Antiochus Gelotopoios

Antiochus Gelotopoios (Greek: Ἀντίoχoς γελωτοποιός; c.352 - 260 BC) was a Greek admiral, most notable for serving in the fleet of Alexander the Great and subsequently commanding the navy of Seleucus I Nicator during the Wars of the Successors.[1] After falling from favour during the reign of Antiochus I, Antiochus entered into the service of Ashoka, the Mauryan King, and wrote extensively about his exploration of the Indian Ocean.[2]

Born in Cyprus, his family moved to Macedonia at some point during the reign of Philip II.[3] Little else is known about his early years until he is mentioned by Arrian (3.35.3) as a minor commander during Alexander the Great's siege of Tyre in 332. Since much of the remainder of Alexander's campaign was land-based, there was little opportunity for Antiochus to demonstrate his naval talents in battle; however, he was evidently highly-regarded because he is mentioned by Arrian (7.1.17) as one of the leading commanders of the fleet led by Nearchus in 324.

The sources for the early Hellenistic period are notoriously problematic and there are large gaps in our knowledge,[4] so we cannot establish Antiochus' exact role in the years immediately after Alexander's death in 323. However, by 310 he was serving Seleucus I (Diodorus of Sicily 18.15.3) and later commanded the Seleucid fleet (Plutarch, Life of Demetrius 37.2). Despite serving Seleucus with distinction, winning victory against Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC,[5] Antiochus fell from favour after the death of Seleucus in 281. Strabo (6.1.1) claims that Antiochus was the victim of a power struggle at court: Megasthenes, Seleucus' ambassador to India, alleged that Antiochus had misappropriated funds for the construction of four triremes. However, Herodotus (5.33) argues that it was Megasthenes himself who had stolen the money and that Antiochus was simply the scapegoat - without further evidence, the truth cannot be established.[6]

After losing his command, Antiochus falls from the historical record until he reappears as a naval commander at the court of Ashoka, the king of the Mauryan Empire in India (Arrian, Indica 2.34.1), likely sometime in the 260s. His precise role is unclear, but Athenaeus (12.155a-e) uses him as a source of information about spices from ancient Sri Lanka. This suggests that he was involved in exploring the coastline of India, but his writing survives only in fragments of later authors so this is not certain.