The Oxford History Of The Classical World

Alexander's followers aspired not only to his ideals but also to his lands. The twenty years following his death saw tortuous struggles between his kin and his generals as each attempted to establish himself as his sole successor.
The attempts failed, and by about 275 B.C. there had emerged the three kingdoms which were to dominate the eastern Mediterranean until the Romans came. First, Egypt. Ptolemy, who was granted Egypt at the death of
Alexander, succeeded in founding a dynasty which ruled the country until his most famous descendant, Cleopatra, was defeated by Augustus (31 B.C.). The Ptolemies also at various times controlled lands outside Egypt: Libya,
southern Syria, Cyprus, parts of southern Turkey, and the Aegean islands.

Map 6. Alexander's Journeys

Secondly, the eastern conquests of Alexander. The capture of Babylon in 312 by Seleucus marked the foundation of the Seleucid dynasty. Seleucid territory at its greatest extent was by far the largest of any of the Hellenistic
kingdoms; with its centre in Syria, it ranged from western Turkey through to Afghanistan. But it lost territory, both in the East and in the West. In the East there were two problems. The mountainous province of Bactria
(Afghanistan) was turned into an independent Greek kingdom (256 B.C.), and there also emerged the non-Greek kingdom of Parthia (c.238) which effectively blocked the Seleucids from the east.

In the West the Seleucids also lost ground. A new Greek kingdom of the Attalids with its capital at Pergamum was carved out of Seleucid territory in western Turkey. Though the first two Attalids (283-241) had been only
partially independent of the Seleucids, the victory of Attalus I over the Galatians (c.238) allowed him to assume the title of king. In the second century Attalid power was further increased by Rome, to whom the kingdom was
bequeathed by the last king (133). The Seleucid kingdom itself by the first century B.C. had been reduced (partly because of internal dissension) to a small area of northern Syria, and it finally fell into the hands of Rome (64 B.
C.).