Antonia Tryphaina

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Antonia Tryphaena (* around 15 v. Chr .; † 49 n.? Chr.), Also Tryphaena or Tryphena called, was of 22 (or 33) to 38 n. Chr. Queen of Pontus . Tryphaina, almost completely unknown today, was a central figure in the eastern Mediterranean in the first half of the 1st century: her sons Kotys and Polemon ruled Pontus, Lesser Armenia and part of Arabia, her brother Zenon Greater Armenia , her son-in-law was King of Thrace .

Origin and family

Antonia Tryphaina was the daughter of Polemon I , 37–38 BC. King of Pontus, and Pythodoris, a granddaughter of Mark Antony , and thus a distant cousin of Nero and Caligula . Of her three brothers, two, Zenon Artaxias III, King of Greater Armenia from 18–35, and Marcus Antonius Polemon are known by name, and a third acted as the administrator of their wise mother Pythodoris. Tryphaina's mother Pythodoris married Archelaus , the father-in-law of the Herodes sons Alexander and Herodes Archelaus . So Glaphyra was a stepsister to Tryphaina.

Tryphaina was married to the Thracian king Kotys VIII. Under Augustus, after the death of the Rhoemetalkes in 1 AD, Thrace was divided between his brother Rheskuporis and his son Kotys (VIII). Kotys received the land of the Odryses and Asten. Kotys was also archon in Athens and built a hypostyle hall at the Temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus . Around 17/18 Kotys, now also King of Greater Armenia, Cilicia and Thrace, was imprisoned by his uncle, King Rheskuporis, at a peace banquet on the pretext of conspiracy. When Tiberius demanded his extradition, Rheskuporis had Kotys killed and faked suicide. Tryphaina tried Rheskuporis before the Senate in Rome in 19 . Rheskuporis was condemned to exile and Thrace was divided between Rhoemetalkes, the son of Rheskuporis, and the sons of Tryphaina, who were still underage.

Tryphaina, who was related to the Roman imperial family through her mother Pythodoris, the daughter of Mark Antony's eldest daughter , had her sons raised in Rome together with young Caligula in the house of Livia Drusilla . After Claudius had his grandmother Livia Drusilla (who died in 29 AD) elevated to goddess in AD 42 , Tryphaina is attested as one of her priestesses.

progeny

  • The son Polemon was 37/38 king of Lesser Armenia, from 38 to 64 as successor to his mother Tryphaina king of Pontos, 38–42 king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, 41–68 king of Cilicia. Around 55 he converted to the Jewish faith and had himself circumcised in order to marry the Herodian princess Berenike , with which he briefly became the brother-in-law of the Judean king Agrippa II . As can be seen from common coin images, Tryphaena 38–42 ruled the Bosporan Empire together with her son Polemon .
  • The daughter Pythodoris (* 2) married her cousin Rhoimetalkes III, who (also educated in Rome) was appointed King of Thrace by Caligula 38. Rhoimetalkes III. was murdered in the year 46 by insurgents or by his wife Pythodoris. Thrace then became a Roman province .
  • The son of Kotys (* 10) was also brought up in Rome with Caligula. In 38 (a little later than his brother), Caligula awarded him Armenia minor ( Lesser Armenia ) and later parts of Arabia as well.

Tryphaina in legend

In Kyzikos a resolution of the city was carved in stone in honor of Antonia Tryphaina. Later a "Tryphaina von Kyzikos" (daughter of the nobleman "Anastasios" and the "Sokratia") was venerated as a Christian saint . The governor "Caesarius" sentenced her to death by fire for mocking the pagan images, which could not harm her. When she cut the fetters, she impaled herself on iron, but remained unharmed. In the end, a bull took her by the horns, which ended her martyrdom. (Remembrance day January 31 or February 5). The saint of Cyzicus may have received the name of Antonia Tryphaina, who over the centuries appeared more and more Christian.

In the apocryphal acts of Paul from the end of the 2nd Jhs. appears in the legend of Thekla Tryphaina in (Syrian?) "Antioch" as queen and relative of the emperor (Claudius?). The beautiful Thekla is condemned to animal fight because she is not willing to the Syrian Alexander. Tryphaina now accepts the falsely accused Thekla as a child at a dream command of her deceased daughter Falconilla and asks for intercession for her deceased daughter. During the dramatic animal fight scene with lions and bears and wild bulls (including Thekla baptizing herself in a pool with dangerous seals), Tryphaena faints and one fears her death. Fearing the emperor's revenge, Thekla is released. Tryphaena and part of her servants are converted: “Now I believe that the dead are awakening! Now I believe my child is alive! Come in and I will bequeath everything that is mine to you. ”Thekla stays with Tryphaena for eight days and teaches the word of God so that most of the servants also come to believe. Then she longs for Paul and continues to Myra, where they pray for Tryphaina. "Tryphaina now sent her many garments and gold, so that she could leave Paul behind for the service of the poor."

