The next change of rulers was that following upon the unworthy bearing of Antigonus with regard to Seleucus, Alexander the Great's favoured general, who had espoused his claims to the throne of the Eastern empire. After aiding Ptolemy of Egypt against Demetrius, son of Antigonus, he set out with a small force, and gathering recruits in his course, especially among the Babylonians, with whom he was popular, he entered their capital without opposition in 312 b.c., from which date the era of the Seleucidæ is regarded as beginning. How the Babylonians took the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris, which is often mentioned in the numerous astrological tablets of this period, is not recorded, but from the way in which they speak of the migration of the inhabitants of Babylonia to Seleucia implies that they took it greatly to heart.
“Blessed shall he be who serveth thee as thou hast served us,” sang the Psalmist when lamenting the captivity of the Jews at Babylon, and if success in conquest be a sign of blessedness, then Seleucus must [pg 477] have been happy indeed. The Babylonians could not have regarded the continual and increasing desolation of their city with indifference, however, and it is not impossible that their loyalty to their king suffered somewhat in consequence. This, to all appearance, found vent in expressions of regret, and an old lamentation, referring to the depredations of the Qutû at a period so remote that we can hardly, at this distance of time, estimate, and of which a copy was made for a certain Bêl-zēr-lîšir, might well express their feelings at this period:
“For the misfortunes of Erech, for the misfortunes of Agadé, I am stricken.
The Erechitess wept, that departed was her might, the Agaditess wept, that departed was her glory (?);
The daughter of Erech wept, the daughter of Agadé cried aloud;
As for the daughter of Larancha, in her garment her face was hidden.
The Ḫursagkalamitess wept, that her husband was in trouble;
The Ḫulḫutḫulitess wept, that cast down was her sceptre;
The Mašitess wept, that her 7 brothers were slain, that her brother-in-law was stricken.
The Agaditess wept, that her elder was slain, the lord of her well-being;