Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T08:10:50.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Seleukid Settlements: Between Ethnic Identity and Mobility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2014

Omar Coloru
Affiliation:
Università di Pisa
Get access

Summary

Go noiselessly by, stranger; the old man sleeps among the pious dead, wrapped in the slumber that is the lot of all. This is Meleager, the son of Eucrates, who linked sweet tearful Love and the Muses with the merry Graces. Heavenborn Tyre and Gadara's holy soil reared him to manhood, and beloved Cos of the Meropes tended his old age. If you are a Syrian, Salam! If you are a Phoenician, Naidius! If you are a Greek, Chaire! And say the same yourself.

Meleager of Gadara, I cent. BC, Greek Anth. 7.419, English trans. W.R. Paton

Abstract: The present paper deals with the population of the Seleukid settlements in order to address issues about the settlers' mobility and ethnic identity. By surveying the available evidence, this study aims in particular to understand the role played by non-Greek populations in the Seleukid Empire, trying to go beyond the thesis of an apartheid-like regime in which those ethnic groups would be socially as well as politically isolated from the Greco-Macedonian settlers.

Key words: Seleukid Empire, Ethnic Identity, Hellenism, Jews, Mobility, Macedonian.

In his celebrative portrait of the deeds accomplished by Seleukos I, Appian (Syr. 57) states that the king had founded many towns throughout his vast empire. From this particular point of view, the figure of Seleukos emerges not only as the continuator of Alexander the Great, the builder king par excellence, but also as a competitor of the Macedonian conqueror.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×