Babylonian war

Babylonian war

Part of: Diadoch Wars

Seleucus I (Roman copy of a Greek original found in Herculaneum )

date	311-309 BC Chr.
place	Mesopotamia
output	Victory for Seleukos I.

Parties to the conflict
Antigonids	Seleucid Empire
Commander
Antigonus I. Monophthalmos	Seleucus I.

The Babylonian War (311–309 BC) was an armed conflict between the diadochi Antigonos Monophthalmos and Seleukos Nicator . With the victory of Seleucus, a restoration of the Alexander Empire proved impossible, which was confirmed in the subsequent Battle of Ipsos .

prehistory

After the death of Alexander the Great on June 11, 323 BC His empire fell apart. Generals who campaigned for the preservation of imperial unity were defeated in the first Diadoch War . During the Second Diadoch War , the power of Antigonos Monophthalmos grew, who had created its own sphere of power in Anatolia and Syria ; this caused unrest among the other generals, but Antigonus succeeded in keeping Ptolemy I and Cassander of Macedonia in check in the third war of the Diadochs . In December 311, the warring parties made the peace of the dynasts in which they recognized each other. The only ruler who was excluded from peace was Seleucus Nicator. Antigonus had in 316 BC This satrap was driven out of Babylonia in the 3rd century BC , but Ptolemy had given him an army which he now used to return him to his previous satrapy .

Campaigns

Seleucus, who had strengthened himself with Macedonian veterans from Harran , reached his former capital Babylon in the second half of May 311, where he was soon recognized as the new ruler. Only the citadel was defended by a garrison loyal to Antigonus. Seleucus had the Euphrates dammed up with a dam so that an artificial lake was created; in August he destroyed the dam, whereupon the tidal wave tore away the walls of the fortress.

Antigonus' satraps in media and arias , Nikanor and Euagoras , now decided to take action against Seleucus with a force of 10,000 foot soldiers and 7,000 horsemen, but Seleucus had been in power since September 311 BC. BC with an army of 3,000 infantrymen and 400 fighters on horseback awaits their arrival on the Tigris . Seleucus managed to defeat the Macedonian troops of the Nikanor and Euagoras by hiding his men in the marshland and attacking them at night, whereupon the Iranian soldiers sided with him. Without further resistance, Seleucus was able to cross the Zagros Mountains , and first Ekbatana and then Susa , the capitals of Media and Elam , occupy, with which he controlled southern Iraq and the greater part of Iran .

The news of the defeat of Nikanor and Euagoras must have reached Antigonus around the same time when he made the peace of the dynasties (December 311 BC). He ordered his son Demetrios Poliorketes to restore order. This met at the beginning of the spring of 310 BC. In Mesopotamia , when Seleucus was still in the east. Although Demetrius managed to gain access to Babylon, he could not resist the guerrillas that Seleucus' followers could organize and had to return to Syria without having achieved anything . In a new attempt his father Antigonus succeeded in the autumn of 310 BC. To move into Babylon, but he too was in March 309 BC. Forced to leave the city again. As he retreated in a north-westerly direction, he came across the army of Seleucus, who ordered his soldiers to have their meal at night, attacked Antigonus' troops while they were taking their breakfast, and thus won a decisive victory.

meaning

Antigonus had to withdraw and accept the rule of Seleucus over Babylonia, Media and Elam. Seleukos was able to move as the victor in the east to the Indus valley, where he signed a peace treaty with Chandragupta Maurya . The Raja received the Punjab and in return ceded a formidable force of 500 war elephants to the Macedonians. By occupying the rest of Iran and Afghanistan , Seleucus rose to be the most powerful warlord since Alexander the Great. The restoration of the Alexander Empire was no longer possible after the Babylonian War. This preliminary decision was confirmed a few years later in the fourth war of the Diadochs and the Battle of Ipsos (301 BC).

Sources

Our knowledge of the war goes back to Diodor's world history (19.90-93 and 19.100), where he takes a closer look at Seleucus' struggles against the satraps and Demetrios and gives plausible troop strengths, but ignores the campaign of Antigonus. However, this was recorded in one of the contemporary Babylonian chronicles , the Chronicle of the Diadochi (= ABC 10 = BCHP 3), which also offers a chronological framework. The publication of this cuneiform tablet , now in the British Museum , has greatly improved our understanding of the conflict.

literature

• T. Boiy: Between High and Low. A Chronology of the Early Hellenistic Period , 2007
• I. Finkel, RJ van der Spek: Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (= BCHP; to be published shortly)
• AK Grayson: Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (= ABC; 1975, 1977)
• Pat Wheatley: Antigonus Monophthalmus in Babylonia, 310-308 B.C. , in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies , Vol. 61 (2002), pp. 39-47

Web links

• Livius.org: Babylonian War (Eng.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ All times according to Tom Boiy: Between High and Low. A Chronology of the Early Hellenistic Period , 2007
2. ↑ Diodor , Weltgeschichte , 19.90
3. ↑ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.1 '
4. ↑ The Seleucid calendar began with this event: Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.3-4 '
5. ↑ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.7 '
6. ^ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.9-10 ' . For troop strengths, see Diodorus, Weltgeschichte , 19.91
7. ^ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.11 ' with Diodorus, Weltgeschichte , 19.91
8. ↑ Diodorus, Weltgeschichte , 19.100
9. ↑ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.14-20 '
10. ↑ Chronicle of the Diadochi, rev., Iv.22 '
11. ↑ Polyaenus : Strategika , 4.9.1; see. Pat Wheatley, Antigonus Monophthalmus in Babylonia, 310-308 B.C. in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies , Vol. 61 (2002), pp. 39-47
12. ↑ Strabo : Geography , 15.2.1
13. ↑ Arrian : Anabasis , 7.22.5
14. ↑ Chronicle of the Diadochi