The Treaty a Retreating Empire Signed

Treaties like this one are rarely signed by the side that came out ahead.

Why Seleucus came east

Alexander died in 323 BCE, suddenly and at the height of his power, leaving his conquests with no obvious heir.

The generals who had served him spent the next decades carving his empire into rival kingdoms of their own.

Seleucus secured the largest share - territory running from the eastern Mediterranean to the frontiers of India.

And around 305 BCE he looked east, wanting what Alexander had left unfinished. To pull the Indian lands his old commander had marched through back into a Greek-ruled empire.