Catharine C. Lorber

The paper provides a dossier of honors offered to Seleukid and Ptolemaic kings, preceded by a brief introduction.

Cultic and other honors offered to rulers by their subjects unambiguously express loyalty to the rulers. Based on data collected for the Seleukid and Ptolemaic empires, a comparison is offered emphasizing the particular qualities of the Seleukid record. The comparison considers geographic distribution, where the honors fell on a public to private spectrum, the occupations and ethnicities of the subjects who offered honors individually, the intensity of these practices, and changes in the patterns over time. We know in advance that honors for the rulers are weakly attested for the Seleukid east, and even in Koile Syria and Phoinike. Should this reticence be interpreted as a possible indication of tepid support for Seleukid rule in these regions? Alternative explanations or contributing factors include preexisting cultural habits, different royal policies, destruction of evidence by wars and natural disasters, and the unevenness of archaeological exploration.

This paper examines the circulation of Ptolemaic silver in the closed monetary zone of Seleucid Coele Syria and Phoenicia. No new silver coinage entered the zone under Antiochus III and Seleucus IV, though hoards were deposited in the Transjordan and eastern Judah in the early years of Antiochus IV. Trade between Phoenicia and Egypt is excluded as an explanatory factor, but the patterns are consistent with Josephus’ account of the dowry of Cleopatra I and Tobiad tax farming. In the 160s BCE fresh Ptolemaic silver began to enter the closed monetary zone, with the earliest finds in Judah, Samaria, and “southern Palestine.” This new influx, like the didrachms “of an uncertain era,” may represent a subsidy from Ptolemy VI to the Maccabees and other dissidents from Seleucid rule.