The concluding part of John D Grainger's history of the Seleukids traces
the tumultuous last century of their empire. In this period it was riven
by dynastic disputes, secessions and rebellions, the
religiously-inspired insurrection of the Jewish Maccabees, civil war and
external invasion from Egypt in the West and the Parthians in the East.
By the 80s BC, the empire was disintegrating, internally fractured and
squeezed by the converging expansionist powers of Rome and Parthia. This
is a fittingly, dramatic and colourful conclusion to John Grainger's
masterful account of this once-mighty empire.