The Forgotten Greatness of Hellenism

A History of Mankind (165)

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Persistent wars for the Macedonian throne involving Pyrrhus of Epirus and his multiple sets of enemies, combined with a Seleucid focus on fighting the Ptolemies for control of wealthy Syria, created a power vacuum in Anatolia. This resulted in the rise of multiple Hellenistic kingdoms in the region – as well as the Armenian kingdom to their east, a less Hellenized region where Iranian influence remained strong.

That vacuum was specifically exposed by the murder of Seleucus I in 281 BC, while on the way to Macedon to recreate himself as the new Alexander. With his son Antiochus I in distant lands, Seleucid armies had no hope of stopping local warlords across Asia Minor from carving out their own domains; some, like Zipoetes of Bithynia, were already acting as independent kings from as early as 297 BC, while Mithridates I of Pontus may have crowned himself in 296 BC but delayed his actual elevation until Seleucus was killed.

Given the ethnic complexities of Anatolia, a land where Greeks, Iranians, Semites and even Gauls superimposed themselves over a Hurrian-Kaskan-Hittite substrate, it’s not surprising that many polities arose in the area and the Aegean coast.