Benefactors, Kings, Rulers

The present volume contains a series of critical studies devoted to the
political, institutional and ideological construction of the Seleukid
empire, with particular focus on the complex interplay between the
Seleukids' Graeco-Macedonian background and their Achaimenid heritage.
In order to explore to what extent the Seleukids can be considered heirs
to the Achaimenids and precursors of the Parthians, and to what extent
they simply 'imported' cultural and political behavioural patterns
developed in Greece and Macedonia, the studies collected here adopt a
decidedly interdisciplinary and diachronic approach. They investigate
diverse fields, including the construction of the Seleukid royal court;
the title of 'Great King'; the prosopography of early Seleukid Iran; the
integration of the 'Upper Satrapies' into the new Seleukid empire; the
continued importance of the Iranian religions under the early Seleukids;
the reign of the Persian Frataraka; the 'feudalisation' of the Seleukid
empire under Antiochos III; the construction of a Hellenistic gymnasion
in Seleukid Jerusalem; the importance of the Seleukid kingdom as model
for Eunous' Sicilian slave-state; the evolution of the Syrian civic
elite; and the potential influence of Seleukos' royal propaganda on the
religious self-legitimation of Augustus. Finally, a general comparison
is proposed between the Seleukid empire and 19th century European
colonialism.