Seleucus inherited a rather large chunk of land,
extending from Anatolia in the west to the borders of
India in the east. You could say he hit the “lottery”
but at the same time he inherited much more than he
bargained, more so for his future inheritors of this
vast domain. One of the biggest problems in controlling
such a vast amount of land is the issue of holding onto
it. In other words, the land is too big to use for it is
too big to lose. One has to consider, especially those
in the Seleucid administration, that there are going to
be language barriers, but even more important than
language barriers, are the cultural barriers. Because of
these cultural barriers, it was easier to allow the
locals to govern. In this way, the Seleucids could
control their eastern provinces more effectively.
However, even this is a façade. While the Seleucids
allowed the locals of their eastern provinces to govern,
it also created a friction between the two cultures. In
other words and as you shall read, the Seleucids began
to ignore their supposed subjects of the east. Ignoring
the various peoples on the Iranian Plateau and areas
further to the east under Seleucid control caused many
of them, including Greco-Macedonians, to question the
intent of their masters further west. In doing so, many
would secede in the east. This secession from the
Seleucids enticed certain nomadic tribes, such as the
Aparni (Parthians), to invade, conquer, confiscate and
colonize the weakest breakaway provinces. The Seleucid
regime’s uncertainty allowed a small tribe from the
north to invade a breakaway province considered Seleucid
territory that, in turn, would go on to nearly
re-conquer everything Alexander the Great had subdued
almost a century earlier.
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