Laodike (Queen)

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Laodike († probably between 240 and 237 BC) was the first wife of the Seleucid king Antiochus II .

Life

According to Polyainus, Laodike is said to have been a daughter of Antiochus I and half-sister of Antiochus II; More likely, however, is Porphyry's statement that she was a daughter of Achaios .

Laodike and Antiochus II had the following children:

  • Seleucus II , the eldest son and heir to the throne;
  • Antiochus Hierax , later rival of his older brother for the throne;
  • Stratonike III., The wife of Ariarathes III. of Cappadocia;
  • Laodike , wife of Mithridates II of Pontus ;
  • perhaps a daughter of unknown name who gave birth to an Antipater.

According to a cuneiform document, Laodike and her sons received land near Babylon as a gift from Antiochus II. To confirm the peace treaty after the Second Syrian War , Antiochus II left in 253 BC. His wife Laodike, in order to be able to marry Berenike the younger , daughter of the Egyptian king Ptolemy II . Undoubtedly, during the negotiations that led to this peace agreement, quarrels arose between the Seleucid and his previous wife Laodike, who lost her title of queen. As compensation, her ex-husband sold her large estates on the Propontis west of Kyzikos, including the farm workers who lived there, for 30 silver talents, which Laodike's administrator Arridaios had to take care of (May 253 to June 252 BC). From then on, Laodike settled in western Asia Minor , where she may have received further possessions; Ephesus became their administrative center.

Allegedly, immediately before his death, Laodike was able to persuade her ex-husband to return to her and to reappoint her son Seleucos II, who had been excluded from the succession as a result of the treaty agreed with Ptolemy II, as heir to the Seleucid Empire (while simultaneously disinheriting the son the Berenike, Antiochus). A little later Antiochus II died while staying with Laodike in Ephesus (246 BC). Several ancient authors claim that Laodice poisoned him and forged his will with the help of a double called Artemon. Perhaps this story was invented by the Ptolemaic side to counter the Seleucid accusation that the announcement of the death of Berenike and her son (see below) was delayed and that the Syrians were also given advantages by replacing them with doppelgangers for a short time; for the three-time replacement of a dead person with a double at the beginning of the war that follows is very unlikely.

In any case, Berenike had to flee with her son to Daphne, a suburb of Antioch on the Orontes, and called her brother, the Egyptian king Ptolemy III. , help. This is how the Third Syrian War broke out, which was also known as the “Laodike War” because of Laodike's active participation. Laodike now ordered the elimination of her rival Berenike and her son. First the young son, then the mother, was killed near Antioch . These murders continued until the arrival of Ptolemy III. concealed. Partly the report of Ptolemy III. survived through his now following campaign of revenge. It reports on Aribazos , the strategist of Cilicia , who wanted to send 1,500 talents of silver to Ephesus to Laodike; this was prevented and the treasure was confiscated, and Aribazos himself was beheaded by locals while fleeing across the Tauros . The Egyptian king, who appeared as the avenger of his murdered sister, penetrated into Syria as far as Antioch without resistance; many Syrian nobles agreed to place themselves under Egyptian suzerainty. Laodike had to stay in Asia Minor for the time being. From Antioch Ptolemy III moved. across the Euphrates to at least Babylon in order to secure the eastern parts of the Seleucid Empire, but had to turn back because of an uprising in Egypt. Simultaneously with the departure of the Egyptian king of Antioch, his naval forces had sailed west to conquer the Seleucid parts of Asia Minor. Laodike wanted to get rid of the renegade governor of Ephesus, Sophron , who was warned in time by her lady-in-waiting Danaë and to Ptolemy III. fell off. The enraged queen then had Danaë executed. Ephesus, the previous power center of Laodice, thus became Ptolemaic. But after the forced withdrawal of the Egyptian king in 245 BC, Seleucus II was able to BC bring back most of northern Syria and the eastern Euphrates under his control. 242/241 BC Peace was made; only in Asia Minor and Thrace were Seleucus II lost to Egypt.

Appian’s claim that Laodice was given by Ptolemy III. was murdered during the Third Syrian War is historically untenable. Rather, after the war, Laodike incited her younger son Antiochus Hierax to become king of the entire Syrian empire instead of his brother. It came to a fight between the two brothers, in the course of which Laodike's brother Alexander successfully defended the city of Sardis for Antiochus Hierax. In a cuneiform document it is reported that Seleucus II and his brother, who had in the meantime settled their dispute, began in 236 BC. BC donated the property near Babylon, which was once handed over to them and their mother Laodike, to the temples there; since Laodike is not mentioned, she was apparently already dead at this point.

Several Seleucid city foundations are named after Laodike, see Laodikeia .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Polyainus 8:50.
  2. ↑ Felix Jacoby , The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH), No. 260, F 32, 6.
  3. ^ Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae (OGIS), 1, 225.
  4. ↑ Porphyrios, FGrH F 43 with Hieronymus in Daniel 11, 6; Polyainos 8, 50.
  5. ↑ Phylarchos , FGrH 81 F 24 in Athenaios 13, 593d; Appian , Syriaca 65, 344f .; Pliny , Natural History 7, 53; Valerius Maximus 9, 14 ext. 1; Porphyrios, FGrH 260 F 43.
  6. ↑ Valerius Maximus 9, 14 ext. 1; Pliny, Natural History 7, 53.
  7. ↑ Huss (see lit.), p. 339, note 6.
  8. ↑ Inscriptions from Priene 37, 134.
  9. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 65,345 ; Polyaine 8.50; Justin 27, 1, 1f. and 6f .; Valerius Maximus 9, 10 ext. 1; Porphyrios, FGrH 260 F 43.
  10. ↑ Papyrus from Gurob: FGrH 160.
  11. ↑ FGrH 160 F 1, Col. I 2 - II 2.
  12. ↑ FGrH 160 F 1, Col. II 3 - IV-
  13. ↑ OGIS I 54; Justin 27, 1, 8f .; Porphyrios, FGrH 260 F 43.
  14. ↑ Phylarchos, FGrH 81 F 24 bei Athenaios 13, 593 vol.
  15. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 65,346 .
  16. ↑ Plutarch , Moralia p. 184a; 489a; Eusebius , Chronicle 1, 251 ed. Schöne.
personal data
SURNAME Laodike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the Seleucid king Antiochus II.
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 240 BC Chr.