Seleucid dynasty

The Seleucid dynasty or the Seleucidae (/sɪˈluːsɪˌdiː/; Greek: Σελευκίδαι, Seleukídai, "descendants of Seleucus") was a Macedonian Greek royal family, which ruled the Seleucid Empire based in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, a general and successor of Alexander the Great, after the division of the Macedonian Empire as a result of the Wars of the Successors (Diadochi).

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Seleucids Σελευκίδαι
312 BC – 64 BC Royal house
The Vergina Sun remained a principal standard of the Seleucid dynasty, although the anchor and elephant were more prevalent.
Country	Syria, Persia
Founded	312 BC
Founder	Seleucus I
Final ruler	Philip II Philoromaeus
Titles	Lord of Asia Shahanshah Basileus of Persia Basileus of Syria King of Babylonia King of Armenia King of Macedon (claimed)
Dissolution	64 BC
Cadet branches	Diodotid dynasty (Bactria)(?)

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Through its history, the Seleucid dominion included large parts of the Near East, as well as of the Asian territory of the earlier Achaemenid Persian Empire. A major center of Hellenistic culture, it attracted a large number of immigrants from Greece who, encouraged by the Seleucids, formed a dominant political elite under the ruling dynasty.^[1] After the death of Seleucus I, his successors maintained the empire's strength establishing it as a Greek power in West Asia;^[2] the empire reached its height under emperor Antiochus III.^[3] From the mid-second century BC, after its defeat at the hands of the resurgent Parthian Empire, the polity entered a state of instability with slow territorial losses and internecine civil wars. The Seleucids, now reduced to a rump state occupying a small part of Syria succumbed to the Rome's annexation of their territory in 64 BC under Pompey the Great.