Articles

Critical Notes on the “Era” of Antigonus Monophthalmus

Vostok/Oriens '2015, №5

 
This article presents critical notes concerning the opinion that Antigonus I Monophthalmus, who was the first among the Successors to assume royal title in the so-called “Year of the Kings” (306–304 B.C.), counted his “reign” not from 306 B.C. but from a much earlier date (like his adversaries Seleucus I and Ptolemy I). Indeed, years reckoned to Monophthalmus’ name from 317/316 B.C. (i.e. the death of Philip III Arrhidaeus) are attested in some parts of his “empire” (namely in Babylonia and Idumaea). In fact this system was introduced by Monophthalmus retroactively in 315/314 B.C.; the latest documents dated to his name (in Babylonia) belong to ca. 308 B.C. However we do not have any strong evidence that Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes used this system after they formally assumed royal titles in 306 B.C. The decree from Caunus in Caria is dated probably to Year 15 of Antigonus II Gonatas (283–239 B.C.), and not Monophthalmus; and manumission from Beroea, despite difficulties with its mysterious date (“in the reign of Demetrius, Year 27”), must be connected with Demetrius II (239–229 B.C.), and not Poliorcetes (contrary to E. Grzybek’s opinion that Poliorcetes used the “era” of Monophthalmus reckoned from 317/316 B.C. during his reign in Macedonia in 294–288 B.C.).

Keywords: Antigonids, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, Demetrius I Poliorcetes, Successors, dynastic era, Hellenism, Babylonia, Idumaea, Macedonia

Pages: С. 42–48