Demodamas

Demodamas

Demodamas

Seleucid official of the 3rd century BC


Demodamas (Greek: Δημοδάμας) (flourished in the 3rd century BC), was a Seleucid official of the 3rd century BC. Demodamas was born in Miletus, and was the son of Aristides. He served as a general of the Seleucids under Seleucus I Nicator and Antiochus I Soter. Around 294–293 and 281–280 BC, Demodamas served as the satrap of the Seleucids in Bactria and Sogdiana. At the time, he undertook military expeditions across the Syr Darya to explore the lands of the Scythians, during which he traveled farther to the north than any Greeks before him, with the possible exception of Alexander the Great. During the expedition, he repopulated Alexandria Eschate, which had been destroyed by a previous barbarian attack.[1] He also constructed several altars in honour of Apollo along the river.[2] Demodamas later wrote an autobiographical account of his expeditions in Central Asia, which served as an important source for the Roman geographers Strabo and Pliny the Elder.[2]

See also


Footnotes

  1. "Demodamas | Seleucid general". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  2. Kosmin 2014, pp. 61–67

Sources


Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Demodamas, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.