Corruption, Changing Alliances, and Consolidation
The 18 years of the reign of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr was not only significant for its scandals of palatial intrigue and the beginnings of contact with the Far East. Indeed, in the Mesógeios Sea, politics had been changed, perhaps irrevocably so, particularly in the Roman Republic, but also in Hellā́s, where the Romans were entirely cast out by a popular uprising of the people there.
In the Republic, the population transfer of the indigenous peoples and the Molossian slaves had established two precedents in the collective conscience of the citizens and subject peoples – that slave revolts could be successful against professional Roman legions, and that the Republic was no longer the unquestioned power of the Mesógeios. The Republic had also lost the war in Sicilia in the court of public opinion, which made four wars in a row that soldiers had had to come home to farms in disrepair with nothing to show for their years on campaign, if they came home at all. Indeed, a number of soldiers never came home, such as the 7,000 men under the command of the former consul, Pūblius Cornelius Scīpiō Aemiliānus Āfricānus, who had died in the Montēs Nebrodes, leaving their wives the responsibility of tending to farms and raising children simultaneously. Certainly, a great number of women were able to remarry and find fathers to stand in for their sons, but a great number of them also continued as widows, and found themselves unable to juggle the task of caring for small children and seeing that the seeds be sewn and crops be harvested. Banditry in the countryside among disaffected young men therefore became increasingly abundant during the late 160s and early 170s, and also organized crime in the cities, particularly in Rōma herself, where many veterans who had sold their farms had gone with their families looking for work. It was thought that the vast tracts of land that had been ceded to the state by the Sikanoi and Sikeloi would present a new opportunity for veteran families, and indeed it did for a great many of them, as at least 20 veterans’ colonies were founded in the interior of the island. However, many others found themselves in exactly the same position that they had been in Ītalia proper, as rich pātriciī and plēbēiī alike ended up buying the overwhelming majority of the new ager pūblicus, despite the fact that most of them were buying properties far in excess of 500 iūgera, which was a patent violation of the Lēx Licinia Sextia, which an increasingly small number of representatives in government seemed to care about. Consequently, a considerable number of veterans, mostly Italians, found themselves working these large estates as wage laborers, though their wages often could only barely sustain them and their families.
The ongoing expansion of the landless masses was beginning to create problem for the Republic, one that became very obvious when envoys of a certain King Abbegei[1] II in Āfrica arrived at the Roman colony of Corduba, complaining of Lusitanian raids on the cities of Tingi[2], Tamuda, and Lix[3]. To put it simply, the number of landowning citizens from which the government could recruit to go to war in Lūsītānia to acquire a new ally that might be used to check the new King Gulussen[4] of the Inumiden, whose loyalties were questionable given the status of his assent to the throne, had dwindled considerably. It was also getting increasingly difficult to recruit among the Italian allies, who generally seemed to see such a war as a fool’s errand and preferred to remain at home and work off the debt that the Senate was still unwilling to pay (having submitted only the royalty and the fee for the Molossian slaves). This would result in the proposal of certain military reforms by ambitious politicians looking to further their careers as patrons of the army and the veterans. These reforms were spearheaded by Scīpiō Aemiliānus, who found an unlikely ally in Appius Claudius Pulcher[5], but also Quintus Caecilius Metellus, and of course his own brother, Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemiliānus. Among the reforms proposed, it would be mandatory that portions of the ager pūblicus be allotted to retiring veterans, who, should they be of Italian origins, would also be granted citizenship after a period of service of 15 years. Citizenship after 15 years was popular in the Senate, but land grants for retiring veterans was rejected, and because Aemilānus and his associates were unwilling to accept a half measure, none of their proposals passed at all. Metellus and Aemiliānus were then sent to Hispānia to deal with the problem of the Lūsītānī, which they were able to do, albeit not in a decisive manner that would ensure that they would no longer be a threat to Roman interests, as they had by now allied with the Vēttōnes and the Belli.
