Appendix 3 - Agathocles' pedigree coins

Summary

In the first century b.c. there was in existence a fictitious pedigree of the Seleucid house which derived the descent of the dynasty from Alexander. The fact is clearly shown in a series of inscriptions set up by Antiochus I of Commagene below the representations of his ancestors, each inscription giving the name and patronymic of the corresponding figure; these inscriptions professedly give the respective pedigrees of his father, going back to Darius, and of his mother Laodice Thea Philadelphos, who was a Seleucid princess, a daughter of Antiochus VIII Grypus; and his mother's pedigree is the ordinary Seleucid pedigree but begins with Alexander.

How was Alexander brought into the Seleucid pedigree? I must emphasise that the Commagene inscriptions mean that some member of the direct Seleucid line was (supposed to be) a lineal descendant of Alexander. This member could not be the first Seleucus and the story could not have originated in his reign, as a great many people knew that he and Alexander were contemporaries and much of an age. Professor Rostovtzeff in an. interesting paper has suggested that the explanation is that in 306 Seleucus was trying to connect himself with Alexander by connecting his own mother Laodice with Alexander's mother Olympias. The method suggested is not too convincing, seeing that Laodice was a Macedonian name and Olympias was an Epirote; however, his quotation from Libanius may be taken to show that Seleucus I, like Ptolemy I and Antigonus I, did claim some connection with the Argead line.