THE FALL OF THE SELEUKID EMPIRE 187-75 BC

The Seleukid Empire was riven by dynastic disputes, secessions and rebellions, the religiously-inspired insurrection of the Jewish Maccabees, civil war and external invasion from Egypt and the Parthians. By the 80s BC, the empire was disintegrating, internally fractured and squeezed by the converging expansionist powers of Rome and Parthia.