The main regular expenses of the empire concerned the maintenance of armed forces and satrapal administration and the upkeep of king and court. Ad hoc expenditure aided the kings' foreign and domestic policies and included the funding of city construction, grants of tribute and taxation relief and gifts to cities, temples and individuals. And one should not forget losses suffered in war, in particular the Roman indemnity after Magnesia.

Expenditure was incurred both in silver and in kind and my theme has been that, increasingly, it took the form of silver, as this was what its major destination, the Seleukid armed forces, required. An attempt will be made in chapter 12.4 to estimate total expenditure.

MILITARY EXPENSES

No figures are given in the sources for the military costs of the Seleukids at any time and yet, as will be seen below, this represented the major expense item of the royal economy. This was a ‘spear-won’ empire, retaining its hold on the land, as its predecessors had done in the Near East, primarily through the threat and application of military force. An army was maintained in order to exact tribute and fed off the process of this tribute.