The Land of the Elephant Kings : Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire / Paul J. Kosmin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kosmin, Paul J., 1984- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seleucids.

Syria--History--333 B.C.-634 A.D.

Syria.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (448 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Seleucid Empire (311-64 BCE) was unlike anything the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds had seen. Stretching from present-day Bulgaria to Tajikistan--the bulk of Alexander the Great's Asian conquests--the kingdom encompassed a territory of remarkable ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; yet it did not include Macedonia, the ancestral homeland of the dynasty. The Land of the Elephant Kings investigates how the Seleucid kings, ruling over lands to which they had no historic claim, attempted to transform this territory into a coherent and meaningful space. Based on recent archaeological evidence and ancient primary sources, Paul J. Kosmin's multidisciplinary approach treats the Seleucid Empire not as a mosaic of regions but as a land unified in imperial ideology and articulated by spatial practices. Kosmin uncovers how Seleucid geographers and ethnographers worked to naturalize the kingdom's borders with India and Central Asia in ways that shaped Roman and later medieval understandings of "the East." In the West, Seleucid rulers turned their backs on Macedonia, shifting their sense of homeland to Syria. By mapping the Seleucid kings' travels and studying the cities they founded--an ambitious colonial policy that has influenced the Near East to this day--Kosmin shows how the empire's territorial identity was constructed on the ground. In the empire's final century, with enemies pressing harder and central power disintegrating, we see that the very modes by which Seleucid territory had been formed determined the way in which it fell apart.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Maps

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Introduction

PART I. Border

CHAPTER 1. India - Diplomacy and Ethnography at the Mauryan Frontier

CHAPTER 2. Central Asia - Nomads, Ocean, and the Desire for Line

PART II. Homeland

CHAPTER 3. Macedonia - From Center to Periphery

CHAPTER 4. Syria - Diasporic Imperialism

INTERLUDE

PART III. Movement

CHAPTER 5. Arrivals and Departures

CHAPTER 6. The Circulatory System

PART IV. Colony

CHAPTER 7. King Makes City

CHAPTER 8. City Makes King

Conclusion

APPENDIX. NOTES. GLOSSARY. REFERENCES. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. INDEX

APPENDIX

Notes

Glossary

References

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780674416178

0674416171

9780674416161

0674416163

OCLC:

880579536