. The result was to distribute
the provinces of Alexander’s empire in the following way: To Lysimachus,
nearly the whole of Asia Minor; Cassander, Greece and Macedon; Seleucus,
Syria and the East; Ptolemy had Egypt and Palestine. The two most
important kingdoms were that of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and that of the
Seleucids[4] in the East. (See further under Comparative Outlines, and
Egypt.)
[4] The Syrian monarchy of the Seleucidæ began in 312 B. C. with
Seleucus I. (surnamed Nicator), one of Alexander’s generals, and
under him was extended over much of Asia Minor, including the whole
of Syria from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and the territory
eastwards from the Euphrates to the banks of the Oxus and the Indus.
Seleucus I. was an able and energetic monarch, and sedulously
carried out the plans of Alexander the Great. He died in 280 B. C.,
having founded the city of Antioch in Syria as the capital of the
kingdom. His successors, the dynasty known as the Seleucidæ (or
“descendants of Seleucus”), ruled for about two centuries. The most
notable of these monarchs were named Antiochus.
The third of the name, Antiochus the Great (223 to 187 B. C.), was
the monarch at whose court Hannibal, the great Carthaginian, took
refuge. Antiochus invaded Greece in 192 B. C., and there the Romans
defeated him both by land and sea, and compelled him to yield a
large part of his dominions in Asia Minor. Much of the eastern
territory had been lost before this time, as well as Phœnicia,
Palestine, and Western Syria, conquered by Ptolemy Philopator, king
of Egypt.
Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B. C.) oppressed the Jews to introduce
the worship of the Greek divinities. Against him the brave Maccabees
rose in rebellion. The Syrian kingdom ended in 65 B. C., conquered
by the Romans under Pompey.