page_title: King of the Universe
section_title: Later examples (626–261 BC)
hierarchical_section_title: King of the Universe / History / Later examples (626–261 BC)
caption_attribution_description: English: SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Antiochos I Soter. 281-261 BC. AR Tetradrachm (27mm, 15.58 g, 6h). Aï Khanoum mint. Diademed head with idealized features right / BΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ to left, ANTIOXOY below, horned and bridled horse head right with horn-like forelock; ΔI to right. SC Ad102 (this coin referenced); SCB –; HGC 9, 132. Good VF, toned, minor surface roughness. Extremely rare, and the only published specimen of this issue. Ex New York Sale IV (17 January 2002), lot 240. The authors of Seleucid Coins (Pt. I, Vol. I, p. 114), following Babelon and Newell, suggest that this horse represents not Alexander’s steed, Bukephalos, but Seleukos I’s horse that in 315 BC carried him from Babylon to Egypt, where he found asylum with Ptolemy I. Seleukos bestowed extraordinary honors on this animal, including deification and a gilt statue at Antioch, which depicted the horse’s head, a helmet, and a dedicatory inscription. Most likely, Seleukos chose this type to honor both his own horse and the legacy of Bukephalos–an obvious link to the legacy of Alexander the Great that was always first and foremost in the minds of the Diadochoi.
context_page_description: King of the Universe, also interpreted as King of Everything, King of the Totality, King of All or King of the World, was a title of great prestige claiming world domination used by powerful monarchs in ancient Mesopotamia. The etymology of the title derives from the ancient Sumerian city of Kish, the original meaning being King of Kish. Although the equation of šar kiššatim as literally meaning "King of the Universe" was made during the Akkadian period, the title of "King of Kish" is older and was already seen as particularly prestigious, as the city of Kish was seen as having primacy over all other Mesopotamian cities. In Sumerian legend, Kish was the location where the kingship was lowered to from heaven after the legendary Flood.
  The first ruler to use the title of King of the Universe was the Akkadian Sargon of Akkad and it was used in a succession of later empires claiming symbolical descent from Sargon's Akkadian Empire. The title saw its final usage under the Seleucids, Antiochus I being the last known ruler to be referred to as "King of the Universe".
context_section_description: The Neo-Assyrian Empire's domination over Mesopotamia ended with the establishment of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 626 BC. With the sole exceptions of the first ruler of this empire, Nabopolassar, and the last, Nabonidus, the rulers of the Neo-Babylonian Empire abandoned most of the old Assyrian titles in their inscriptions. Nabopolassar used "mighty king" (šarru dannu) and Nabonidus utilized several of the Neo-Assyrian titles including "mighty king", "great king" (šarru rabu) and King of the Universe. Though not using them in royal inscriptions (e.g. not officially), both Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II used the title in economic documents.
  The title was also among the many Mesopotamian titles assumed by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC. In the text of the Cyrus Cylinder, Cyrus assumes several traditional Mesopotamian titles including those of "King of Babylon", "King of Sumer and Akkad" and "King of the Four Corners of the World". The title of King of the Universe was not used after the reign of Cyrus but his successors did adopt similar titles. The popular regnal title "King of Kings", used by monarchs of Iran until the modern age, was originally a title introduced by the Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I in the 13th century BC (rendered šar šarrāni in Akkadian). The title of "King of Lands", also used by Assyrian monarchs since at least Shalmaneser III, was also adopted by Cyrus the Great and his successors.
  The title was last used in the Hellenic Seleucid Empire, which controlled Babylon following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the resulting Wars of the Diadochi. The title appears on the Antiochus Cylinder of king Antiochus I (r. 281–261 BC) which describes how Antiochus rebuilt the Ezida Temple in the city of Borsippa. It is worth noting that the last known surviving example of an Akkadian-language royal inscription preceding the Antiochus cylinder is the Cyrus Cylinder created nearly 300 years prior and as such it is possible that more Achaemenid and Seleucid rulers would have assumed the title when in Mesopotamia. The Antiochus Cylinder was likely inspired in its composition by earlier Mesopotamian royal inscriptions and bears many similarities with Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions. Titles such as "King of Kings" and "Great-King" (šarru rabu), ancient titles with the connotation of holding supreme power in the lands surrounding Babylon (in a similar way as to how titles like Imperator were used in Western Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire to establish supremacy), would remain in use in Mesopotamia up until the Sassanid dynasty in Persia of the 3rd to 7th centuries.
caption: Tetradrachm of Antiochus I of the Seleucid Empire,[29] the last known ruler to use the title King of the Universe.
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