Habits have actually become part of nature. www.biquge.info In fact, habit is somewhat like nature, because the difference between "often" and "always" is not much, nature belongs to the category of "always", while habits belong to the category of "often".

- Aristotle (one of the great philosophers, scientists, and educators in the ancient history of the world)

After all, the Seleucid Empire was not the powerful empire that almost unified Alexander's empire in the past, and the internal decay and the external strong enemies finally tossed this unusually large empire to pieces; The successive independence of the kingdoms of Armenia, Pontus, and Parthia also made this vast empire smaller.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the independence of the Armenians and Pontics, as well as the Parthians, made the ruling race of the Seleucid Empire pure, and to some extent promoted the stability of the Seleucid Empire, so that the Seleucid Empire did not continue to decline.

As the most powerful empire in the East in the past, the Seleucid Empire could still rely on its own strong heritage to maintain a large and powerful army after losing its rule over the Armenians, Ponticians, and Parthians. The army of the Seleucid Empire, with its scythes, ironclad cavalry, war elephants, phalanx pikemen, and so on, was enough to continue to maintain the existence of the empire.

More importantly, after the Seleucid Empire saw the powerful phalanx legion of the Roman Republic, it imitated the formation of its own silver shield legion; The silver shield infantry similar to the Roman legion hoplites, and the silver shield pikemen similar to the elite infantry of the Roman legions, this is the Roman legion that belonged to the Seleucid Empire.

Compared with the pragmatic thinking of the Roman Republic to build standard weapons and equipment, the wealthy Seleucid emperors built their silver shield legions into an aristocratic army piled up with mountains of gold; The reason why the Silver Shield Legion is named the Silver Shield Legion is because every soldier of the Silver Shield Legion wears a battle armor painted with a layer of silver paint and holds a shield painted with a layer of silver paint, this is the Silver Shield Legion!

In fact, with the strength and richness of the Seleucid Empire, His Majesty the Emperor, who was so happy with their achievements, only formed a 15,000-strong Silver Shield Army; Among them, there are only 5,000 silver shield pikemen who spend more silver, and the rest are all silver shield infantry that consumes relatively little silver.

Naturally, such an army piled up with mountains of gold would not allow ordinary civilians to enter it; Every warrior of the Silver Shield Legion must be a nobleman of the Seleucid Empire, and those who are not nobles within three generations of the family are not allowed to enter!

As for what kind of combat effectiveness such an army composed of gold mountains and nobles has, it is not for anyone in the outside world to know; Because since the formation of this Silver Shield Legion, they have never really stepped on the battlefield, and they usually only serve as the traveling guards of the Seleucid Emperor, but their luxurious equipment still makes everyone maintain a sense of awe for them.

If the existence of the Silver Shield Legion is the face of the Seleucid Empire, then the existence of armored war elephants and ironclad cavalry is the mainstay of the Seleucid Empire's survival; If it weren't for the existence of ironclad cavalry with amazing combat effectiveness and almost invincible armored war elephants, the Seleucid Empire would have been swallowed up by the power of the surrounding empire, and it would not have existed to this day.

Those armored war elephants are not comparable to the ordinary war elephants in Hannibal's hands, and in terms of size alone, the system of one armored war elephant is almost the size of two ordinary war elephants; Normal adults are only as high as the knees of these armored war elephants, and the deterrent effect of these behemoths on the battlefield to the enemy can be imagined.

The ironclad cavalry did not have the terrifying deterrent power of the armored war elephants, but their sheer size and unrivaled impact made them the most formidable army in the Seleucid Empire; The blood of countless enemies made the Seleucid Empire's ironclad cavalry famous, the most powerful Spartan hoplite in the Greek city-states, and vulnerable to the charge of the ironclad cavalry.

During the period of the weakest Seleucid Empire, it was also the period when the three kingdoms became independent one after another; These three newly independent kingdoms were all at war with the Seleucid Empire. The Kingdom of Egypt in the southern part of the Seleucid Empire also declared war on the Seleucid Empire; At this time, the army of the Seleucid Empire, although strong, was exhausted by enemy attacks from all sides.

The city-state of Pergamon of the Greek city-state alliance saw the opportunity and joined the war of aggression against the Seleucid Empire; The city-states of Pergamon did not want to destroy the Seleucid Empire, they just wanted to obtain the Ionian province of the Seleucid Empire.

Geographically, the Ionian province of the Seleucid Empire was far enough away from the nearest province of Silesia to the Seleucid Empire. For the Seleucid Empire, the province of Ionia was more like an enclave for them.

However, the Phrygian region where the city-state of Pergamon was located was connected to the Ionian province of the Seleucid Empire, and such a favorable geographical location, coupled with the fact that the Seleucid Empire was busy dealing with wars with other countries, had no time to care; As a result, the city-state of Pergamon brazenly launched an attack on the Ionian province of the Seleucid Empire.

