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Love Sickness on 6/6/2011, 20:35
Aelfwine
Seleucus I Nicator (Victorious) was one of Alexander The Great`s generals and successors. In the division of the provinces after the great battle of Ipsus 301 BC, Seleucus gained control of most of Syria which he added to his other provinces in the East. Demertrius known as the Beseiger, another Hellenistic king, held Cyprus and the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. Also, more importantly, he possessed a fleet whereas Seleucus had none.
In 298 BC Seleucus offered Demetrius an alliance, proposing that he take Demetrius` daughter, Stratonice, as his queen. The offer was gladly accepted and, after a magnifiicent wedding, the old veteran took his young bride to Antioch.
About five years later Seleucus` physician told him that his son and heir Antiochus, from a previous marriage, was suffering from a serious illness. A worried Seleucus asked the doctor if there was a cure. The doctor said yes, but the actual remedy was regretfully out of the question. When pressed further for the answer, the physician said the sickness of Antiochus was caused by love for his stepmother the young Stratonice. Queens could be replaced but not sons. Consequently, Seleucus called an assembly of the nobles of the realm and also the army, and declared Antiochus and Stratonice man and wife, saying "what the king willed was the law". Antiochus and his young bride were then sent to Seleucia- on-the-Tigris, there to rule over the eastern provinces of the kingdom.
Now what Stratonice thought or felt about her new husband and, in effect, the lowering of her status is not recorded. However, there may be a clue. She was a deeply religious woman who made a number of dedications at religious sites in the Greek world, especially at Delos. On none of these dedications does she describe herself as the wife of Antiochus.
In 298 BC Seleucus offered Demetrius an alliance, proposing that he take Demetrius` daughter, Stratonice, as his queen. The offer was gladly accepted and, after a magnifiicent wedding, the old veteran took his young bride to Antioch.
About five years later Seleucus` physician told him that his son and heir Antiochus, from a previous marriage, was suffering from a serious illness. A worried Seleucus asked the doctor if there was a cure. The doctor said yes, but the actual remedy was regretfully out of the question. When pressed further for the answer, the physician said the sickness of Antiochus was caused by love for his stepmother the young Stratonice. Queens could be replaced but not sons. Consequently, Seleucus called an assembly of the nobles of the realm and also the army, and declared Antiochus and Stratonice man and wife, saying "what the king willed was the law". Antiochus and his young bride were then sent to Seleucia- on-the-Tigris, there to rule over the eastern provinces of the kingdom.
Now what Stratonice thought or felt about her new husband and, in effect, the lowering of her status is not recorded. However, there may be a clue. She was a deeply religious woman who made a number of dedications at religious sites in the Greek world, especially at Delos. On none of these dedications does she describe herself as the wife of Antiochus.