***************
Following the Treaty of Léptis, the Kǝná’anim of Qart-Ḥadašt found themselves in a renewed position of strength that subsequently influenced the fall of the Roman Republic from the position of hegemon of the Mesógeios. Though no longer the imperialist maritime power that they had been in years past, they now had a powerful ally in the Seleukídai that was committed to ensuring their future as an independent state so as to act as a buffer in the Central Mesógeios between Asíā and Rōma. The Seleukídai provided the Kǝná’anim with a great deal of logistical and financial support, including helping them to reform their military, which would now be a standing, professional army, with infantry troops from the cities that owed allegiance to the government at Qart-Ḥadašt. In return, the government of Asíā removed taxes on certain wares of Kǝna’anite merchants, specifically on agricultural products. Qart-Ḥadašt was further aided militarily following the migration of the indigenous peoples of Sicilia and the Molossian slaves, some thousands of whom accepted contracts as mercenaries, where they were employed to subdue the Igerramen of the southern desert and allowed to found their own city at Bēráneia[6], so named for the Sicilian goddess of the forests.
However, the death of the old king of the Inumiden, Masensen, also spurred in a change in political alliances in the region, as the king’s eldest son, perhaps the most loyal to the Roman Republic, had died in Sicilia during the Reduellātiō Magnus Servōrum, and his younger brother, Gulussen, had been made king. The first factor spurring this change, was the attention the Republic paid to the Lūsītānī after their raids of the Kingdom of Tingi[7], which Gulussen was not so dull as to not be able to see the implications of. Surely, the weakening of the holdings of King Abbegei, with whose father the Romans had only had fleeting political relations, did absolutely nothing whatsoever to weaken Roman interests in Hispānia. So, engaging in such a micro-militaristic effort had to be aimed principally at gaining an ally in Āfrica, and an ally against whom? Masensen, out of all of the Republic’s allies, had certainly been the least sure, having promised aid many times and usually failing to have delivered it. Indeed, it could be said that the only reason that he intervened in Sicilia was to protect his own interests, fearing the implications of the island falling into the hands of the Lord of Asíā, who was now a close ally of the country that he had personally betrayed during his tenure. And now the old opportunist had died, together with his son, perhaps Rōma’s most unapologetic foreign psychophant. Furthermore, the Republic’s defeat of the coalition of the Vēttōnes, Belli, and Lūsītānī was so costly that it had crippled them for the time being. It seemed the peak of the Roman mountain had already been reached, meaning that there was only one way to go – down. The most sensible thing to do in the situation it seemed, was to renounce the legacy of his father and mend fences with Qart-Ḥadašt.
***************
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the reign of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr, at least for his subjects at the time, was the extensive tour he took of his kingdom. Touring the kingdom to squash unruly vassals was a regular hallmark of Seleukidian monarchs, although it can be said that Dēmḗtrios was indeed the first of them to tour it so thoroughly, and also to travel so far. Indeed, while he never made it to the East, he is known to have toured thoroughly in Syría, Ioudaía, Anatolḗ, and Aígyptos. His tour of the kingdom would begin with a tour of the newly conquered regions of Anatolḗ, from whence he was married to the lady Dēmoníkē of Smýrnē. This portion of his tour began in the year 156 (157) in Kilikía, starting at Issós, where the victory of Aléxandros ho Mégas was commemorated with a grand imperial demonstration and the declaration of a new holiday – Issóeia, to be celebrated on the 5th of Apellaîos[8] of each year. Beginning in the following spring, he then journeyed west along the coast and visited the ancient cities of Tarsos, Zephýrion[9], Olbanópolis[10], and also Seleúkeia-toû-Kalýkadnou[11]. From here, he took the road northwest into the Tauros Mountains, where he was received by the king Zāġéianos of the Paíones there at a mountain stronghold called Honówina[12], who had supported him against the King of Pérgamon. Here, he negotiated the resettlement of the Paionian tribes of the region in the far east, as a proper reward for their loyalty to him, and also as a means of pacifying a people who had historically proved rather problematic for local rulers to keep under control. Continuing to the Pisidian city of Karallía[13] and then to Laodíkeia Katakekauménē[14], he would hold court at this small, and yet historically significant town, where Ariaráthēs V of Kappadokía and his wife Laodíkē V, the sister of the Lord of Asíā attended.
