The Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Antigonid kingdoms

horse parsley, son of king Philip II and Olympias was born in 356 B. C. E, and at age 19, became king of Macedon. With a great host at his disposal and his brilliant military mind, he started his conquest. From 337-323 B. C. E Alexander conquered Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and a large part of Asia. Alexander ruled from Macedonia to the northern part of India. He defeated the Persians numerous prison terms with his incredible military strategies, even when his armies were outnumbered by almost 200,000 Persian soldiers.The sheer size of his empire was unlike anything constantly seen before but when he died in 323 B.C. E, the three main argonas he conquered (Greece/Macedonia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia/ Asia) were split up and became their own kingdoms. The subject that was once Greece and Macedonia became the Antigonid terra firma, the Egyptian are became the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Asia/ Mesopotamia area became the Seleucid Kingdom. The Ptolemaic Kingdom came about when genius of Alexanders cavalry companions, Ptolemy, took his loyal troops to the Egyptian area to take over the wealthy belt down. Once there, Ptolemy diverted Alexanders body to Egypt, which was originally being sent to Macedonia for burial.Once in Alexandria, Ptolemy took Alexanders body and built a massive and imposing tomb for his of late king. After defending Egypt from some of Alexanders other generals who cute Egypt, the Ptolemies ruled Egypt as their god/kings. This only took place after they afflicted up a bargain with the Egyptian priests and in which the Egyptians could continue living(a) under the same Egyptian god belief system plot the Ptolemies ruled as kings. Along with that agreement, the Ptolemies promised to allow the priests to maintain the up retentiveness of their temples and deceased pharaohs.The Ptolemies departed from the beliefs and rules set forth by Philip and Alexander by allowing the Queens of the rulers more power then they ever had before. The perfect p illowcase of this was Cleopatra VII who even challenged the growing power of Rome. The Ptolemies also didnt in truth blend with the Egyptians, which was a major idea Alexander wanted to prepare happen (the blending of Page 2 cultures). This can be seen when the Ptolemies stayed in Alexandria conducting business and trading with Rome, where the Egyptians maintained their old religion.The Seleicid Kingdom is named after cardinalness of Ptolemys generals, Seleusid. After the death of Alexander, Seleusid entered Babylon in 311 B. C. E and captured the imperial hoarded wealth there. With the vast wealth at his disposal, Seleusid claimed the consume as the old heartland of Persia. regrettably because the area was so large, Seleusid had to trade tail northern India and eventually lose Asia Minor. Seleusid imported Greek and Macedonian bureaucrats and colonists. North of Babylonia a new metropolis was built and it was named Seleucia and would eventually die its capital.Knowing that trade with the eastern countries were vital to their survival, Seleucids major cities were built around trade routes that connected the countries. Around 20,000 Macedonians came to Seleusid and they snarl as if they were world conquerors and felt they needed to be compensated. The Macedonians were given a significant amount of farmland because when they arrived, Seleusid realized that these people were the certifybone of their companionship because they had no religion already set up in the area. impertinent the past rulers, Philip and Alexander, Seleusid was very unhappy about expanding, rather he was worried about losing land.This was because when Seleusid came to Babylon to start his new Kingdom, he had only brought a fewer military forces with him. This was a problem because he watchled so much land that he didnt perk up enough military personnel to control the kingdom. If I was in Seleusids position I would have asked for everyone in the old countries such as Greece and Macedonia to come over. Doing so would give me a much larger army and then I would not have to worry about losing land, rather I could expand. The last area of land left was Alexanders home country, Macedonia, and Greece which he conquered.This land would become Antigonids once Alexander died and would be situated in Greece. The kings of Antigonids were descendants of Antigonus the one eyed, who was a general in Alexanders army when Alexander died. Unfortunately, Antigonus died without conquering the land, but his descendants eventually claimed Macedonia and Greece as Antigonids. At the time of Alexanders death, many of Alexanders treasures that he took were taken back to Page 3 Macedonia. It was said that the last shipment taken back to Macedonia before Alexanders death took 110 warships just to require all the treasure back.So the country was very wealthy but the wealth hardly even changed society. In fact, hardly anything had changed in Macedonia since Philip II was king. The a rmy in the kingdom still consisted of only Macedonia nobles who fought for the king and unfortunately in the 280s B. C. E the Gauls (group from the north) invaded Antigonids and caused them serious damage. Along with the damage from the north, in the south, the Greeks, who had neer really accepted the Macedonians, started revolting against the Antigonids.The Antigonids branched away from their past rulers, Philip II and Alexander by never expanding and never blending the neighboring cultures together. The Greeks never accepted the Antigonids rule and although total warefare never broke out, it damaged the Kingdom as a whole. Not only did the Kingdom fail to expand, they couldnt even keep their own citizens in tact. If I were any of the kings in the Antigonids kingdom, I would have tried to resolve the differences with Greece and the Gauls because if they could have become allies, there would have been room for expansion.