Seleucus I Nicator - Early Career Under Alexander The Great

Early Career Under Alexander The Great

In spring 334 BC, as a young man of about twenty-three, Seleucus accompanied Alexander into Asia. By the time of the Indian campaigns beginning in late in 327 BC, he had risen to the command of the élite infantry corps in the Macedonian army, the "Shield-bearers" (Hypaspistai), later known as the "Silvershields". It is said that when Alexander crossed the Hydaspes river on a boat, he was accompanied by Perdiccas, Ptolemy I Soter, Lysimachus and also Seleucus. During the subsequent Battle of the Hydaspes River, Seleucus led his troops against the elephants of King Porus. It is likely that Seleucus had no role in the actual planning of the battle. He is also not mentioned as holding any major independent position during the battle, unlike, for example, Craterus, Hephaistion, Peithon and Leonnatus – each of whom had sizable detachments under his control. Seleucus' Royal Hypaspistai were constantly under Alexander's eye and at his disposal. They later participated in the Indus valley campaign, in the battles fought against the Malli and in the crossing of the Gedrosian desert.

Seleucus also took his future wife, the Persian princess Apama (daughter of Spitamenes), with him into India as his mistress, where she gave birth to his bastard eldest son and successor Antiochus I Soter (325 BC). At the great marriage ceremony at Susa in the spring of 324 BC, Seleucus formally married Apama, and she later bore him at least two legitimate daughters, Laodice, Apama and a son Achaeus. At the same event, Alexander married the daughter of Darius III while several other Macedonians married Persian women. After Alexander's death, when the other senior Macedonian officers unloaded their "Susa wives" en masse, Seleucus was one of the very few who kept his, and Apama remained his consort and later Queen for the rest of her life.

Seleucus is mentioned three times in ancient sources before the death of Alexander. He participated in a sailing trip near Babylon, took part in the dinner party of Medeios the Thessalian with Alexander and visited the temple of Sarapis. In the first of these episodes, Alexander's diadem was blown off his head and landed on some reeds near the tombs of Assyrian kings. Seleucus swam to fetch the diadem back, placing it on his own head while returning to the boat to keep it dry. The validity of the story is dubious. The story of the dinner party of Medeios may be true, but the plot to poison the King is unlikely. In the final story, Seleucus reportedly slept in the temple of Sarapis in the hope that Alexander's health might improve. The validity of this story is also questionable.