Between 152 and 138 BC a series of wars from Africa to India produced a
radically new geopolitical situation. In 150 Rome was confined to the
western Mediterranean, and the largest state was the Seleukid Empire. By
140 Rome had spread to the borders of Asia Minor and the Seleukid Empire
was confined to Syria. The new great power in the Middle East was
Parthia, stretching from Babylonia to Baktria. These two divided the
western world between them until the Arab conquests in the seventh
century AD.
These wars have generally been treated separately, but they were
connected. The crisis began in Syria with the arrival of the pretender
Alexander Balas; his example was copied by Andriskos in Macedon,
formerly in Seleukid service; the reaction of Rome to defiance in
Macedon, Greece and Africa produced conquest and destruction. The
preoccupation of Seleukid kings with holding on to their thrones allowed
Mithradates I of Parthia to conquer Iran and Babylonia and in Judaea an
insurrection was partly successful. Mithradates was able conquer in part
because his other enemy, Baktria, was preoccupied with the nomad
invasions which led to the destruction of Ai Khanum. One of the reasons
for the nomad success in Baktria was the siphoning off of Greek strength
into India, where a major expedition in these very years breifly
conquered and sacked the old Indian imperial capital of Pataliputra.
In the process, the great cities of Carthage, Corinth, Ai Khanum, and
Pataliputra were destroyed, while Antioch and Seleukeia-on-the-Tigris
were extensively damaged. John Grainger's lucid narrative shows how
these seismic events, stretching from India to the Western
Meditteranean, interconnected to recast the ancient world.