It was at court here in the autumn of the year 156 the queen was reunited with her son, Aléxandros VI, whom she had not seen since he was a child[15]. It was also here that a young and virile Aléxandros is recorded as not only having demonstrated his athletic and academic prowess, but also as having met his future wife, Philōtéra of Lynkāstís, at least in Seleukidian sources. The Makedonian and Hellenic writers place their meeting later, at his own court at Pélla. Still, the reunion of mother and son at Laodíkeia Katakekauménē was historically significant, principally as one of the markers of the end of Roman hegemony in Hellā́s, as it was the Romans, following their victory against Laodíkeia’s husband Perseús, that had separated them, parading the Makedonian king and his sons before the Roman mob as captives.
Laodíkeia was subsequently given leave by her husband to continue the tour of Anatolḗ with her brother and her son, which turned west again to Philomélion[16], and then to Nikópolis, where he sacrificed to the goddess Níkē, and then took a detour to the city of Sýnnada[17], where he is said to have taken part in the local festivities surrounding the city’s founder, Ākā́mās, son of Thēseús. From here he continued into Phrygía, stopping at Aízanoí[18], where he not only took the time to sacrifice to Zéus at the temple there, which he rededicated to Zéus Sabázios, but also dawned Phrygian dress and engaged in Phrygian religious rites surrounding Sabázios and Kybélē, declaring his queen, Nýssa, to be a living embodiment of the goddess, and crowning her with a mural crown. He is said to have dawned the Phrygian dress through to Kotýaion[19], from whence he made his way to Ilion, which was outside the borders of his kingdom, yet nevertheless an important stop on his tour. Here, as Aléxandros ho Mégas had done, he and his companions took off their clothes and raced at the tomb Akhileús. However, he was not anointed with oil here, but rather made sure that his nephew, Aléxandros VI, the King of Makedōnía was, and all of them hung their garlands over the tomb.
It is said that on this voyage, neither king tried to hide their feelings for one another, and remained romantically involved during their stay at Adramýtteion, and at Pérgamon, where Dēmḗtrios received the homage of Áttalos II, and the king was forced to offer his teenage son as a hostage of the entourage, to return with it to Babylṓn. Aléxandros and Dēmḗtrios would part ways at Lésbos, where the royal entourage would spend the entire year of 159 (155). It was also here that Queen Nýssa was again deified at Mytilḗnē, and a new temple was erected in her honor. Though from Mytilḗnē, the Lord of Asíā went to Khíos, and then to the small port town of Kýsos[20], where yet another temple was dedicated to his queen, and the town was refounded as Nyssaía. Ancient writers are not in agreement as to why this was done however, with some speculating that the queen had been jealous of his romance with his young nephew, and it was an act of appeasement, while others seem to believe that it was at Kýsos that the king and the queen fell in love. Whatever the case, Dēmḗtrios took a third wife at Smýrnē, who was the sister of his general, Aléxandros of Smýrnē, with whom it has also been speculated that he had a romantic relationship, although it would later be revealed that Aléxandros and Queen Nýssa had been enamored with one another, and that he had had a hand in the murder of Kleopátra II. Nýssa was again deified at Magnēsía-toû-Sipýlou before a representation of Kybélē that was believed to be as ancient as the city of Ilion[21], where garlands were hung on the statue, and the queen was named Mḗtēr Kybélē Nikēphórē, or the “Victorious Mother Kybélē”, in commemoration of the defeat of Dēmḗtrios’ grandfather, Antíokhos III at Magnēsía, and the victory in the war in Syría, and the queen’s pivotal role in negotiating the alliances that had forced the Romans to sail for Syría and not Anatolḗ.
Next, the king visited the city of Sárdeis, where he is recorded as having addressed the people in the native language of the country[22], made offerings at local temples, and having dedicated the grounds for a new gymnásion. At Ephesos, which was his next stop, the king was hailed as the living manifestation of Apóllōn-Hḗlios, where he dawned a solar crown and was received with great festivities, although the festivities would not match those at Mílētos, where the king ordered that the grandiose temple to Apóllōn-Hḗlios at Dídyma be completed. It is in fact, off of the statements of the oracle at Dídyma that scholars both ancient and modern in part base their speculation that Dēmḗtrios fell in love with his queen, Nýssa, at Kýsos, as she is recorded as having said…
“At Kýsos you will lay a trap for yourself that will cost you what is most dear to you. Perhaps our king is a fool. But at the most ancient city, you made a dynasty that will reign immortal. So, perhaps he is wise indeed.”
