Bible Encyclopedias
Antiochus (2)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

was likewise the title of several kings of the petty province of Commagene, between the Euphrates and Mount Taurus, having the city of Samosata for its capital, and originally forming part of the Seleucid kingdom of Syria, from which it appears to have been independent during the contests between the later kings of that dynasty — a circumstance that probably explains the recurrence of the name Antiochus in this fresh dynasty. The only one of these mentioned even by Josephus is the FOURTH of the name, surnamed Epiphanes, apparently a son of Antiochus II of the same line. He was on intimate terms with Caligula, who gave him his paternal kingdom, A.D. 38, but afterward withheld it, so that he did not succeed to it till the accession of Claudius, A.D. 41. Nero added part of Armenia to his dominions in A.D. 61. He was one of the richest of the kings tributary to the Romans (see Smith's Dict. of Class. Biog. s.v.). His son, also called Antiochus Epiphanes, was betrothed, A.D. 43, to Drusilla, the daughter of Agrippa (Jo, sephus, Ant. 19, 9, 1). He assisted Titus in the final siege of Jerusalem (Josephus, War, 5,11, 3; Tacitus, Hist. 5,1). But in A.D. 72 he was accused by Paetus, governor of Syria, of conspiring with the Parthians against the Romans, and, being deposed from his kingdom, retired first to Lacedaemon and then to Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life in great respect (Josephus, War, 7, 7).