Antiochus IV of Commagene

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Gaius Julius Antiochus IV Epiphanes, also known as Antiochus IV Epiphanes or Antiochus IV of Commagene, (Greek:ο Γαίος Ιούλιος Αντίοχος Επιφανής, before 17-sometime after 72) was the last king of Commagene who reigned between 38-72. Antiochus was a Client King under the Roman Empire.

Life

Antiochus was a prince and son of the late King Antiochus III of Commagene and his mother was an unnamed woman who was Queen of Commagene. His sister and later wife was Iotapa. He was of Armenian, Greek and Medes descent. Through his paternal ancestor from Commagene, Queen Laodice VII Thea, who was the mother of King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene, he was a direct descendant of the Greek Syrian Kingdom the Seleucid Empire.

Antiochus appears to be very young when in 17, his father died. Roman Emperor Tiberius agreed with the citizens of Commagene to make their kingdom apart of the Roman province of Syria. From 17 until 38, Antiochus seems that he had gain Roman citizenship. He had lived and was raised in Rome, along with his sister. While he and his sister were growing up in Rome, they were apart of the remarkable court of Antonia Minor. Antonia Minor was a niece of the first Roman Emperor Augustus and the youngest daughter of triumvir Mark Antony. Antonia Minor was a very influential woman and supervised her circle of various princes and princesses. Her circle assisted in the political preservation of the Roman Empire’s borders and affairs of the client states.

In 38, Antiochus received his paternal dominion from Antonia’s grandson, Roman Emperor Caligula. 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. 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 King Agrippa I are spoken of as the instructors of the emperor in the art of tyranny. 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 Roman Emperor Claudius in 41. In 43 his first son, Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes, was betrothed to Drusilla, a daughter of Agrippa I.. Apart from Epiphanes, Antiochus had another two children with Iotapa: Callinicus and a younger Iotapa. In 53 Antiochus put down an insurrection of some barbarous tribes in Cilicia, called Clitae. In 55 he received orders from Roman Emperor Nero to levy troops to make war against the Parthians, and in the year 59 he served under General Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo against King Tiridates I of Armenia, brother of the Parthian King Vologases I of Parthia. In consequence of his services in this war, he obtained in the year 61 part of Armenia.

He espoused the side of Roman Emperor Vespasian when the latter was proclaimed emperor in 70; and he is then spoken of as the richest of the tributary kings. In the same year he sent forces, commanded by his son Epiphanes, to assist prince Titus in the siege of Jerusalem.

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 princes 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.. Among the grandchildren of Antiochus and Iotapa, was the prominent Athenian citizen Philopappos who lived in Greece between the 1st century and 2nd century.

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. From his coins we learn that the name of his wife was Iotapa.

External Link

Coinage of Antiochus IV

Notes

References

http://www.mavors.org/PDFs/Commagene.pdf
This entry incorporates public domain text originally from:

William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870.