Antiochus I Theos of Commagene

Antiochus I Theos Epiphanes Dikaios Philorhomaios Philhellene ( rule of 69 - about 36 BC) was the most important king of the Anatolian kingdom of Commagene and one of the most colorful figures of the late Hellenistic period.

Life

Antiochus I was the son of Mithridates I Kallinikos and the Seleucid princess Laodice, daughter of the Syrian king Antiochus VIII grypus. This marriage had been an arrangement to secure peace between Commagene and the Seleucids.

Antiochus I had to save his kingdom and his interests against the mighty Romans. However, he could not prevent his kingdom a Roman vassal was at the end of de facto.

Antiochus I took as king his religion, which was a Hellenized form of Zoroastrianism, very seriously. The ruler cult, which he had set for himself, joined Greek and Oriental elements. He left a large number of Greek inscriptions that reveal much about this cult, under which the living king, unusually, even as God ( theos ) was worship. The kings of Commagene led their lineage back to both the Persian and the Macedonian Seleucid king house. Accordingly, the Pantheon was a mixture of Greek and Persian gods (eg Zeus - Ahura Mazda).

Antiochus ' most important and most famous legacy is the shrine on the summit of Nemrut Dagi, about 2000 meters above the sea. In local Hierothesion, a grave district for members of the royal house, probably the remains of Antiochus I are buried. In Arsameia on Nymphaios he also built a Hierothesion for his father Mithridates.

From the marriage with Isias four children. Two of them ( Mithridates II and Antiochus II ) reigned as kings later. His daughter Laodice married the Parthian king Orodes II.