To Be A King

Walbank on Hellenistic Kings

“The new kings who succeeded Alexander were all in a sense usurpers and so looked for religious support to help

legitimize their pretensions and reinforce the claims of their new dynasties. It is a feature common to virtually all

the new royal houses that they adopted some special protector god…from among the Olympians, since they…carried the veneration which sprang from the weight of

tradition.”

Suda s.v. Basilea (2)

“Monarchy. It is neither descent nor legitimacy which gives monarchies to men, but the ability to command an army and to handle affairs competently. Such was the case with Philip and the Successors of Alexander. For Alexander’s natural son was in no way helped by his kinship with him, because of his weakness of spirit, while those who had no connection with Alexander became kings of almost the whole inhabited world.”

Kingship in Greek History

Mycenaean Age: wanax>basileus Poleis and tyrants: constitutional monarchy (cf.

Spartan dual kingship) Tension between Individual and Community

5th century (Themistocles, Pericles, Alcibiades, Brasidas)

4th century (Epaminondas, Jason of Pherae, Dionysius of Syracuse)

Macedonian “Homeric” Kingship

Fourth Century Social and Economic Tensions

Shrinking Economies and Public Liturgies

Restrictions on the Political Autonomy of the Polis in Interstate Relations

Euergetism and Public Benefactions

The Cult of the Individual

Lysander “[He] was the first Greek to whom the cities erected

altars and made sacrifice as to a god, the first…to whom songs of triumph were sung…The Samians too voted that their festival of Hera should be called the Lysandreia.”Plutarch, Life of Lysander, 18

Alexander as Watershed andCross-Cultural Interactions

Eastern Divine Monarchs Ptolemies in Egypt Seleucids in Syria

Letter of Scepsis (Troad) of 311 BCE in honor of Antigonus Monophthalmos)

Idealized Portrait Head of Alexander (Acropolis Alexander-Athens)

Letter of Scepsis (OGIS 6)

“Be it resolved by the people: since Antigonus has been responsible for great benefits to the city and

the other Greeks…let it mark off a sacred enclosure (temenos) for him, build an altar and

erect a cult statue as beautiful as possible, and let the sacrifice, the competition, the wearing of the wreath and the rest of the festival be celebrated

every year in his honor.”

Personal Qualities of the Hellenistic Monarch

Owner of State Lands Bestow it as gift Sell it Give it as reward

Savior-Healer (see Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 3) Personalized Epithets

“One-Eyed” (Monopthalmos) “City-Taker” (Poliorcetes) “Thunderbolt” (Keraunos) “Limper?” (Gonatas) “Victorious” (Nikator)

Divine on Earth:Theos Aner/Basilikos Aner

Conceptual: “savior” (soter); “benefactor” (euergetes) Links to Olympus: Antigonids/Heracles;

Seleucids/Apollo; Ptolemies/Dionysus The Case of Egypt (synnaos theos; theoi adelphoi;

theoi soteres) To Be A King: The Grand Procession of Ptolemy

Philadelphus at Alexandria in 271/270 BCE

Rationalization and Legitimization of Religious/Cultural Transformations (Euhemerus’ account of the gods)

To Be A King

The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria (271/270 BCE)

“136 Ethiopian sheep, 300 Arabian, 20 Euboean; 26 Indian oxen, all white, 8 Ethiopian, 1 large white she-bear, 14 leopards, 16 panthers, 4 lynxes, 3 young panthers, 1 giraffe, 1 Ethiopian rhinoceros. Next, on a four-wheeled carriage Dionysus at the altar of Rhea, having taken refuge when pursued by Hera, with a golden crown, and Priapus standing next to him wearing a golden ivy-crown. Then statues of Alexander and Ptolemy, wearing ivy-crowns made of gold. The statue of Virtue standing next to Ptolemy had an olive-crown made of gold. Priapus stood next to them with a golden ivy-crown. The city of Corinth, standing next to Ptolemy, was crowned with a golden diadem. Beside all these were placed a stand for drinking vessels full of golden cups and a golden mixing bowl with a capacity of 5 measures. This four-wheeled carriage was followed by women wearing expensive clothes and ornaments; they were given the names of cities, some from Ionia and the rest Greek cities established in Asia and the islands, which had been under Persian rule; they all wore golden crowns. On other four-wheeled carts were carried a Bacchic thyrsus of gold, 135 feet long and a silver lance 90 feet long, and on another one a golden phallus 180 feet long, painted over and bound with fillets, with a gold star at its extremity, the circumference of which was 9 feet.”

Rationalization and LegitimizationReligious and Cultural Transformation

Euhemerus’ Account of the Gods (Diodorus, 6.1.2-10)

“Concerning the gods…men of ancient times have handed down to later generations two different conceptions. Some, they say, are eternal and indestructible, such as the sun, the moon and the other stars in the heavens, and also the winds and all other bodies which have the same nature as these. For each of these is everlasting in genesis and duration. Other gods, they say, were earthly beings who achieved immortal honor and fame through their benefactions to mankind, such as Heracles, Dionysus, Aristaeus, and others like them.”