Court and Culture

I discuss the roles of the inner circle of Antigonus’s courtiers, his Friends. His decision was final, but he listened to his counsellors’ advice and they formed in effect the senior layer of government. Court life was risky for courtiers, and I illustrate the tightrope they walked by their behavior when hunting and drinking with the king. I discuss the handbooks that were being written for Antigonus and other kings by philosophers, that attempted to regulate their behavior. I discuss the evidence for Antigonus’s deification while still alive, not an unusual honor granted the kings of the time. I end by discussing his patronage of artists and intellectuals, and the importance of such patronage for third-century developments in science, philosophy, and literature. The chief luminaries of Antigonus’s court were the poets Aratus of Soli and Alexander of Pleuron, and the philosophers Persaeus of Citium and Menedemus of Eretria. But others passed through the court, and Antigonus used his wealth also to patronize others beyond the court, such as the eminent Cleanthes of Assos, the second head of the Stoic school.

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