Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/16

14 does not clearly appear. There is, however, no doubt about the result of his action. Chandragupta became the first strictly historical emperor of India and ruled the land from sea to sea.

Seleukos, surnamed Nikator, or the Conqueror, by reason of his many victories, had established himself as Satrap of Babylon after the partition of Triparadeisos in 321, but six years later was driven out by his rival Antigonos and compelled to flee to Egypt. After three years' exile he recovered Babylon in 312, and devoted himself to the consolidation and extension of his power. He attacked and subjugated the Bactrians, and in 306 assumed the royal title. He is known to historians as King of Syria, although that province formed only a small part of his wide dominions, which included all western Asia.

About the same time ( 305) he crossed the Indus, and directed his victorious arms against India in the hope of regaining the provinces which had been held