Antigonus (Seleucid admiral) explained

Antigonus, son of Menophilus was a Seleucid official (nauarchos). 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.

The inscription

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

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).

The inscription is important for understanding the Seleucid dynasty's self-representation. Ancient hostile historians designated the Seleucid kings as kings of Syria or "kings who reigned in Syria". 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.

References

Sources

• Frederiksen. Rune. Søren. Handberg. Helmut. Brückner. Alexander. Herda. Marc. Müllenhoff. Wolfgang. Rabbel. Harald. Stümpel. 2014. 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. 978-8-771-24104-4. 1108-149X.
• Book: Grainger, John D.. 1997. A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer. Brill. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava. Supplementum. 172. 0169-8958. 978-9-004-10799-1.
• Book: Kosmin, Paul J.. The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire.. Paul J. Kosmin . Harvard University Press. 2014. 978-0-674-72882-0.
• Herrmann. Peter. 1987. Milesier am Seleukidenhof. Prosopographische Beiträge zur Geschichte Milets im 2. Jhdt. v. Chr.. de. Chiron: Mitteilungen der Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Verlag C.H.Beck. 17. 0069-3715.
• Chaniotis. Angelos. 1987. Ein Neuer Genealogischer Text aus Milet. de. Epigraphica Anatolica. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH. 10. 0174-6545.
• Herrmann. Peter. 1998. de. n. 422. Walter de Gruyter (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut). Inschriften von Milet. Teil 2 Inschriften n. 407-1019 (Milet: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen seit dem Jahr 1899 V1/2). 978-3-11-015092-6. 2304-4934.
• Pleket. Henri Willy. Ronald S.. Stroud. 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). 978-9-004-16849-7. 0920-8399.