Apama

{{Short description|4th-century BC Seleucid queen consort}} {{other uses}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Apama | title = Queen consort of the Seleucid Empire | titletext = | more = | type = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | succession = | moretext = | reign = | reign-type = | coronation = | cor-type = | predecessor = | pre-type = | successor = | suc-type = | regent = | reg-type = | birth_name = | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = | spouse = Seleucus I Nicator | consort =  | issue = Apama of Sogdiana<br>Antiochus I Soter<br>Achaeus | issue-link = | issue-pipe = | issue-type = | full name = | era name = | era dates = | regnal name = | posthumous name = | temple name = | house = | house-type = | father = Spitamenes or Artabazus | mother = | occupation = | signature_type = | signature = }}

'''Apama''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀπάμα|Apáma}}), sometimes known as '''Apama I''' or '''Apame I''',<ref name="livius" /> was a Sogdian<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apame I - Livius|url=https://www.livius.org/articles/person/apame-i/|access-date=2020-10-24|website=www.livius.org}}</ref> noblewoman.

==Biography== 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.<ref name="ancestry" /><ref name="magill" /><ref name="holt" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Spitamenes - Livius|url=https://www.livius.org/articles/person/spitamenes/|access-date=2020-10-24|website=www.livius.org}}</ref> Strabo, on the other hand, makes her a daughter of Artabazus.<ref name="strabo" /> Apame was the only of the Susa wives to become queen as, unlike the other generals, Seleucus kept her after Alexander's death.<ref name="grainger" />

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.<ref name="malalas">[http://www.attalus.org/translate/malalas.html Chronicle of Johannes Malalas]</ref> According to Malalas's chronicle, he married her after the death of Apama <ref name="malalas" /> but, according to other sources, she was still alive, as the people of Miletus honored her with a statue that year.<ref name="hellenistic_queens" />

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.<ref name="samarkand-sardis" />

== Notes == <references>

<ref name="ancestry">Arrian VII, 4, 6: "to Seleucus the daughter of Spitamenes the Bactrian" [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183612 Translation]. </ref> <ref name="strabo">Strabo 12.8.15: "the city which he named after his mother Apama, who was the daughter of Artabazus" [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.2917 Translation].</ref> <ref name="livius">{{Cite web |url=https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apame/apame_i.html |title=Apame I |access-date=2020-03-26 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183244/http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apame/apame_i.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="magill">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}}.</ref> <ref name="holt">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}}.</ref> <ref name="grainger">{{cite book|last1=Grainger|first1=John D.|title=Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom|date=1990|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-415-04701-3|page=12}}</ref> <ref name="hellenistic_queens">{{cite book|last1=Macurdy|first1=Grace Harriet|title=Hellenistic Queens|date=1985|publisher=Ares Publishers|isbn=0-89005-542-4|page=78|authorlink1=Grace Macurdy|location=Chicago}}</ref> <ref name="samarkand-sardis">{{cite book|author1=Sherwin-White, Susan|author2=Kuhrt, Amélie|authorlink2=Amélie Kuhrt|title=From Samarkand to Sardis. A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire|date=1993|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley}}</ref>

</references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apama}}  Category:4th-century BC women Category:4th-century BC Iranian people Category:Seleucid royal consorts Category:Sogdian people Category:Seleucus I Nicator