Between 152 and 138 BC a series of wars from Africa to India produced a radicall
y new geopolitical situation. In 150 Rome was confined to the western Mediterran
ean, and the largest state was the Seleukid empire. By 140 Rome had spread to th
e borders of Asia Minor and the Seleukid empire was confined to Syria.
The ne
w great power in the Middle East was Parthia, stretching from Babylonia to Baktr
ia. 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 preten
der Alexander Balas; his example was copied by Andriskos in Macedon, formerly in
Seleukid service; the reaction of Rome to defiance in Macedon, Greece and Afric
a produced conquest and destruction. The preoccupation of Seleukid kings with ho
lding on to their thrones allowed Mithradates I of Parthia to conquer Iran and B
abylonia, and in Judaea an insurrection was partly successful. Mithradates was a
ble conquer in part because his other enemy, Baktria, was preoccupied with the n
omad 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 In
dia, where a major expedition in these very years breifly conquered and sacked t
he old Indian imperial capital of Pataliputra. In the process the great cities o
f Carthage, Corinth, Ai Khanum, and Pataliputra were destroyed, while Antioch an
d Seleukeia-on-the-Tigris were extensively damaged. John Grainger's lucid narrat
ive shows how these seismic events, stretching from India to the Western Meditte
ranean, interconnected to recast the ancient world.
