Mattathias Antigonus was the last Hasmonean king of Judea, installed by the Parthians in 40 BC after they swept through the Levant and briefly upended Roman client arrangements across the region. His three-year reign ended when Herod — backed by Roman legions under Sosius — took Jerusalem in 37 BC. Ancient sources record that Antigonus was bound and beheaded at Mark Antony's order, the first time Rome had executed a client king in this fashion.
His bronzes are the only Hasmonean coins to carry a Hebrew inscription alongside a Greek one — a deliberate assertion of priestly legitimacy during a reign defined by its precariousness.
Mattathias Antigonus was the last Hasmonean king of Judea, installed by the Parthians in 40 BC after they swept through the Levant and briefly upended Roman client arrangements across the region. His three-year reign ended when Herod — backed by Roman legions under Sosius — took Jerusalem in 37 BC. Ancient sources record that Antigonus was bound and beheaded at Mark Antony's order, the first time Rome had executed a client king in this fashion.
His bronzes are the only Hasmonean coins to carry a Hebrew inscription alongside a Greek one — a deliberate assertion of priestly legitimacy during a reign defined by its precariousness.