The Hellenistic world extended across the kingdoms created from Alexander's conquests rather than ending at the borders of Greece. The selected Seleucid example combines a capable new king with a dynasty damaged by executions and recurring civil war. Rebellions in Judea and Mesopotamia forced the ruler to fight on several fronts even after military successes. Marriage politics created further claimants and liabilities as the Macedonian dynastic line weakened. The book makes Roman expansion easier to understand by showing the internal fragmentation of the states Rome confronted.
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Greece Against Rome and the Hellenistic kingdoms
Philip Matyszak's Greece Against Rome broadens the story beyond Greece to the successor kingdoms whose civil wars and succession crises eased Roman expansion.