Dēmḗtrios is said to have been confused by the oracle, which is also thought to have changed his demeanor with regards to his queen. However, how he interpreted the oracle is entirely up to the speculation of writers both ancient and modern, as none of his future actions as a ruler can be directly attributed to it. He would stay in Mílētos for the remainder of the year, which is where he received the embassy of the rebel Newoptólemos, who later became the árkhōn of Dēmētriás. For now however, beginning at the end of the winter of 161 (153), he traveled by way of the Maíandros River in Karía to the region of Lykía, a sacred region for the cult of Apóllōn, stopping at Telebehi, which the Héllēnes knew as Telmēssós[23], and Pttara, which the Héllēnes knew as Pátara[24]. At both cities he was worshipped as Apóllōn-Hḗlios, but at Pttara he declared his recognition of the Lykian League and the liberty of its people. He then sailed for Pamphylía, one of the most ancient and isolated regions of Hellenic settlement in Anatolḗ, where he visited the cities of Pergā[25], where he ordered the expansion of the ancient temple of Artemis there, and participated in local festivities in her honor. He is also said to have taken a particular interest in the local dialect of Hellenic, which he assigned the historian Kléōn of Lárisa to write a dictionary for, and left him there while he traveled to the port city Sídē, and then sailed for Anemoúrion[26], where he paid homage at the temple of the local god of the wind, and then retired to Dáphnē.
The remainder of the year would be spent in Syría, principally at Dáphnē, though his tour of his domains would later include Phoinḯkē[27], Ioudaía, and especially Aígyptos. In Syría, the king is known to have paid special attention to the city of Ṣawba’[28], where the people received him as Ilāh hag-Gabal, the “god of the mountain”, in human form. The local temple here was expanded, as was the city, which was not settled with Héllēnes, but rather ethnic ‘Ārāmāyē tribespeople who had proven their loyalty to the Lord of Asíā by holding the mountain passes in Syría against the Romans. From here, he is known to have traveled to Phoinḯkē, where records of his activities are generally rather sparse, although it is known that his wife, Kleopátra II was venerated as Ba’alat Gebal at the city of Gebal[29], an event which has been debated by historians for centuries. First and foremost, it can be noted that Ba’alat was the tutelary goddess of the city, and was a sister and consort to ‘Ēl, who, according to local tradition, had gifted her the city of Gebal. At a very early period in history, Aigyptian merchants had equated Ba’alat Gebal with their own goddess Aset, whom the Héllēnes knew as Isis, and had dedicated statues to her in Ba’alat’s temple some centuries earlier[30]. The Hellenic queens of Aígyptos had of course been recognized as living manifestations of Isis since the reign of queen Arsinóē II[31], who herself was worshipped as such at the Hellenic island of Dḗlos during her reign as a ‘guest-goddess’. However, the ancient Phoinikian city of Gebal had been an important port of rest for trade in the Mesógeios for thousands of years, and it was there that, according to one version of the story of Isis, she had retrieved her brother and husband Wesir, whom the Héllēnes knew as Ósiris, from a coffin. The so-called Ba’alat Gebal was also associated with the more widely venerated Phoinikian goddesses Aštart and Atar’atheh, who had already been Hellenized as Astártē and Atárgatis, who themselves were mostly indistinguishable at the time due to widespread syncretism and had been associated by the Héllēnes with Aphrodítē. Syncretizing these goddesses with the rapidly evolving divine cult brought the peoples of Syría, Mesopotamía, and Aígyptos together under what would be recognized as a single religion with various local manifestations and would represent an important step in the evolution of the Seleukidian monarchy.
