Seleucus I Nicator

(born c. 358, Europus, Macedonia—died August/September 281 BC, near Lysimachia, Thrace) Macedonian army officer, founder of the Seleucid dynasty. After the death of Alexander the Great, under whom he had served, Seleucus won an empire centred on Syria and Iran. Having been ousted by Antigonus I Monophthalmus and serving Ptolemy, Seleucus reconquered Babylon in 312. He declared himself king in 305. By 303 he had extended his empire to India. In 301 he helped defeat Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus and received Syria, later taking southern Syria from Ptolemy. A marriage alliance with Demetrius I Poliorcetes's daughter soured, and in 294, when his son became sick with love for Seleucus's wife (the son's stepmother), he gave her to him and made the son coregent. Hoping to reestablish Alexander's empire, Seleucus captured Demetrius (285) and defeated Lysimachus (281), another of Alexander's former generals who had become a satrap in Asia Minor. Later while attempting to enter Macedonia, he was murdered.

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