Ruja Popova
2025
The presence of Antonia Tryphaena on the political scene is documented in the literature by two authors in the first decades of the first century of the new millennium: Strabo and Tacitus. Both authors note Antonia Tryphaena as wife-widow of Kotys and mother of his children, but both have left her anonymous.
Of the two authors Strabo (12. 3. 29) presents her in slightly greater detail: she is the daughter of Pythodoris and Polemo, who had two sons as well. The daughter was married to Kotys the Sapaean. However, he was treacherously murdered and she lived as a widow with her children from him. The elder one of them is ruling now, Strabo ends (Strabo 12. 3. 29).
Tacitus is not concerned with Antonia Tryphaena’s genealogy. He reports it only through the events that resulted in the change of power in Thrace and its secondary partition, thus fixing the time of that act (Tac. Ann. 2. 67). The evidence is presented through the interests of the Roman influence in the region. The anonymous widow of Kotys accused her husband’s assassin – Rhescuporis, his uncle, in the Roman Senate. As a result, Rhescuporis was sentenced to exile from his kingdom. Thrace was divided between the son of Rhescuporis, Rhoemetalces, who was known not to share his father’s scheming, and between the children of Kotys. As these were still minors, the expraetor Trebellienus Rufus was assigned to them so as to rule for a while instead of them, according to the information in Tacitus (Ann. 2. 67; Tacitus mentions twice more the division of Thrace between Rhoemetalces and the underage children of Kotys, who were under the trusteeship of Trebellienus Rufus, see Ann. 3. 38; 4. 5).
Diademed and draped bust of Antonia Tryphaena right on drachme, ca. 38-64 A.D. © Classical Numismatic Group
The daughter, whose birth is traditionally dated between 12 and 9/8 BC, has remained anonymous for the two authors – Strabo and Tacitus, but her name Antonia Tryphaena became known from epigraphic evidence (IGR 4. 144, 145, 146, 147, 148; Попова 2017; Popova 2018; an inscription from the sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace Island (Dimitrova 2008: 115-119, № 46; Kirov 2011: 215-220; Clinton, Dimitrova 2016: 87-100; see Cole 1984: 120, n. 356, where the inscription is mentioned as unpublished, but without details); an inscription from Magnesia on the Maeander (Попова 2023).
Numismatic artefacts are another type of monuments attesting the name of Antonia Tryphaena. The discussion on her own coin minting in the Pontus is complicated and questions her reigned over the Pontus at all. T. Reinach (1902: 147; Waddington et al. 1904: 21, N 22–23) date its onset in 22/23 AD on the basis of the coins issued by her with indicated years of her reign: portrait of Antonia Tryphaena with legend ΤΡΥΦΑΙΝΗС ΒΑСΙΛΙССΗС, on the reverse – a young diademed man and dating inscription ΕΤΟΥС ΙΖ (17), calculated by Reinach as 38/39 AD; portrait of Antonia Tryphaena with legend ΒΑСΙΛΙССΗС ΤΡΥΦΑΙΝΗС, on the reverse the same portrait with dating inscription ΕΤΟΥС ΙΗ (18 = 39/40). Later her bust was already transferred to the reverse in an inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΤΡΥΦΑΙΝΗΣ or only as an inscription in a wreath (Waddington et al. 1904: 21–22, N 24–28).
From the inscriptions it can be seen that Antonia Tryphaena stepped confidently on her origin as “daughter of kings” and on her actual status of “mother of kings” and “herself queen” reigning over the Pontus, her father’s hereditary domain that she inherited after her mother’s death, at the time when a part of the decrees were issued autonomously, and later – also jointly with her son Polemo. Similar to her mother Pythodoris, Antonia Tryphaena gained visibility after she became widow, proudly appearing and being presented through her royal genealogy, but – as is seen from the documents – with a strange neglecting of the dynastic status of her husband Kotys after his death.
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