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Oooooh! Seleukid reception! Apparently in Assassin’s Creed: Origins you can fight a masked gladiator in Kyrene named “The Seleukid.” The announcer says his name is “Antiokhos the dragon of the Seleukid Empire.” The game takes place in 47 BCE, so there is no Seleukid polity.
Its dissolution is formally dated to 63 BCE. Is there anything in particular that makes him Seleukid-y? For starters, the masked helm is similar to a relief from the temple of Athena Pergamon showing war booty taken from the Seleukid army. Among these, a great cataphract panoply.
Why is he called the "dragon"? Well it could just be a badass title OR it could be a reference to Typhon! The Orontes River is the main river within the so-called Syrian tetrapolis of Antioch, Seleukia Pieria, Laodikeia, and Apameia. All were purportedly founded by Seleukos I.
Before it was called the Orontes, the river was known as Typhon. Strabo tells us it received this name because Zeus zapped a monster/dragon known as Typhon with lightning, killing him near the river. It was then called the Orontes and the Axios (a grafted Makedonian toponym.)
Interestingly, this all makes sense because Seleukos I was directed to found the Syrian tetrapolis by an eagle, the symbol of Zeus that shows his favor. Hence why "the dragon of the Seleukid Empire" could be a reference to the Orontes River. Or it could just be a sweet title.
If you're interested in dragons:
Ogden, D. 2013. "Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds." Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Molina Marín, A. I. 2015. Tifones y gigantes en el mundo macedonio: el rey como símbolo del orden cósmico. Gerión 33, 67-89.
Ogden, D. 2013. "Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds." Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Molina Marín, A. I. 2015. Tifones y gigantes en el mundo macedonio: el rey como símbolo del orden cósmico. Gerión 33, 67-89.
