Chapter 58: Seleucus

Seleucus was a slight inferior position to Alexander's seven close bodyguards, and he became the new governor of Babylon after ousting Docamos, the former governor of Babylon appointed by Padica. Babylon www.biquge.info, the place of Alexander's death and the capital of Alexander's planned Macedonian Empire, was a prosperous city at this time, and a large number of Macedonian and Greek veterans from the time of Alexander the Great settled here, who had previously supported Dokhamos in his attack on the previous Babylonian governor Achan, so Seleucus had to take care of these things. And his political prowess was greatly demonstrated in this way.

Seleucus's approach to these troubles was quite clear: on the one hand, he no longer pursued the soldiers' involvement in the Dokhamos attack on Achang in order to show goodwill to Macedonia and the Greeks; On the other hand, in order to win them over to the local priestly class of Babylon, who had great influence among the local Asians, in addition to giving them great material privileges, Seleucus personally participated in the Babylonian religious festival "Akitus Festival", and offered a solemn sacrifice to the Babylonian god King of the gods, and the god Marduk, who was equal to Zeus in the eyes of the Greeks, in order to show his respect for the Babylonians. Make them feel that they are their co-leaders and not the leaders of a foreign garrison that conquers them.

In addition, Seleucus was very careful in his private life, and at that time he had only one wife, Apama, whom Alexander arranged for Seleucus at his group wedding in Susa. Apama's father, Spitamine, had waged a series of guerrilla warfare in Sogdiana, causing great trouble for Alexander, but in the end he failed. After Alexander's death, many of his officers abandoned or neglected the Asian wives they had taken at Susa's group weddings, but Seleucus was not as amorous as the other generals, and he was deeply in love with Apama, which also earned him a lot of political capital. Historically, Seleucus was truly in love with his wife, not purely for political purposes, from the fact that Seleucid did not marry another wife for many years after his death, until he had to continue for political reasons for many years after Apama's death. The Babylonians and other Asians in his domain, who had been at the hands of the Persians for hundreds of years, were so moved by Seleucus' actions that they greatly increased their support in their districts.

However, this does not indicate how ambitious Seleucus was at this time, because he had managed to get Babylonia, and he was already lucky compared to Craterus and Padicca, and the result of being too greedy was likely to be the same as them, so perhaps Seleucus was more content to divide one side and live his own comfortable life with his Asian wife. As a member of the town guard, it is more than rich and noble, and there is no need to get involved in those complicated intrigues, and it is also a kind of happiness to live a peaceful life under the support of the people in your own jurisdiction. However, in troubled times, Seleucid's wishes were just a beautiful fantasy. After three years of peace, Seleucus knew that his peaceful life was coming to an end, as one of Padica's old murderers, Person, was defeated by the coalition of the Eastern governors and fled to Babylon for help.

Seleucus, however, was not interested in the plan that Pesson had described to him of the two men joining forces to dominate the East, and he did not think that the two of them could defeat the combined forces of the Eastern provinces. He was more concerned about the situation in the western part of his district, and not long ago he had heard that Antignis, another of Padicca's old partners in the assassination, had fled west with his army to support Eumenes.

After a brief respite in Mesopotamia, Eumenes continued eastward to the borders of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, where he sent envoys to Pesson, the anti-Pesson League, and Seleucus, demanding that they accept the leadership of his great Asian general against the rebel Antigonus. At the same time, Antigonus led his troops quickly through Asia Minor into Mesopotamia, where he spent the winter while gathering more troops from all over Asia Minor. …,

Seleucus initially wanted to remain neutral, that is, it was none of his business to be the true Asiatic generals of Eumenes or Antigonus, as long as they did not go through his Babylonian territory when they were fighting. At first, the situation was not tense, but as the coalition of eastern governors under Peusestas tended to support Eumenes, the situation suddenly became tense. If Eumenes were to join up with the satrap's coalition forces stationed in Susania, he had only two paths: one was to take the northern Medes, which were not difficult to pass through due to the heavy losses of the governor Pesson, but the Medes were openly hostile to the allied forces of the satraps under Peusestas, and more importantly, the road was not only farther in a straight line, but also blocked by the Zagros Mountains and the unreplenished wasteland. Therefore, Eumenes hoped to join the allied forces of the governor led by Peusestas, via the Seleucid province of Babylon. His goal was to allow his army to cross the border if Seleucus could not recognize his position as a great general of Asia and join his ranks.

But Seleucus did not want Eumenes' army to cross the border. First of all, this permission itself implies a tacit acquiescence to Eumenes' status and a denial of his own neutral status. Secondly, if such a large army is allowed to cross the border, then he will pay a great price for their supplies, and even cause dissatisfaction among the people in the jurisdiction. The last and most important reason was that Pesson, who was by Seleucus' side, knew that if Eumenes could join Peusestas, he would definitely die without a place to bury, so he strongly encouraged Seleucus not to recognize Eumenes. Eventually, Seleucus decided to reject Eumenes' request for a passage.

In this case, if Eumenes did not want to sit idly by and wait for Antigonus to come with his army after the arrival of spring, he had to forcibly borrow a road from Babylon. Only by meeting the elite army of Peusestas, complete with infantry and cavalry, and war elephants, can he have the ability to confront Antigonus head-on.

Thus, near the end of the winter of 317 B.C.E., EUMENES entered into a state of de facto hostility with Seleucus and Pesson. However, the strength at hand of the latter is simply not able to fight against Eumenes, not to mention that Eumenis also has an elite silver shield soldier in his hand. However, Seleucus had his own advantages, and Antijanis, the commander of the Silver Shields, was an old friend of him and Peisson, who assassinated Paddica together, which can be described as a lifelong friendship. He was also the commander of the Silver Shield before Antignis, and he also commanded this elite in many operations in India. Now they had written to Antignis that it was under the leadership of the three of them that they had sentenced Eumenes to death, and that it was better to work together to kill Eumenes again, and then join forces to do something.

Antignis may have had a strong affection for the Macedonian royal family, but he may also have been motivated by selfishness—as he told his lieutenant Thotamos, Eumenes, as a Greek, must rely on them to command his Macedonian soldiers, and is therefore bound to be polite to them. Antigonus, by contrast, was extremely powerful, and if she did anything wrong, Antigonus was fully qualified to punish or even execute them. Antigonus replied that she hoped that the two old friends would be loyal to the royal family and fight against the rebellious Antigonus. Seleucus replied with a cunning letter that he was willing to serve the king, but was unwilling to submit to a Greek like Eumenes, and even if the death sentence against Eumenes was revoked, Seleucus thought it would be a shame to be under the command of a Greek.

With the arrival of the spring of 316 BC, Eumenes received a letter from Alexander IV, so he wasted no time and sent a letter to Seleucus in the name of the king, while entering the province of Babylon with his army to replenish the plains between the Tigris and Euphrates. Although Seleucus had already turned against Eumenes, he didn't want to go to war with him, but hoped that the plague god who couldn't get rid of him would cross the border quickly. However, when Seleucus heard that Eumenes had reached about 34 miles north of the city of Babylon, he had to bite the bullet and deal with it, because if he ran quickly or by water, he could reach the city of Babylon in a day! However, at this time, he received a letter from Eumenes.