Apama

For other uses, see Apama (disambiguation).

Apama
Queen consort of the Seleucid Empire
Spouse	Seleucus I Nicator
Issue	Apama of Sogdiana Antiochus I Soter Achaeus
Father	Spitamenes

Apama (Ancient Greek: Ἀπάμα, romanized: Apáma), sometimes known as Apama I or Apame I,[1] was a Sogdian[2] noblewoman and the wife of the first ruler of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus I Nicator. They married at Susa in 324 BC. According to Arrian, Apama was the daughter of the Sogdian baron Spitamenes.[3][4][5][6] Apame was the only of the Susa wives to become queen as, unlike the other generals, Seleucus kept her after Alexander's death.[7]

Apama had three children with her husband: Antiochus I Soter (who inherited the Seleucid throne), Achaeus, and a daughter also called Apama.

Circa 300-297 BC, Seleucus married Stratonice, daughter of Demetrius I of Macedon, by whom he had a daughter called Phila.[8] According to Malalas's chronicle, he married her after the death of Apama [8] but, according to other sources, she was still alive, as the people of Miletus honored her with a statue that year.[9]

According to Appian (57–8), her husband named three cities Apamea after her. Modern scholars consider them to be Apamea on the Orontes River, Apamea in the Euphrates, and Apamea in Media.[10]

Notes

1. "Apame I". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
2. "Apame I - Livius". www.livius.org. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
3. Arrian VII, 4, 6 "to Seleucus the daughter of Spitamenes the Bactrian" Translation. Strabo (12.8.15) makes her a daughter of Artabazus. "the city which he named after his mother Apama, who was the daughter of Artabazus" Translation
4. Magill, Frank N. et al. (1998), The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1, Pasadena, Chicago, London,: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Salem Press, p. 1010, ISBN 0-89356-313-7.
5. Holt, Frank L. (1989), Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia, Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: E. J. Brill, pp 64–65 (see footnote #63 for a discussion on Spitamenes and Apama), ISBN 90-04-08612-9.
6. "Spitamenes - Livius". www.livius.org. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
7. Grainger, John D. (1990). Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom. New York: Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 0-415-04701-3.
8. Chronicle of Johannes Malalas
9. Macurdy, Grace Harriet (1985). Hellenistic Queens. Chicago: Ares Publishers. p. 78. ISBN 0-89005-542-4.
10. Sherwin-White, Susan; Kuhrt, Amélie (1993). From Samarkand to Sardis. A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press.