Scholars however have continued to debate the king’s reasoning behind his veneration of Kleopátra, as he had already venerated his queen, Nýssa during his tour of his Anatolian territories. On one hand, there are those who use the deification of Kleopátra as evidence not only of the beginning of the king’s romance with his Kappadokian queen at Kýsos, but also that the king had interpreted the words of the oracle at Dídyma to mean that Nýssa would betray him. This school of thought further argues that his marriage to Kleopátra was strictly political, and that his veneration of her as a living representation of such goddesses as Isis, Atárgatis, and Astártē, who were all more widely worshipped within his domains than the Phrygian goddess Kybélē, demonstrate that he was replacing Nýssa with Kleopátra as his queen. After all, certain aspects of all of the goddesses in question overlapped, which, according to this school of thought, means that veneration of the queens would have been an exclusive affair, meaning that there was some sort of a serious rift in his relationship with Nýssa around this time that may or may not have been informed by the words of the oracle. This point of view is further strengthened by the statement of the oracle that ‘…at the most ancient city…’, Dēmḗtrios had made a dynasty that would ‘…reign immortal…’. The antiquity of the Aigyptian city of Mémphis was known at the time[32], and it was here that the king had both wedded Kleopátra, the heiress of Aígyptos, but also been crowned parǝḣo’[33]. It is therefore argued that the king had fallen in love with Nýssa at Kýsos, the woman who would eventually betray him, and that he sought to venerate Kleopátra above her, as it was the descendants of his sons by her that would reign as the future Lords of Asíā.
There are problems with this interpretation of events however, namely that Nýssa continued to be worshipped as the living Mḗtēr Kybélē Nikēphórē not only in Anatolḗ, but also in Syría and Mesopotamía. Also, this interpretation superimposes the modern notion of the exclusivity of deities onto antiquity, when worship was not exclusive, and therefore both queens could easily be deified simultaneously. Furthermore, Dēmḗtrios, the 6-year-old son of the king Dēmḗtrios I, had already been crowned as his heir-apparent and co-ruler in the West. However, whether or not Queen Nýssa was actually being replaced with Kleopátra because the king himself took the words of the oracle seriously, it is apparent that she felt this way and took them very seriously indeed. It has been speculated that part of her reasoning was because her son, Dēmḗtrios, did not survive childhood, and may have been born sickly, although contemporary writers do not state this. Although, she was mother to two other healthy sons, both of whom would later inherit the throne as Antíokhos VI Theós Philopátōr and Antígonos I Hiérax.
It is also known that in Phoinḯkē, Dēmḗtrios ordered the reconstruction of the city of Ṣūr, known to the Héllēnes as Týros, as a means of appeasing the local population, whose city had been raised by Aléxandros ho Mégas. The reasons for this are not entirely understood by modern scholars, as it would seem that in Anatolḗ that the king had sought to mimic Aléxandros to some degree, but some believe that it was a gesture to his allies in Qart-Ḥadašt, whose people considered Ṣūr to be their mētrópolis, or mother city. At Ṣīdūn, which the Héllēnes knew as Sidṓn, a gymnásion was built, and Kleopátra II, was deified again, this time as a representation of Astártē. However, continuing into Ioudaía, there was no deification of anyone, and the king is recorded as having sacrificed at the temple of Zéus Morías at Dēmētriás in the Jewish fashion.
The deification of Kleopátra did not stop at Ṣīdūn, and continued on through the tour of her native Aígyptos, where the royal entourage sailed down the Neîlos on pilgrimage to visit the various sites that the goddess had visited to collect the body parts of her dead husband and brother, Ósiris. At Alexándreia however, Kleopátra’s then teenage son, Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr is recorded as having been elevated to the position of high-priest of the cult of Aléxandros ho Mégas, which had been instituted by Ptolemaîos II Philádelphos more than a century earlier. A change in this cult however, was that Dēmḗtrios equated Aléxandros ho Mégas with Hḗraklēs, as the son of Zéus-Hámmōn, which implied that Aléxandros had been a living manifestation of one of the most ancient and perhaps most significant cultural heroes of Hellā́s. This would have important socio-political consequences in the future. Likewise, in the south, Kleopátra was again venerated at Swenet[34] as the protectress of Aígyptos and a patroness of the armed forces there. However, yet another significant aspect of the king’s visit to Aígyptos was the court that he held at Ptolemaḯs Hermaíou, where he received the homage of native notable families, and also the friendship of the Queen of Medewi[35], who was in attendance, and said to be so beautiful that she was named a Nērēḯs by the king. Modern writers speculate as to the nature of their relationship, but no contemporary source implies that it went beyond the ritualized guest-friendship that was the norm of a Seleukidian court.
