between them. The rest--transient embarrassed phantoms of the Royal
House, regents of the Empire hardly less transient, upstart satraps, and
even one-eyed Antigonus, who for a brief moment claimed jurisdiction
over all the East--never mattered long to the world at large and matter
not at all here and now. The end of the fourth century sees Seleucus of
Babylonia lording it over the most part of West Asia which was best
worth having, except the southern half of Syria and the coasts of Asia
Minor and certain isles in sight of them, which, if not subject to
Ptolemy of Egypt, were free of both kings or dominated by a third,
resident in Europe and soon to disappear. In the event those two,
Seleucus and Ptolemy, alone of all the Macedonian successors, would
found dynasties destined to endure long enough in kingdoms great enough
to affect the general history of civilization in the Ancient East.

Seleucus has no surviving chronicler of the first or the second rank,
and consequently remains one of the most shadowy of the greater men of
action in antiquity. We can say little of him personally, except that he
was quick and fearless in action, prepared to take chances, a born
leader in war, and a man of long sight and persistent purpose. Alexander
had esteemed and distinguished him highly, and, marrying him to Apama, a
noble Iranian lady, convinced him of his own opinion that the point from
which to rule an Asiatic empire was Babylonia. Seleucus let the first
partition of the dead man's lands go by, and not till the first turmoil
was over and his friend Ptolemy was securely seated in Egypt, did he ask
for a province. The province was Babylonia. Ejected by the malevolence
of Antigonus, he regained it by grace of Ptolemy in 312, established
ascendency over all satraps to east of him during the next half-dozen
years, letting only India go, and then came west in 305 to conquer and
slay Antigonus at Ipsus in central Asia Minor. The third king,
Lysimachus of Thrace, was disposed of in 281, and Seleucus, dying a few