ABSTRACT
Antigonus After Alexander's death, there followed a struggle between those who wanted to preserve a unified empire, led by Perdiccas, Antipater and Polyperchon, and some of the generals like Ptolemy in Egypt, and Lysimachus and Cassander in Europe, whose ambitions were mainly to carve out kingdoms of their own. The last upholder of the imperial idea was Antigonus 'the One-eyed' (Monophthalmos), who emerged around 316 Be as Alexander's successor. He installed Seleucus as governor in Babylonia, a measure which was to have lasting consequences. In 307 Be Antigonus, together with his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, started his project of restoring the unity of the empire of Alexander and the Achaemenids, which, however, ended in failure and defeat at Ipsus in 30 I Be. The Middle Eastern part of the empire was divided into two: Egypt ruled by Ptolemy and his successors in Alexandria, and the rest, i.e. Syria, Mesopotamia and Iran, together ruled by Seleucus and his successors residing in northern Syria. Palestine and adjacent regions were under Egypt, but became from now on a borderland and a strategic key region for the kings in both Alexandria and Antioch. This division of the Middle East had a certain similarity to the situation during late Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times. Palestine and the Suez isthmus, together with the people who lived there, were once again drawn into the strategic and political hot air. The area became a bone of contention between the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt. It is likely that the frankincense traffic from South Arabia was one of the key factors that placed control of this area on the agenda of the governments in both kingdoms. The struggle was to have consequences for world history, not only because it involved Arabs and gave them a crucial role in international politics, but also for the effect it had on conditions in Jewish Palestine where a new religion arose which was not to remain a local, although eccentric, Syrian cult but evolved into a world religion.
