1.16.1 Here are placed bronze statues [andriantes], one, in front of the portico [stoā], of Solon, who wrote [graphein] the laws [nomoi] for the Athenians,^* and, a little farther away, one of Seleukos, whose future prosperity was foreshadowed by signs [sēmeia] that were not at all unclear [aphanes-]. When he was about to set forth from Macedonia with Alexander, and was sacrificing [thuein] at Pella to Zeus, the wood [xula] that was placed on the altar [bōmos] moved all-by-itself [automato-] toward the statue [agalma] and caught-fire [haptesthai] without the application of fire. After Alexander died, Seleukos, in fear of Antigonos, who had arrived at Babylon, fled to Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and then returned again to Babylon. On his return he overcame the army of Antigonos and killed Antigonos himself, afterwards capturing Demetrios, son of Antigonos, who had advanced with an army.

1.16.2 After these successes, which were shortly followed by the fall of Lysimakhos, he [= Seleukos] entrusted to his son Antiokhos all his empire [arkhē] in Asia (Minor), and himself proceeded rapidly towards Macedonia, having with him an army both of Greeks [Hellēnes] and of barbarians. But Ptolemy, brother of Lysandra, had taken refuge with him from Lysimakhos; this man [= Ptolemy], who was in any case prone to be-daring [tolmân] and for this reason was called Thunderbolt [Keraunos], [accomplished quite a daring act] when the army of Seleukos had advanced as far as Lysimakheia: he [= Ptolemy] killed Seleukos by stealth. Then he turned over to the [other] kings [basileîs] his possessions [= the possessions of Seleukos],^* while he [= Ptolemy] ruled-as-king [basileuein] over Macedonia until, being as far as we know the first of the kings [basileîs] to dare [tolmân] to face the Gauls [Galatai] in battle, he was killed by thesebarbarians.^* The empire [arkhē] was restored-to-safety [sōzesthai] by Antigonos son of Demetrios.

1.16.3 I am persuaded that Seleukos was the most righteous [dikaios], and in particular the most pious-in-ritual [eu-sebēs] of the kings [baslileîs]. For one thing, it was Seleukos who sent-back [kata-pempein] to Brankhidai for the people of Miletus the bronze Apollo that had been conveyed [ana-komizesthai] by Xerxes to Ecbatana in Persia. For another thing, when he founded [oikizein] Seleukeia on the river Tigris and brought to it Babylonians as settlers [sunoikoi], he spared the wall [teikhos] of Babylon as well as the sanctuary [hieron] of Bēl, near which he permitted the Chaldaeans to settle [oikeîn].