#stratonike

"Stratonike was a prominent person in her own right, in Babylonia where she is noted in a building inscription from Borsippa, in Syria where she is associated with the development of the Atargatis temple at Hierapolis-Bambyke, in Asia Minor where she was honoured by the Ionian League, at Delos where she made numerous gifts to Apollo (as did her brother Antigonos Gonatas), at Sardis where she gave gifts to Artemis. This last example gives a clue to the reason for her prominence, for she is there described as ‘daughter of Demetrios, granddaughter of Antigonos’, to which everyone could add wife of Seleukos I, wife of Antiochos I, and by the time of her death, mother of Antiochos II and of the Queens of Kappadokia and Cyrenaica. The Babylonian diaries noted in 274 that when Antiochos went to fight the Egyptians he left Queen Stratonike in Sardis, and twenty years later he noted that she had died, also at Sardis.

"Stratonike evidently retained the Akkadian royal title used for her even after Antiochos’ death, since the astronomical diary entry identifies her as šarratu, in logograms GAŠAN, which means “queen.” In earlier centuries under previous regimes this title could not be used of a royal woman unless she also ruled. As suggestive as this is, there is no direct corroborating evidence for Stratonike exercising rulership, unless we credit her influence with her children as a form of political dominance. The trope of the domineering dowager queen mother should be familiar enough from interpretations of other royal families throughout history. But the diary, normally fairly precise in noting royal family connections, does not call her “mother [or widow] of the king,” meaning that at least some people remembered Stratonike as a queenly figure on her own, without reference to male relatives. This is an interesting hint at how these royal women could carry out their duties so as to be regarded as individual rulers in their own right."

"No poetic celebration of a Seleucid queen survives extant, but an anecdote preserved by Lucian sheds intriguing light on Seleucid poetic practice (Pro Imaginibus 5) [...] Queen Stratonice, while still the wife of Seleucus I (c. 300-294 BCE), is said to have set up a competition to see which poet could best praise her hair:

"While queen Apama’s diplomacy was regime-building, resolving problems and grounding Seleukid sovereignty over the east in the older forms of rule, Stratonike operated in a sphere of escalating conflict, with mounting risks as parties marshalled their resources for the competition over Asia Minor. This – the centre of an incipient conflict – was the natural place for diplomacy in the Hellenistic world, and by participating in foreign affairs during the two Syrian Wars, Stratonike faced all the risks concomitant with the type of self-interested and dominance-seeking interactions occurring among the kingdoms. The later phase of this took place during a little-understood, but undoubtedly painful, period of succession transition within her immediate family. Stratonike’s enduring reputation as a good queen, albeit more memorable for her romantic characterization as a twice-over bride than for her later career, is testament to the power she wielded and the status she brought to the Seleukids through her diplomatic action, although this was not a point for much celebration during her life."

"Antiochos’ and Stratonike’s activities in the eastern part of the [Seleukid] empire are largely shrouded in mystery, but, as Engels has argued, Antiochos was far from idle since he embarked on a large building programme and was active in securing the frontier. There is some evidence to suggest that his new bride accompanied him for much of this period. We can perhaps identify Stratonike’s presence with her new husband in the Upper Satrapies through the gold coinage minted in Susa and Baktria in c . 287. The two gold coin sets are of the same type, the obverse features the laureate head of Apollo facing right and the reverse features Artemis in an elephant biga facing left with the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ in exergue.

"Stratonike’s marriages in the Seleukid dynasty were further steps in experimenting with legitimacy. Her role as an Antipatrid and Antigonid basilissa brought authority in the Mediterranean sphere, just when relationships between the royal families needed to be redefined after her father’s defeat and Seleukos’ victory at Ipsos in 301. Plutarch gives the account of her marriage, how Seleukos requested Stratonike in marriage because he needed an alliance with Demetrios to counterbalance other marriage-alliances being forged by Ptolemy I. Phila joined her daughter and the two kings at Rhosos, Syria for several days of festivities before departing to handle a political dispute with her brother Kassandros, and then Seleukos helped the already polygamous Demetrios broker another marriage with Ptolemaïs, daughter of Ptolemy. Turmoil between the kings erupted almost immediately after; nevertheless it is clear that Stratonike’s first marriage fits into a complex sequence of inter-state negotiations, for which the physical and familial movements of basilissai were integral.

"Concerning Stratonike, there is one reference to her in the Astronomical Diaries, stating that in 274 during the build-up to the First Syrian War she was stationed at Sardis, one of the Seleukid royal capitals, with a high-ranking general. She could have been playing a role in the wartime strategy, since the fight concerned territories in southern Anatolia."

"The concentration of Stratonike’s public appearance within the Antigonid milieu introduces a frisson to the notion of her voiceless compliance with Seleukos’ schemes for dynastic succession. In her public appearances on Delos she is distant from her affines; in her own words she was the daughter of a king and a queen, not wife of two kings. Clearly the evidence is not fulsome and does not provide the personal motivations for such decisions or the emotional attachments present in these relationships, and neither can we say that Stratonike never attended to Seleukid interests nor Apama to Baktrian ones. The Antiochos Cylinder’s portrayal of Stratonike shows that her persona as divinely appealing consort got good traction in Babylonia, at least, and she could have exploited it elsewhere.”