In the last resort, the power of the Seleucids rested on force, that is on the army; the king first and last was a victorious captain. Of fourteen Seleucids who reigned between 312 and 129 B.C. only two died in bed. Two infant kings were murdered. Ten kings died on campaign. The backbone of the army was the phalanx of heavy infantry recruited among the Macedonian colonists and supported by heavy cavalry. The Seleucids could throw as many as 72,000 men into battle. Only a small part of them came from Iran: c. 12,000 out of 68,000 at Raphia in 217 B.C. The Iranians served as light infantry, and mostly came from the "wild" tribes, such as the Cissii who held travellers to ransom on the way from Susa to Ecbatana. Why did the Seleucids neglect men from Persia proper (Fars), reputed to be the best soldiers in Iran, and the splendid Iranian horse which was the mainstay of the Greek kings of Bactria? An explanation may perhaps be found in the following. Alexander began to drill an army of Iranians - and modern scholars praise him for this expression of universal brotherhood; and because he was king of Macedonia, he would have been able to keep his soldiers in check. But the Seleucids had no nation behind them; an Iranian army, necessarily recruited and commanded by native chieftains, would have delivered the fate of the dynasty to the caprice and interest of native potentates. History confirmed the judgement of the Seleucids. The army of the Arsacids, their Parthian successors in Iran, essentially consisted of a retinue of great lords who naturally became royal governors and masters of their respective fiefs. To mobilize his host, the Parthian king had to appeal to his satraps. The financial organization of Seleucid Iran remains almost unknown. We know the titles of some tax officials, but do not know anything about the actual taxation. Seleucid coins show, however, that the monetary system was uniform throughout the Empire. Only the royal coin was legal tender; foreign silver circulated as bullion. The essential unit was the silver piece of four drachms, that is about 17 grams weight. There were several mints in Iran, and each of them had a considerable autonomy in the choice of types and legends of coins. As the Seleucid standard was identical with the Attic standard which was followed in the greater part of the Hellenistic world, the trade from the Indian Ocean to the Adriatic Sea was based on the same monetary system. On the other hand, the Ptolemies of Egypt used a different standard (a four drachm piece of c. 14.4 grams), and this meant the economic division of the Hellenistic world into two monetary blocks.
Seleucid Empire and Heritage of Greek Polis in Persia
