Antigonus (Seleucid admiral)

For other people named Antigonus, see Antigonus (disambiguation).

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.

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·

Antígonos Mēnophílou ho genómenos naúarchos Ale-
xándrou toû Syrías Basiléо̄s.

Importance

The first lines translate as "Antigonus, son of Menophilus, the former 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]