Following the court at Ptolemaḯs Hermaíou and his pilgrimage down the Neîlos with his second wife, Kleopátra II, the Lord of Asíā is again recorded at Hierópolos Bámbykē[36], where he and his wives sacrificed at the local temples, and he and Kleopátra were deified as Ba’al and Atar’atheh. However, it was at Dáphnē, where the royal entourage was in rest before setting out for the East that the assassination of Kleopátra and her sons took place, and it was through the confession of his third wife, Dēmoníkē, whose brother had been part of the conspiracy, that Queen Nýssa was implicated in the year 164 (150). Contemporary writers record that the king was at first reluctant to believe the evidence implicating his wife, as initial rumors had suggested that Timarkhos and his brother, Herakleídēs had been involved. The queen and her very young son, Séleukos, were poisoned, while her older son, Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr, was stabbed to death in Aígyptos, where he had taken on the high-priesthood of Aléxandros-Hḗraklēs. The younger Ptolemaîos and Neoptólemos seem to have been meant to be poisoned as well, although history does not record why or how they were not. What is recorded, is that Séleukos, who was naught more than a toddler at the time of his murder, was a favorite son of the Lord of Asíā, who fell into a deep depression after his death, which was furthered by the execution of his wife and the purging of her affiliates at court, some of whom had been close friends of his.
It was at this time that the king started to become increasingly paranoid, and also when the exodus of the Molossian slaves and the indigenous peoples of Sikelía was negotiated, and Newoptólemos and his army were received at Dáphnē with a luxurious military parade that was replicated and expanded at the capital of Babylṓn. The tour of the East was put off at this time for a later date, as relations with the King of Póntos, who had been a brother-in-law to the Lord of Asíā, had begun to deteriorate following his sister’s execution. War did not break out until the following year, when Mithridátēs V allied with the stratēgós of Armenía Megálē, Artavazd, and incited a rebellion in Sōphēnḗ, Kommagēnḗ, Adiabēnḗ, and Kordyēnḗ. The war would mark a bloody 3 years in which the most royal houses of all four regions were purged, either being murdered to the man or sent into exile in the new Kingdom of Armenía. The war might have been a victory for the Seleukídai as well, had it not been for the invitation of the Koússanoi by King Artavazd, who devastated the Lord of Asíā’s new Sikelian troops who had up until then proved extremely useful against the Armenoi and the Pontoi. Still, though these forces suffered enormously against the Koússanoi, at the Battle of Oxidástēs[37], some 15,000 Sikelian and Molossian troops under the command of Alkaîos of Sikelía not only held their own against them, but routed them. This elite army, which was later simply dubbed hoi Síkeloi, or “the Sikelians”, were made the personal security detail of the Lord of Asíā thereafter.
Notes
1. It is not known which king reigned between Bagas and Bocchus II in Mauretania, so I have assumed a second Bagas reigned. The name ‘Bagas’ also seems to be a Romanization of Berber abbegi/abbegei, which is still a common personal name in Tuareg dialects, meaning “jackal”.
2. Contemporary native pronunciation of modern Tangiers, in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Province, Morocco.
3. Contemporary native pronunciation of Lixus, which was an ancient town located north of the modern port of Larache, in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Province, Morocco.
4. Contemporary native pronunciation of Gulussa, who was the second eldest son of King Masinissa of Numidia.
5. Appius Claudius Pulcher and Scipio Aemilianus were staunch political rivals IOTL.
6. Modern Kairouan, in Kairouan Governorate, Tunisia. Apparently this place was heavily wooded at the time of its settlement in 670 AD IOTL, and so it is named for a woodland goddess, whose name is from PIE *ghwḗr “wild, wild animal”.
