Research and the Seleukid Kingdom (4th–1st Centuries BCE)
Hellenistic history is en vogue, and it seems that the Seleukids have dethroned the long-time favourite Ptolemies in the recent wave of scholarly production. With their core territories Syria and Babylonia, and their rule extending further over much of Asia Minor, Media, Elymais, Persia, Parthia, and Baktria, the Seleukids controlled the largest of the Hellenistic kingdoms after the death of Alexander the Great. They energetically reshaped the political and cultic landscape of uncountable peoples and cities in the Near East, creating an impressive legacy. Although the violent conflicts with the Judaeans under Antiochos IV Epiphanes largely denigrated their image, at least in the Biblical tradition, and the defeat of Antiochos III Megas by the Romans at Magnesia further damaged their reputation, such perspectives from hindsight should not mislead us in our assessment of the most powerful and highly resilient dynasty of the early and middle Hellenistic periods.
The number of books on the Seleukid dynasty and territories published in the past quarter-century dwarfs the contributions to the field made throughout the previous centuries. This goes along with many conferences and their published proceedings, most of all the Seleukid Study Days (such as SSD VIII in Utrecht, 12-15 November 2025) and the conferences of the Nancy team (the most recent in 2023, published in 2025).
My own research takes place in this collaborative context, which was extended to the virtual Seleukid Lecture Series in 2021 (co-hosted with Rabbi Ben Scolnic) and whose results have become tangible in the book series Seleukid Perspectives (co-edited with Rabbi Ben Scolnic) since 2023.