This conversion of Tryphaina to Christianity may have been shaped by the mention of a Tryphaina in Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 16.12) as a counterpart to the sensational conversion of her son Polemon to Judaism. Her daughter-in-law Berenike was also (like the Tryphaina "daughter" in legend) one of the most beautiful women of her time (Berenike later became the Christian Veronica ). In addition, as is well known, Paul came from Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 21, 39), so that Antonia Tryphaina (after the transfer of ownership of the province to her son Polemon in AD 41) as Queen Mother could be thought of as a natural support body for the apostle .

meaning

Tryphaina is in the 1st half of the 1st Jhs. a central figure in the tangle of nobility in the eastern Mediterranean. This makes her a central figure in the close family ties of the ruling class of that time. The fact that she appears as an important person in the later Pauline traditions reflects this importance.

literature

  • Marieluise Deißmann-Merten (Ed.): Data on ancient chronology and history . Stuttgart (1990) p. 73.
  • A. von Gutschmid: “The names of kings in the apocryphal stories of the Apostles.” In: Rheinisches Museum 19 (1864) 161-183 u. 380-401, especially 176-177.
  • Rudolf Hanslik : Antonius 18. Antonia Tryphaina . In: Der Kleine Pauly Vol. 1 (1964), Col. 415.
  • M u. B. Lightman: sv "Antonia Tryphaena." In: Biographical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Women . (New York 2000)
  • Theodor Mommsen : Ephemeris Epigraphica , (1872) Vol. IS 270 ff; Vol. II, p. 259 ff.
  • G. Rolffs in: E. Henneke (Ed.): Handbook to the New Testament Apocrypha (Tübingen 1904) 377–378.
  • Wilhelm Schneemelcher: "Paulusakten." In: ders. (Ed.): New Testament Apocrypha in German translation. Volume 2. Apostolic, apocalypses and related matters . (Tübingen 6th edition 1999) 193–243.
  • Hugo Willrich : Caligula . In: Klio 3 (1903), pp. 85-118 and 288-317, especially p. 99 and 302-303.

Remarks

  1. ^ Deißmann (1990) 73.
  2. ↑ Strabo 12, 556; Tacitus annals . 2, 64.
  3. ↑ a b Strabo 12, 556.
  4. ^ Pausanias 2:27 , 6.
  5. ^ Tacitus Annals . 2, pp. 66-67; Velleius Paterculus 2, 129.
  6. ↑ Gutschmidt (1864); H. Willrich (1903) 99.
  7. ^ Lightman (2000).
  8. ^ Kahrstedt women on antique coins ; Klio 10 (1910) pp. 261-314; esp. 302; Head HN2 503; see. the coins of Tryphaina in the British Museum Pontus 47, 11f. Others attribute the coin image on the reverse to Agrippina the Younger , but this is refuted by the inscription on some variants (Hanslik).
  9. ↑ Kleine Pauly IV 1423.
  10. ↑ H. Willrich “ Caligula ” Klio 3 (1903) 302f.
  11. ↑ Cassius Dio 59, 12, 2 (on the year 38); Jos. ant . 19, 8, 1 (around the year 42/43); Tacitus annals . 11, 9 (for the year 47).
  12. ^ E. Curtius monthly report. Akad. Berlin (1874) 16; Ath. Mitt . VI 55; Bull. De corr. bright . VI 613; Arthur L. Frothingham, Jr .: "Archaeological News." In: American Journal of Archeology and of the History of the Fine Arts , Vol. 9, No. 2 (1894) 229-330; Adolf Wilhelm: Contributions to Greek inscription (Vienna 1909) 197.
  13. ^ The identity of the Tryphaina of the apocryphal Acts of Paul with the historical person was first worked out by Gutschmidt (1864).
  14. ↑ Acta Theclae 27-41, according to Schneemelcher II (6th edition, 1999) 221-223, summary ibid, II 201.
personal data
SURNAME Antonia Tryphaina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tryphaina, Antonia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Pontus
DATE OF BIRTH around 15 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH at 49