Seleucid Iran: 247 BCE and after

The frame

The Met's timeline for Iran, 1000 BCE-1 CE dates the "Seleucid period" 323-247 BCE. Under "331-247 B.C." it says that the armies of Alexander of Macedon defeat the Persians, that after his death in Babylon his successors divide the empire, and that Iran, Mesopotamia and Syria fall under the rule of Seleucus I, who founds the Seleucid dynasty; Hellenistic art and culture emerge from a fusion of Near Eastern and classical Greek traditions. The row's geography on this site is mainly western Iran. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

247 BCE is not the end of Seleucid rule everywhere in Iran. In the same timeline it is the year in which Arsaces I founds the Parthian (Arsacid) dynasty in northern Iran, and the page says only that by 113 BCE his successors control much of the former Seleucid empire. In western Iran, according to the report by Rahbar and Alibaigi, a Greek inscription from Nahavand dates a temple to the reign of Antiochus III (223-187 BC), decades after 247. The row's end is therefore the Parthian founding date, and the Seleucid and Parthian rows overlap in practice; the site does not move the boundary but states the overlap. There is an interval at the start too: the list ends the Achaemenid period at ca. 330 BCE, and the years to 323 are covered by the entry on Alexander's conquest. Sources 1, 2.

On this site

Two items, both placed here by their source's attribution and not by a year within 323-247: the article "Laodicea at Nahavand: tracing a Greek temple", on a temple attested by an inscription and by finds from one location, but not by an excavated building; and the article "Bisotun after Darius: a Seleucid Heracles and Parthian reliefs", on a Heracles figure with a Greek inscription of 148 BCE that Iranica calls Seleucid. Sources 2, 3.

What is still missing

Both items on this site are later than 247 BCE and are placed here by their sources' attribution, not by a year within 323-247. A site or object from Iran that an institutional source dates to those years themselves is still missing. The Met's timeline page for Iran, 1000 BCE-1 CE names no Seleucid site in Iran in its key events. Source 1.