Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire

In this eye-opening book, Paul J. Kosmin explains how the Seleucid Empire's invention of a new kind of time--and the rebellions against this worldview--transformed the way we organize our thoughts about the past, present, and future.In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests, the Seleucid kings ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia to Anatolia, Armenia to the Persian Gulf. In a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, this Graeco-Macedonian imperial power introduced a linear and transcendent conception of time. Under Seleucid rule, time no longer restarted with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years, identical to the system we use today--continuous, irreversible, accumulating--became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world. Challenging this order, however, were rebellious subjects who resurrected their pre-Hellenistic pasts and created apocalyptic time frames that predicted the total end of history. The interaction of these complex and competing temporalities, Kosmin argues, led to far-reaching religious, intellectual, and political developments.__Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire__opens a new window onto empire, resistance, and the meaning of history in the ancient world. Winner of the Runciman AwardWinner of the Charles J. Goodwin Award“Tells the story of how the Seleucid Empire revolutionized chronology by picking a Year One and counting from there, rather than starting a new count, as other states did, each time a new monarch was crowned...Fascinating.”—Harper'sIn the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests, his successors, the Seleucid kings, ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia and Anatolia to the Persian Gulf. In 305 BCE, in a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, Seleucus I introduced a linear conception of time. Time would no longer restart with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years—continuous and irreversible—became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire and identical to the system we use today, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world.Some rebellious subjects, eager to resurrect their pre-Hellenic past, rejected this new approach and created apocalyptic time frames, predicting the total end of history. In this magisterial work, Paul Kosmin shows how the Seleucid Empire's invention of a new kind of time—and the rebellions against this worldview—had far reaching political and religious consequences, transforming the way we organize our thoughts about the past, present, and future.“Without Paul Kosmin's meticulous investigation of what Seleucus achieved in creating his calendar without end we would never have been able to comprehend the traces of it that appear in late antiquity...A magisterial contribution to this hitherto obscure but clearly important restructuring of time in the ancient Mediterranean world.”—G. W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books“With erudition, theoretical sophistication, and meticulous discussion of the sources, Paul Kosmin sheds new light on the meaning of time, memory, and identity in a multicultural setting.”—Angelos Chaniotis, author of Age of Conquests Time And Resistance In The Seleucid Empire Investigates The Relationship Between The Formal Temporal Structures Projected By The Seleucid Imperial Court And The Indigenous Temporalities That Responded To, Undermined, And Ultimately Resisted These. The Complex And Competing Temporalities Of The Hellenistic East - A Site Of Intense Creativity In Conceptualizing Time - Have Either Been Unnoticed In Scholarship Or Treated In Isolation. Understanding The Interactions Of These Time Systems As A Coherent Phenomenon Of Cultural And Political History Will Provide New Contexts And Integrated Explanations For Questions Central To Both The Classical Mediterranean World - Such As Post-alexander State Formation And Hellenization - And Near Eastern And Religious Studies - Such As Textual Canonization And The Emergence Of Apocalyptic Theologies. The Book's First Half Explores, Above All, The Invention And Institutionalization Of The Seleucid Era Year Count. This Was The World's First Continuous, Irreversible, Accumulating, And Transcendent Count Of Historical Duration. The Second Part Examines The Seleucid Subjects' Intellectual, Religious, And Political Responses To This Radically New Temporal Order. These Include, Most Significantly, The First Emergence Of Apocalyptic Eschatology, That Is, Total Histories Of The World, From Beginning To Predicted End.-- I. Imperial Present: The Seleucid Era And Its Epoch -- A Government Of Dating -- Dynastic Time -- Ii. Indigenous Past And Future: Total History 1: Rupture And Historiography -- Total History 2: Periodization And Apocalypse -- Altneuland: Resistance And The Resurrected State. Paul J. Kosmin. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In this eye-opening book, Paul J. Kosmin explains how the Seleucid Empire's invention of a new kind of time--and the rebellions against this worldview--transformed the way we organize our thoughts about the past, present, and future. In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests, the Seleucid kings ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia to Anatolia, Armenia to the Persian Gulf. In a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, this Graeco-Macedonian imperial power introduced a linear and transcendent conception of time. Under Seleucid rule, time no longer restarted with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years, identical to the system we use today--continuous, irreversible, accumulating--became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world. Challenging this order, however, were rebellious subjects who resurrected their pre-Hellenistic pasts and created apocalyptic time frames that predicted the total end of history. The interaction of these complex and competing temporalities, Kosmin argues, led to far-reaching religious, intellectual, and political developments. Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire opens a new window onto empire, resistance, and the meaning of history in the ancient world. Time and Resistance in the Seleucid Empire investigates the relationship between the formal temporal structures projected by the Seleucid imperial court and the indigenous temporalities that responded to, undermined, and ultimately resisted these. The complex and competing temporalities of the Hellenistic East - a site of intense creativity in conceptualizing time - have either been unnoticed in scholarship or treated in isolation. Understanding the interactions of these time systems as a coherent phenomenon of cultural and political history will provide new contexts and integrated explanations for questions central to both the classical Mediterranean world - such as post-Alexander state formation and "Hellenization" - and Near Eastern and religious studies - such as textual canonization and the emergence of apocalyptic theologies. The book's first half explores, above all, the invention and institutionalization of the Seleucid Era year count. This was the world's first continuous, irreversible, accumulating, and transcendent count of historical duration. The second part examines the Seleucid subjects' intellectual, religious, and political responses to this radically new temporal order. These include, most significantly, the first emergence of apocalyptic eschatology, that is, total histories of the world, from beginning to predicted end.-- Provided by publisher