7. The name ‘Mauretania’ seems to be a loan into Latin from Greek, itself from the word maurós, meaning “dark, black”. Therefore, we will just be referring to the kingdom by its capital city of Tingi ITTL, as funny as the name might sound…
8. The 5th of November, which is at the start of the Seleucid year, remember, as the new year is in autumn.
9. Modern Mersin, in Mersin Province, Turkey.
10. North of modern Silifke, in Mersin Province, Turkey.
11. Modern Silifke, in Mersin Province, Turkey.
12. Just as a reminder, I am positing that the scantily recorded Homonadesians of the Taurus Mountains are descendants of the Paeonians who were deported under Darius I by his general Megabazus during the former’s European campaign in the late 6th century BCE. As another reminder, I am positing that Paeonian is a close relative to Greek and Ancient Macedonian whose dialects went through their own processes of palatalization that were similar to those in Proto-Greek. So, the name of the king here, is derived from PIE from PIE *yeh2g- “to sacrifice”, with a meaning of “pious”. The name of the city however, is actually from a hypothetical Isaurian Wnwinaha – from Old Luwian Wanawinassa, a place name meaning “place of the lady of wine”, a local epithet of a goddess. Hellenized as Honoína, and therefore colloquially referred to by Cilician Greeks as Honáina “she-ass”, or Honainapólis “city of she-asses”. I am also positing that the /m/ alteration, known from Roman records in the name Homona, is from the Old Persian form of the name, Umbīnā, although why Persian /i/ became Greek /o/ is probably due to linguistic bastardization.
13. Modern Beyşehir, in Konya Province, Turkey.
14. Modern Ladik, in Konya Province, Turkey.
15. Alexander, his brother, and his father were taken as hostages after the Third Macedonian War where his father eventually died in the late 160s, before Antiochus IV ITTL was able to secure their return to Macedon.
16. Modern Akşehir, Konya Province, Turkey.
17. Modern Şuhut, in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey.
18. A particularly ancient city that had been Phrygian at least since the onsent of the first millennium BCE. Modern Çavdarhisar, in Kütahya Province, Turkey.
19. Modern Kütahya, in Kütahya Province, Turkey.
20. Modern Çeşme, in Izmir Province, Turkey.
21. The Suratlu Taş carving at modern Manisa, in Manisa Province, Turkey. This carving today has been horrendously damaged, perhaps by deliberate vandalism, and so its affinities cannot be certain. It is however, speculated to be a representation of Cybele, or Kubaba, as the carving has been dated back to the Bronze Age and is believed to be of Hittite origin.
22. The Lydian language, which IOTL is not known in inscriptions dating later than 200 BCE. However, just because the language stopped being recorded in inscriptions, doesn’t mean that it was extinct or even endangered – it may simply have been replaced as the official language of Lydia by this time. Therefore, Demetrius addressing the population in their native language as opposed to Greek, which he likely would have needed some tutoring to have done, would have been an enormous gesture.
23. Modern Fethiye, in Muğla Province, Turkey.
24. Near the small modern town of Gelemiş, Antalya Province, Turkey.
25. Modern Aksu, Antalya Province, Turkey.
26. Modern Anamur, in Mersin Province, Turkey.
27. Contemporary Greek pronunciation of Phoenicia.
28. Modern Homs, Homs Governorate, Syria.
29. Modern Byblos, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon.
30. Beginning between the 10th and the 8th centuries BCE.
31. See the essay ‘The Development and Diffusion of the Cult of Isis in the Hellenistic Period’, by Kelly A. Moss.
32. The city of Memphis was founded in the early 31st century BCE.
33. Contemporary pronunciation of modern pharaoh, in IPA [parəˈʕoʔ].
34. Modern Aswan, in Aswan Governorate, Egypt.
35. The queen in question is Queen Shanakhdakhete of Meroe.
36. Modern Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria.
37. A Hellenization of contemporary Armenian Voskidašt, meaning “golden valley”. The modern Uluova Valley, which encompasses part of Elaziğ Province, Turkey.