Seleucus

Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 6

After Alexander’s death, Seleucus fled to Ptolemy (son of Lagus), fearing Antigonus (father of Demetrius)’s arrival at Babylon. He later returned, defeated Antigonus’s army and killed him, then captured Demetrius (son of Antigonus) when he came against him with an army. After Lysandra fled to him with her sons and brothers, Philetærus offered him his allegiance and money; Seleucus later defeated and killed Lysimachus in Asia Minor.

He handed his power in Asia Minor to his son Antiochus (son of Seleucus) and set out for Macedonia, but Ptolemy the brother of Lysandra, who had fled to him from Lysimachus, secretly killed him at Lysimachia. Seleucus had built Seleucia on the Tigris without destroying Babylon’s wall or Bel’s temple, and restored the brazen Apollo carried away by Xerxes to the Milesians at Branchidæ.