Antiochus IV of Commagene
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Antiochus IV Epiphanes, (Greek: ο Αντίοχος Επιφανής, last king of Commagene 38, 41–72), an ally of Rome against Parthia and a royal descendant of Greek Syrian King Seleucus I Nicator. He was of Armenian descent.[1]
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[edit] Life
Antiochus was apparently a son of late king Antiochus III of Commagene who received his paternal dominion from Caligula in 38. In addition, the emperor even enlarged Antiochus' territory with a part of Cilicia bordering on the seacoast. Caligula also gave him the whole amount of the revenues of Commagene during the twenty years that it had been a Roman province.[2][3] The reasons for providing a client king with such vast resources remain unclear; it was perhaps a stroke of Caligula's well-attested eccentricity. He lived on most intimate terms with Caligula, and he and Herod Agrippa are spoken of as the instructors of the emperor in the art of tyranny.[4] This friendship, however, was not of very long continuance, for he was subsequently deposed by Caligula.
He did not obtain his kingdom again till the accession of Claudius in 41.[5] In 43 his son, also called Antiochus Epiphanes, was betrothed to Drusilla, the daughter of Agrippa I.[6] In 53 Antiochus put down an insurrection of some barbarous tribes in Cilicia, called Clitae.[7] In 55 he received orders from Nero to levy troops to make war against the Parthians, and in the year 59 he served under Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo against Tiridates I of Armenia, brother of the Parthian king Vologases I.[8] In consequence of his services in this war, he obtained in the year 61 part of Armenia.[9]
He espoused the side of Vespasian when the latter was proclaimed emperor in 70; and he is then spoken of as the richest of the tributary kings.[10] In the same year he sent forces, commanded by his son Antiochus, to assist Titus in the siege of Jerusalem.[11][12]
Antiochus' downfall came only two years afterwards, 72, when he was accused by Paetus, the governor of Syria, of conspiring with the Parthians against the Romans. He was in consequence deprived of his kingdom, after a reign of thirty-four years from his first appointment by Caligula. Antiochus' sons Epiphanes and Callinicus fled to Parthia after a brief encounter with Roman troops. Antiochus himself first retired to Lacedaemon, and then to Rome, where he passed the remainder of his life with his sons Antiochus and Callinicus, and was treated with great respect.[13]. A grandson of Antiochus and Iotapa's was Philopappos, who lived in Athens Greece between the 1st century and the 2nd century.
[edit] Coinage
There are several coins of this king extant, and their die-marks prove he did rule large parts of Cappadocia and Cilicia as well as Commagene proper. In one of those coins he is called ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΣ (Great King), a testament to his political ambitions, which no doubt played a part in his downfall. On the reverse of that coin a scorpion is represented, surrounded with the foliage of the laurel, and inscribed ΚΟΜΜΑΓΗΝΩΝ. Also from his coins we learn that the name of his wife was Iotapa. [14][15]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Chahin, Mark (2001). The Kingdom of Armenia. Routlege, pp. 190-191. ISBN 0700714529.
- ^ Dio Cassius, lix. 8
- ^ Suetonius, Caligula, 16.
- ^ Dio Cassius, lix. 24.
- ^ Dion Cass. lx. 8.
- ^ Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xix. 9. § 1.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, xii. 55.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, xiii. 7, 37.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 26.
- ^ Tacitus, Histories, ii. 81.
- ^ Josephus, Jewish War, v. 11. § 3
- ^ Tacitus, Histories, v. 1.
- ^ Josephus, Jewish War, vii. 7.
- ^ Joseph Hilarius Eckhel, iii. p. 255 etc.
- ^ Henry Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad, iii. p. 343 etc., (1824-1851).
[edit] References
This entry incorporates public domain text originally from:
- William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870.
