Seleucus I Nicator

Seleucus I Nicator took the largest share of Alexander's empire and founded a dynasty that lasted two and a half centuries. Born around 358 BC in Macedon, the son of one of Philip II's officers, he commanded the elite infantry shield-bearers under Alexander in India and married a Bactrian noblewoman, Apama, at the mass wedding at Susa — and, unlike most of the generals, never repudiated her. He was given Babylon in the division of 321 BC, was driven out by Antigonus in 316 BC, and served Ptolemy in Egypt before returning in 312 BC with about a thousand men and recovering the city. The Seleucid era was dated from that return, and it is the first continuous numbered chronological system. He then spent a decade taking the eastern provinces as far as the Indus. He fought Chandragupta Maurya around 305 BC and made peace on terms that tell against him: he ceded the eastern satrapies and received five hundred war elephants and a marriage alliance. The elephants decided Ipsus in 301 BC, where the coalition destroyed Antigonus, and Seleucus took Syria and much of Anatolia. He founded some sixty cities, including Seleucia on the Tigris, which drew the population of Babylon away, and Antioch, which became one of the largest cities in the world. He handed the eastern half to his son Antiochus in 294 BC, gave him his own young wife Stratonice when the young man fell ill with love for her, and defeated Lysimachus in 281 BC. He was murdered months later crossing into Europe.

• Lived: 358 BCE – 281 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: ruler, general