Antigonus (Seleucid admiral)

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Antigonus, son of Menophilus was a Seleucid official (nauarchos). [1] He served under king Alexander (I or II), in the mid-2nd century BC. He is known from an inscription found in the city of Miletus.

Contents

The inscription

The inscription of Antigonus was found in 1963 on a marble block which was part of the Gotenmauer wall in Miletus. [note 1] [4] In the view of Peter Herrmann, the re-used block came from the necropolis of the city. [5] The first two lines read: [6]

Ἀντίγονος Μηνοφίλου ὁ γενόμενος ναύαρχος Ἀλε-
ξάνδρου τοῦ Συρίας βασιλέως·

Importance

The first lines translate as "Antigonus, son of Menophilus, Admiral of Alexander, king of Syria" (either Alexander I Balas or Alexander II Zabinas). [7]

The inscription is important for understanding the Seleucid dynasty's self-representation. [7] Ancient hostile historians designated the Seleucid kings as kings of Syria or "kings who reigned in Syria". [7] Those designations were understood by traditional scholarship as mockery that emphasized the loss of Seleucid lands outside Syria; the inscription of Antigonus, a Seleucid official of the highest rank, proved that the geographical association of the Seleucids with the kingdom of Syria came from the dynasty's own self-representation. [7]

Notes

  1. ↑ The inscription's entry in the "Milet: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen seit dem Jahr 1899" is number 422. [2]
    The Gotenmauer was a wall built in c. 262 to defend Miletus against the invasion of Goths. [3]

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References

Citations

  1. ↑ Grainger 1997, p.  810.
  2. ↑ Herrmann 1998, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Brückner et al. 2014, p. 81.
  4. ↑ Pleket & Stroud 1990, p. 319.
  5. ↑ Chaniotis 1987, p. 41.
  6. ↑ Herrmann 1987, p. 183.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Kosmin 2014, p.  112.

Sources

  • Brückner, Helmut; Herda, Alexander; Müllenhoff, Marc; Rabbel, Wolfgang; Stümpel, Harald (2014). Frederiksen, Rune; Handberg, Søren (eds.). "On the Lion Harbour and other Harbours in Miletos: Recent Historical, Archaeological, Sedimentological, and Geophysical Research". Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens. Arhus University Press. 7. ISBN   978-8-771-24104-4. ISSN   1108-149X.
  • Grainger, John D. (1997). A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava. Supplementum. Vol. 172. Brill. ISBN   978-9-004-10799-1. ISSN   0169-8958.
  • Kosmin, Paul J. (2014). The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-674-72882-0.
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  • Herrmann, Peter (1998). "n. 422". Inschriften von Milet (in German). Walter de Gruyter (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut). Teil 2 Inschriften n. 407-1019 (Milet: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen seit dem Jahr 1899 V1/2). ISBN   978-3-11-015092-6. ISSN   2304-4934.
  • Pleket, Henri Willy; Stroud, Ronald S., eds. (1990). "SEG 37-992. Miletos. Epitaph of the Nauarchos Antigonos and his Family, ca. 100 B.C. or Somewhat Later". Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Sijthoff & Noordhoff. XXXVII (1987). ISBN   978-9-004-16849-7. ISSN   0920-8399.
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