The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns

This is a study of the organization and tactics of the Seleucid armies from 312 to 129 BC. In the first part of the book Dr Bar-Kochva discusses the numerical strength of the armies, their sources of man-power, the contingents of the regular army, their equipment and historical development, the chain of command, training and discipline. In the second part he reconstructs the great campaigns (Ipsus, Cyrrhestica, Porphyrion, Molon, Raphia, the Elburz, Panion, Thermopylae, Magnesia, Beith Zacharia and Elasa) in order to examine and illustrate in detail the Seleucid tactics. The book provides a lesson in Hellenistic and military history and discusses a number of questions: How did the Hellenistic armies develop after Alexander? What distinguished the Seleucid army from its Hellenistic contemporaries and assured its superiority? The answers illuminate the expansion of Hellenism as we learn how the Seleucid army was used as a military, social and cultural instrument to impose the rule of the dynasty over the vast regions of the Empire and how it helped to shape Hellenistic society in the East.