Seleukos’ Acquisition.

Abstract When Seleukos Nikator’s army occupied Syria in 301 BC, it was only the latest in a long series of such armies. In the last hundred years, Syria had been repeatedly traversed by military forces, both hostile and friendly, though the difference between the two was probably not clear to the suffering peasantry. And before that, the land had been ruled by a succession of alien governors sent from ever more distant imperial capitals, first Assur, then Babylon, then Persepolis. None of these governors or rulers or military commanders had shown any interest in Syria itself or the Syrians themselves, except as a source of taxes and provisions. This was true, also, of the Macedonians, the latest alien conquerors, who had ruled since Alexander’s conquest in 333, but these, for the first time in four centuries, had shown some interest in taking measures to increase the resources of Syria; this process was to culminate in Seleukos’ spectacular series of urban foundations, soon after he arrived.