At that time, the Seleucid garrison in the province of Ionia consisted of no more than 3,000 ironclad cavalry and 5,000 pikemen; Although they were all elite divisions of the Seleucid Empire, they numbered only 8,000, while the invaders of Pergamon had a full 20,000 Greek troops and 3,000 Spartan hoplites reinforced by the Spartan city-states.

The 23,000 troops of the city-state of Pergamon entered the territory of Ionia in such a mighty way, and the Ionian governor of the Seleucid Empire did not easily succumb to the attack of the Greek army, but personally led the army of 8,000 Seleucid Empire to start a brave counterattack.

When three thousand fierce Spartan heavy infantry appeared at the forefront of the Greek army, the three thousand ironclad cavalry of the Ionian governor also began to charge faster and faster; With the strongest ironclad cavalry of the Seleucid Empire, against the strongest Spartan hoplites of the Greek city-state alliance, this is a decisive battle between the king of cavalry and the king of infantry, and it is also a confrontation between the city-state of Pergamon and the Seleucid Empire.

Facts have proved that the 3,000 charging Seleucid Empire ironclad cavalry is not at all something that the 3,000 Spartan heavy infantry in a defensive formation can resist; At the cost of 500 casualties, the ironclad cavalry killed all the 3,000 Spartan heavy infantry on the spot.

The Spartan heavy infantry that was not afraid of death gave the soldiers of the Seleucid Empire a great shock, but the ironclad cavalry with terrifying combat effectiveness directly frightened the Greek soldiers of the Pergamon city-state; After dealing with these Spartan hoplites, the ironclad cavalry taught the Greek soldiers of the city-state of Pergamon a good lesson, and made them understand the strength of the Seleucid Empire.

Later, the Seleucid Empire successfully defeated not only the invading army of the city-state of Pergamon in Ionia, but also the attack of the Kingdom of Parthia in Babylon, the attack of the Kingdom of Armenia in Assyria, and the attack of the Kingdom of Pontus in Silesia. Even the Egyptian kingdom's attacks on Syria and Koro Syria were thwarted by the Seleucid Empire.

In such a great battle, the Seleucid Empire was so strong that all its enemies were feared; In particular, the wonderful performance of those ironclad cavalry made those enemies who had been attacked by ironclad cavalry feel terrified.

It was a war in which glory belonged to the Seleucid Empire, and it was a war in which glory belonged to the ironclad cavalry; After this war, the Seleucid Empire used its own army to win a stable external environment for its country, and the ironclad cavalry of the Seleucid Empire also became the most powerful army on the Eastern Continent, and there was no one!

The kingdoms of Armenia and Pontus, as well as the Parthian kingdoms, which were afraid of the retribution of the Seleucid Empire, formed their own ironclad cavalry units to deal with possible attacks from the Seleucid Empire; Even the Kingdom of Egypt strengthened its own army to hold back the torrent of ironclad cavalry of the Seleucid Empire.

In fact, whether it was the three kingdoms of the East or the kingdom of Egypt, they were thinking too much; Although the Seleucid Empire won the final victory of the war, it was only a crushing victory, and all the lands of the entire Seleucid Empire were attacked by the enemy, and the devastation caused by the war made the Seleucid Empire unable to regain its original strength for decades.

Since the independence of Armenia and the other three kingdoms was an impossible fact, and the desolation of the empire made it impossible for the empire's army to continue fighting, the Seleucid Empire took the initiative to propose peace negotiations to the four kingdoms; The Seleucid Empire, as the victor, was unwilling to fight, and the four kingdoms, as the losers, naturally signed a peace agreement with the Seleucid Empire.

In this way, the Seleucid Empire and the other four kingdoms ended their wars with each other and began a period of peace on the Eastern continent; The short period of peace lasted only about thirty years, and the Seleucid Empire was once again in the midst of war, only this time it was no longer a foreign invasion of the Seleucid Empire, but a rebellion within the Seleucid Empire itself.

It is difficult to distinguish between the current Ionian governor and the Seleucid emperor between good and evil, and no one can verify whether the rebellious governor of Alexander represents evil, or whether the Seleucid emperor who actively suppressed the rebellion symbolizes evil; In short, there was a civil war on a large scale in the Seleucid Empire, and both sides of the war were powerful, and this is the reality.

Governor Alexander, who took the initiative to wage war, used his own elite army to thwart the Empire's counterinsurgency army, and made several deals with the Kingdom of Epirus in the Greek Peninsula and the House of Augustus in Sardinia; Through these trades, Alexander obtained a large amount of gold and old Roman weaponry, which eventually became the foundation of Alexander's growing strength! (To be continued.) )