• Antiochus III to Rome, 193 BC (presbeutes, gr. πρεσβευτής, en. envoy)
• Teos to Rome, 193 BC (presbeutes, gr. πρεσβευτής, en. envoy)

Menippos son of Phanias was one of the most valuable ambassador of Antiochus III. His complete name is known from a base he dedicated to Antiochus in Delos (IG 11 4, 1111), while all the literary sources call him simply Menippos. This identification seems correct, because we know that in late 194 the Delians dedicated crowns to Antiochus III. These honours may have been triggered by the passage of Menippus on his way to Rome from Ephesus (Baslez, Vial 1987, 303-4). About the background of Menippos, Livy defines him as a Macedonian, which means his family came originally from Macedonia; we do not know if he was citizen of any polis, inside or outside the Seleucid domain (Ma 2000, 209-210).

Menippos led several embassies, among which a diplomatic meeting with the Roman authorities in 193 BC about the Seleucid expansionism and the precarious peace with Rome. Literary sources (especially Livy) report the meetings, the names of other Seleucid envoys and some of the speeches of Menippos and M. Valerius Messala, the praetor for that year; cfr. Liv. 34 57, 6 and 59, 3; Diod Sic. 28 15, 2; App. Syr. 6.

During his journey, Menippos acted also as a spokeman for Teos in order to obtain a Roman acknowledgement of the Teian asylia. In this period, Teos probably had not any own delegate at Rome to represent its interests in front of the Roman senate. Therefore, the city chose an esteemed ambassador among the Seleucid ones, a fact that actually obtained the Senate approval (cfr. RDGE 34, 8-11). It is a remarkable example of the importance of soft skills and global esteem in diplomatic mediation.

We are not fully informed as to how Teos resorted to Menippos. RDGE 34, 5-6 simply states that Menippos was chosen (προχειρισθείς) by the Teians and brought a civic decree about asylia to Rome. It is possible that Menippos, having left Ephesus (App. Syr. 6) for Rome, stopped over in Teos; or, less likely, that the Teians, knowing him to be close to them on his way leaving to Rome from Ephesus, sent envoys to Ephesus to appoint him and give him a copy of the decree. It can also be suggested that Menippos had Teian citizenship, in the same way that Perdikkas, an envoy of Philip V, had it (Savalli-Lestrade 1998, 31). Given the frequent exchanges of envoys between Antiochus III and Teos from 204 BC onwards, it is more than reasonable to think that Teos honoured and benefited someway the royal envoys.

Literary sources also make it possible to follow the later stages of the career of Menippos. In particular, Antiochus III sent him as ambassador to the Aetolian League in 192 BC (Liv. 35 32, 2 and 8) and then employed him with military functions in Delion (Liv. 35 50, 7 and 9; Liv. 35 51, 4 and 8) and the following year in Stratos (Liv. 36 11, 6).

• Baslez, M.-F., Vial, C. (1987), ‘La diplomatie de Délos dans le premier tiers du IIeme siècle’, BCH 111, 281-312.
• Ma, J. (2000), Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor, Oxford.
• Savalli-Lestrade, I. (1998), Les philoi royaux dans l’Asie hellénistique, Geneva.