A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀντίοχος), king of COMMAGENE, surnamed EPIPHANES (Ἐπιφανής), was apparently a son of Antiochus III., and received his paternal dominion from Caligula in A. D. 38, with a part of Cilicia bordering on the seacoast in addition. Caligula also gave him the whole amount of the revenues of Commagene during the twenty years that it had been a Roman province. (D. C. 59.8; Suet. Cal. 16.) 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. (D. C. 59.24.) This friendship, however, was not of very long continuance, for he was subsequently deposed by Caligula and did not obtain his kingdom again till the accession of Claudius in A. D. 41. (D. C. 60.8.) In A. D. 43 his son, also called Antiochus Epiphanes, was betrothed to Drusilla, the daughter of Agrippa. (J. AJ 19.9.1.) In A. D. 53 Antiochus put down an insurrection of some barbarous tribes in Cilicia, called Clitae. (Tac. Ann. 12.55.) In A. D. 55 he received orders from Nero to levy troops to make war against the Parthians, and in the year 59 he served under Corbulo against Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king Voloeses. (13.7, 37.) In consequence of his services in this war, he obtained in the year 61 part of Armenia. (14.26.) He espoused the side of Vespasian, when he was proclaimed emperor in A. D. 70; and he is then spoken of as the richest of the tributary kings. (Tac. Hist. 2.81.) In the same year he sent forces, commanded by his son Antiochus, to assist Titus in the siege of Jerusalem. (Joseph. Bell. Jud. 5.11.3; Tac. Hist. 5.1.) Two years afterwards, A. D. 72, he was accused by Paetus, the governor of Syria, of conspiring with the Parthians against the Romans, and was in consequence deprived of his kingdom, after a reign of thirty-four years from his first appointment by Caligula. He 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. (Joseph. B. J. 7.7.) There are several coins of this king extant, from which we learn, that the name of his wife was lotape. In the one annexed he is called ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΣ. On the reverse a scorpion is represented, surrounded with the foliage of the laurel, and inscribed ΚΟΜΜΑΓΗΝΩΝ. (Eckhel, iii. p. 255, &c.; comp. Clinton, F. H. iii. p. 343, &c.)