Babylon and the rise of the seleucids: the impacts of imperial integration in the local elite and scribal culture

• Grant number: 21/09825-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: February 15, 2022
• End date: May 15, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Aparecido Rede
• Grantee: Santiago Colombo Reghin
• Supervisor: Julien Monerie
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité (ArScAn), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/04735-9 - The intelectual elite of Babylon and the formation of the Seleucid Empire: Alterations and influences in the cuneiforme culture (IV-III a.C.), BP.MS

Abstract

In the period after the death of Alexander the Great, the newly formed Hellenistic Empires were in need to co-opt the local elites to assure their stability and conditions of expansion. The Seleucid Empire inherited most of the territories conquered by Alexander and, like him, established its initial core in Babylonia. The relations between the Seleucid imperial agents and the Babylonian priestly local elite are the focus of this project. I will examine how the organization of this elite and its scholarly tradition reacted and how they were affected by the integration process within the empire and, by consequence, within the broader Hellenistic World. To best understand this process, I propose two steps of investigation. First, I will analyse how the Empire re-structured the local elite organizations, measuring the imperial presence and levels of interventions as recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles and the Astronomical Diaries. Second, I will inquire the current historiographical and literary sources - like the Dynastic Prophecy, the Brosippa's Cylinder, and the Babyloniaca - to see how the literate priestly elite represented the Seleucid Empire and related it to their own history, kings and gods. I argue that both steps can show the imperial impact in Babylon and the local agency and expectations about the Empire. (AU)