The Introduction set the scene with Cavafy’s Fame of the Ptolemies, in which a boastful Ptolemaic king singles out his Seleucid neighbour as his biggest rival. This rivalry is at the heart of this book: Beyond Alexandria sets out to show how much the literary production of these two empires influenced each other. In order to achieve, the key point that this book puts forward is that a connected body of Seleucid literature existed and that this term is a meaningful, interpretative concept. After setting out the main goals of this book, the Introduction briefly discusses the scholarship that has provided the foundation for the arguments set out in the chapters. In addition, it outlines the chronological framework underlying the texts and authors discussed in this book. In the second part of the Introduction, two key concepts used in this book are discussed in more depth: the concept of royal ideology and the definition of literature in general.

The chapter aims to demonstrate that Seleucid writings from and about Babylon provide insight into the ways in which literature was used to construct and reflect practices of empire. The literature dealing with Babylonia is of special significance because of the important ideological position Babylon held in the Seleucid imagination. To unpack this point further, the chapter analyses the Borsippa Cylinder as Seleucid literature, by arguing that King Antiochus I combined motifs from Mesopotamian kingship and Hellenistic royal practices to create a narrative of Seleucid euergetism embedded in, rather than superimposed upon, Babylonian traditions of kingship. The second part of the chapter argues that the Babylonian elites reciprocated the king’s offer of benefaction by offering him the tradition of Babylonian kingship, and by extension, universal dominion. The chapter concludes by looking at Ptolemaic attempts to match Seleucid prowess in the field of indigenous history. It is argued that, just as Seleucid Berossus had responded to the Ptolemaic Hecataeus, Manetho provided a Ptolemaic-Egyptian version of history to match the history of Babylon by Berossus.

The third chapter discusses a moment of profound crisis in Seleucid history: the dynastic strife between the two wives of Antiochus II resulting in the Third Syrian War. It argues that Callimachus’ Lock of Berenice can be read as a poetic commentary on a key moment of crisis for the Seleucid Empire, in that it subtly contrasts the failure of a Seleucid dynastic marriage with the success of the Ptolemaic royal couple, which is placed in an unbroken tradition that reaches back via Arsinoe II and Ptolemy II to Berenice I and Ptolemy I. In the second part of the chapter, it is argued that Callimachus exploits Ptolemaic royal propaganda to cast the Seleucids as the heirs of the Persians and other Eastern empires, rather than a Greek kingdom. The final part of the chapter draws out the broader poetic implications of anti-Seleucid polemic by looking at the Aetia and the Hymn to Apollo.

The fourth chapter explores the literature composed at the court of Antiochus III. First, it discusses literary engagements with the Galatians used to assert authority over Asia Minor against the Attalids. The poetry of Simonides of Magnesia celebrating a Seleucid king fighting the Galatians fits well into the political climate of that time. The second part of the chapter looks at Euphorion of Chalcis, a well-known poet who could be considered an heir of Callimachus. Euphorion never travelled to Alexandria and instead worked for Antiochus III, and his poetry shows a clear interest in Seleucid motives and themes. The chapter ends with a discussion of the work of Hegesianax of Alexandria Troas in the context of Seleucid interactions with Rome. It is shown that his work had a political dimension: Hegesianax’ history of the Troad also included an account of the foundation of Rome and its alleged links with Troy.

The chapter considers the geographical literature of early Seleucid writers. It is argued that the first generation of Seleucid geographers appropriated the eastern regions of the Seleucid Empire with their works, often prioritizing useful political narratives over geographical accuracy. As literature, these works seem inexorably linked to the ambition of the early Seleucid court, especially its desire to assert its dominance over vast and previously unchartered territories. Patrocles, for instance, wrote a description of the coastal regions of the Caspian Sea and the Asian river system, parts of which appear to be pure invention. However, his puzzling claims evoked the image of a world empire stretching as far as the edge of the Ocean, bolstering the prestige of the Seleucids. Another work on the north-eastern regions of the empire, by Demodamas, establishes an image of transcendental rule, an image which he anchors in a specifically Hellenistic view of the succession of empires. Thirdly, Megasthenes used his Indica to convey the idea of imperial domination through knowledge, expressed in a colonial key and backed up by targeted cultural reimaginations and precise measurements. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenge to Seleucid geography from Alexandria in the form of Eratosthenes, who overturned the Seleucid knowledge of Asia and India while reflecting a distinctly Ptolemaic view of the world.