The End of Hellenistic Kingship in the Southern Levant
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The post-Seleucid rulers of the Southern Levant are often seen as operating within the general framework of Hellenistic kingship. In this view, the Hasmonaean, Ituraean, Zenonide or Nabataean rulers that followed the collapse of Seleucid power after 129 BCE ensured a continuity of Hellenistic royal traditions in the region that could then be exploited on a much larger scale by «the last Hellenistic king», Herod the Great. This article challenges these widely held assumptions by putting forward a synthetic definition of Hellenistic kingship that goes beyond the traditional enumeration of royal qualities or activities. The application of this definition to the post-Seleucid political formations of the Southern Levant reveals significant differences that make it undesirable to classify them as variants or copies of Hellenistic kingship. This, in turn, opens up new possibilities of approaching them as genuine innovations in the political landscape of the late Hellenistic Near East.
Source: HAL
Author: Eckhardt, Benedikt
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7169965900