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311 B.C. "First year of Seleucus is the seventh (of Alexander IV)" says a later astronomical text." Why Seleucus placed in 311-0 the beginning of his Babylonian kingdom, we are unable to say because his progress toward empire still remains almost unknown.20 When Seleucus later became Basileus he naturally kept the numbering of his regnal years already used by the natives, but by the same fact he put back the beginning of his kingship for the Macedonians in the year 312, owing to the difference between the Macedonian and Babylonian dating. For argument's sake, let us suppose, for instance, that he was proclaimed Basileus in 304 B.C. It was his 8th year of reign in Babylon, but for himself and his court it was still the year 13 of Alexander IV, running from the end of 305 to the end of 304. Thus was given the equation year 13 of Alexander IV = year 8 of Seleucus and consequently, year 1 of Seleucus became identified with year 6 of Alexander IV, that is 312-311 B. C. In other terms., the paradox of Seleucid double reckoning is created by the fiction that Seleucus was already king at Nisanu 1 (April 3) 311, which date falls in the 7th year of Alexander IV, according to the Babylonian computation, but belongs to the year 6, starting in the autumn 312, of the same king, as to the Macedonian reckoning.21

II. Antiochus Hierax and Attalus I

Antiochus Hierax, brother of Seleucus II and his viceroy in Asia Minor north of the Taurus, came into conflict with his sovereign after the "War of Laodice" between Syria and Egypt, terminated in 241.22 The fraternal war was ended sometime before 236 B.C. Defeated at Ancyra, Seleucus abandoned the lands beyond the Taurus to Antiochus, who had assumed the royal title.23 Then, Antiochus Hierax clashed with Attalus, the ruler of

19. Olmstead, Classical Philology, 1937, p. 4. Cf. below, n. 21.
20. In the Babylonian chronicle (n. 13), the account of the year 3 11 is broken. We may note that the popular theory that a Babylonian king received investiture from god Marduk at Nisanu 1 has no foundation. Cf. Labat, Le Caractère Religieux de la Royauté Assyro-Babylonienne, 1939, p. 175. The assumed rite cannot, therefore, account for the dating of Seleucus' kingship from 311.
21. The dating to Alexander IV was calculated in Babylon, quite naturally, from his accession late in 317, so that his second year began at Nisanu I, 316. In reality, he was recognized in Babylon in the summer of 312. See above, n. 11.
22. The War of Laodice was ended between the summer 241 (the end of the Punic war: Eutrop. III, 1, 1) and before early summer 240, as shown by OGIS, 55. Cf. Dittenberger ad l. n. 5 and Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, IV, 2, p. 540. On the other hand, the war was still being waged when Smyrna concluded the treaty with Magnesia. The terminus post

   

quem for this instrument (OGIS, 229) is the grant of asylia to Smyrna, in the spring 242 (see now Flacelière, Les Aitoliens à Delphes, 1937, p. 237). At the time when the inscription is set up, Seleucus II has again crossed the Taurus into Seleucis. Now, in 242-1 he relieved Damascus and Orthosia which were beleaguered by the Egyptians (Porphyr. 260 fr. 32, 8 apud Jacoby, FrGrH). Since the treaty was concluded in the month Lenaion, about February (cf. Robert, REA, 1936, p. 23), its date is winter 241. Accordingly, the text does not mention Antiochus Hierax, who received the transTauric country when, some time later, Seleucus was beaten by the Egyptians (Just. XXVII 2,4) - We may place the battle, the nomination and consequent intervention of Antiochus Hierax in the summer of 241, and the peace may have been concluded in the fall of 241. 23. W. W. Tarn, CAH, VII, p. 720. Cf. Newell, WM, 392; Séleucides, p. 18. The inscription apud Schliemann, Trojamische Altertümer, 1902, p. 326, no. 9665 belongs, probably, to the reign of Antiochus Hierax.

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