Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/782

Rh 770 SELEUCUS. SELEUCUS (2^A.6uKos), historical. 1. A king of Bosporus, of whom we know only that he as- cended the throne in B. c. 433, on the death of Spartacus I., and reigned four years. (Diod. xii. 36.) 2. A Macedonian, father of Ptolemy, the Soma- tophylax of Alexander the Great, who was killed at the battle of Issus. [Ptolkmaeus, No. 4.] 3. The second son of Antiochus VII. Sidetes, and elder brother of Antiochus Cyzicenus. In the battle against the Parthians, in which Antio- chus Sidetes was slain, B. c. 128, Seleucus was taken prisoner : he was kindly received by the Parthian monarch, and treated with royal magni- ficence ; but it does not appear that he ever regained his liberty (Euseb. Arm. p. 167). A passage of Posidonius (op. Atken. iv. p. 153), which had been referred by Froelich and other writers to Se- leucus Callinicus, evidently relates to the cap- tivity of this Seleucus, though Athenaeus inad- vertently gives him the title of king. (Niebuhr, Kl. Sdirift. p. 300.) 4. Surnamed Cybiosactes [KvSio(rdKTiis, the packer of salt fish), a name given him in derision by the Alexandrians, was in reality a man of ignoble birth and a low condition, but who pretended to be descended from the royal race of the Seleucidae. On this account he was chosen by the Alexandrians in B. c. 58, when they had expelled their king Ptolemy Auletes, and established his daughter Berenice on the throne, to be the husband of their young queen. He was accordingly sent for from Syria, and the marriage actually solemnized ; but Berenice was so disgusted with his mean and sordid character, that she caused him to be strangled only a few days after their nuptials (Dion Cass. xxxix. 57 ; Strab. xvii. p. 796 ; Suet. Vesp. 19). Vaillant {Hist. Reg. Syr. p. 397) and Froelich suppose him to have been a younger brother of Antiochus Asiaticus, and the same who accom- panied him to Rome about B. c. 73 (see Cic. Verr. iv. 27) ; but both Dion Cassius and Strabo clearly imply that he was a mere pretender. But, from his being selected by the Alexandrians, it is not improbable that he claimed to be a son of An- tiochus X. and Cleopatra Selene, which would give him an apparent connection with the royal family of Egypt also. [E. H. B.] SELEUCUS I. (Se'Aew/cos) surnamed Nicator, king of Syria, and the founder of the Syrian monarchy. He was the eon of Antiochus, a Macedonian of distinction among the officers of Philip II., but fabulous stories were in circulation (evidently fabricated after he had attained to great- ness), which represented him as the offspring of a miraculous intercourse of his mother Laodice with Apollo. (Justin. XV. 4.) From the statements concerning his age at his death, his birth may be probably assigned to about b. c. 358, and he would thus be about twenty-four years old when he ac- companied Alexander on his expedition to Asia, as one of the officers of the eratpoi, or horse-guards. He was early distinguished for his great personal strength, as well as courage, of which he is said to have afforded a proof by overcoming a savage bull, unarmed and single-handed. (Appian. Syr. 57 ; Ael. V. H. xii. 16.) Of his services as an officer we hear nothing during the early campaigns of Alexander in Asia ; but it is evident that he must have earned the confidence of that monarch, as at the passage of the Hydaspes, in B. c 327, we find SELEUCUS.. him selected by the king, together with Ptolemy, Perdiccas, and Lysimachus, to accompany him with the body of troops which were to cross the river in the first instance. In the subsequent battle against Porus, also, he bore an important part. (Arr. Anab. v. 13, 16.) But that these services were only a small portion of those actually rendered by him, during the Indian campaigng, may be inferred from the circumstance that, after the return of Alexander to Susa, Seleucus was one of the officers upon whom the king bestowed, as a reward, the hand of an Asiatic princess. His bride was Apama, the daughter, according to Arrian, of the Bactrian chief Spitamenes, though Strabo calls her father, probably erroneously, Ar- tabazus. (Arr. Anab. vii. 4 ; Strab. xii. p. 578.) Seleucus was in close attendance upon Alexander during his last illness, and is mentioned as one of the officers who consulted the oracle of Serapis in regard to his recovery (Arr. Anab. vii. 26). During the dissensions which followed the death of the great king, he took part with Perdiccas and the other leaders of the cavalry, and was rewarded for his attachment to their cause by obtaining, in the arrangements ultimately adopted, the import- ant post of chiliarch of the iraipoi^ one of the most honourable appointments in the army, and which had previously been held by Perdiccas himself. (Arrian. ap. Phot. p. 69, a ; Diod. xviii. 3 ; Appian. Syr. 57 ; Justin, xiii. 4, who inaccurately terms it " castrorura tribunatus.") The regent, doubtless, thought that he could reckon with se- curity on the fidelity of Seleucus ; but the latter, though he adhered to him until the expedition against Egypt, and accompanied him on that occa- sion, was one of the first to join in the discontents which broke out on the disasters sustained at the passage of the Nile [Perdiccas], and even put himself at the head of the mutineers who broke into the regent's tent, and transfixed him on their spears. (Corn. Nep. Eum. 5 ; Diod, xviii. 36.) During the troubles that followed, we find him interposing his influence and authority with the army, in favour of Antipater, when assailed by the invectives of Eurydice ; and, in the second parti- tion of the provinces (at Triparadeisus, b. c. 321), he obtained for his portion the wealthy and im- portant satrapy of Babylonia, of which he hastened to take possession. (Arr. ap. Pivot, p. 71,b ; Diod. xviii. 39, xix. 12 ; App. Syr. 57.) The ambitious designs of Pithon having involved that general in war with the neighbouring satraps, and ultimately led to his expulsion from his own government [Pithon], Seleucus afforded him a refuge in Babylonia, and was preparing to support him by arms, when the approach of Eumenes at- tracted the attention of both the contending parties in another direction. Seleucus and Pithon imme- diately declared in favour of Antigonus, and endea- voured, though without success, to prevent Eu- menes from crossing the Tigris and effecting a junction with the forces assembled under Peucestes and his brother satraps. Seleucus, however, re- mained in possession of Babylon, and sent to Antigonus to hasten his march. On the arrival of the latter, he joined him with all his forces, and they advanced together into Susiana, which was annexed by Antigonus to the satrapy of Seleucus, and the latter was appointed to carry on the siege of Susa, while Antigonus himself advanced into Upper Asia against Eumenes. Before the close of