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==Birth of the Seleucid Empire==

Before the Babylonian War, Seleucus was just another warlord. In the aftermath of the Babylonian War, he could greatly expand his empire. The victor turned east to consolidate his vast territories and after an unsuccessful campaign in modern Pakistan, he concluded a treaty with Chandragupta Mauryan. The Indian emperor received the extreme eastern parts of the of the Empire of Alexander and in return, gave Seleucus a formidable force of several hundred war elephants. Despite these concession by the Macedonian, he was the strongest of the Diadochi and this was to prove decisive in the years ahead. There are many reasons why Seleucus entered into an agreement with the Mauryan Empire. He recognized that he could not defend the territories he conceded, and their concession allowed him to concentrate on his core territories. The Macedonian on his return could use the wealth of Babylon to create a huge army. He also made Babylon and its hinterland in Southern Iraq the core area of his newly emerging Empire<ref> Bennet, vol ii, p. 67</ref>. With the resources available to him he could set up an administration and developed an efficient system of governance for his new territories. Seleucus founded the city of Seleucia, named after himself and this became his new capital<ref> Paul J. Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), p. 114</ref>. By 305 BC Seleucus was the de-facto ruler of the greatest of the successor kingdom and he built a state that was to last. A brilliant administrator he created a state that was based on a system of semi-autonomous satrapies and Greek and Macedonian colonies. The state he built was enduring and it even survived his assassination in 281 BCE.

The victory of Seleucus in the Babylonian War was a turning point in the struggles of the successor of Alexander the Great. Because Antigonus was unable to recapture Babylon, it allowed Seleucus to create a vast Empire in the east. The resources that he could raise, including war elephants, proved decisive in the Fourth Diadochi War. The importance of Seleucus victory in the war of 311-309 BCE was that it virtually guaranteed the destruction of the Antigonid kingdom and ended the last attempt to unify the Macedonian successor kingdoms. After the death of Cassander and Lysimachus in rapid succession, the Ptolemies and the Seleucids controlled the majority of Alexander's former empire, with Macedonia being ruled by a member of the Antigonid dynasty until the 1st century. The other important consequence of the Babylonian War was that a new dynasty emerged; the Seleucid dynasty. Seleucus was so successful that he could hand his sprawling Empire over to this son and heir who was a competent leader and ruler. The Macedonian was able to establish a dynasty because of his victory over Antigonus. The dynasty that he found was to rule large areas of Asia for almost two hundred years and played a decisive role in the history of that region. The last Seleucid king was only deposed by Pompey the Great in the first century BC. This would not have been possible without his victory in the Babylonian War.

==References==