[SPEAKER_00]: This show is a hotful media podcast production. [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everyone. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the history of Persia. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Trevor Kully, and this is episode 153 Blood Relations. [SPEAKER_00]: So I actually had some cultural history planned for this episode, but I'm shifting things around just a bit for narrative purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, if you couldn't guess from the title, we're going to talk about the royal family [SPEAKER_00]: Last time, I covered some of the foreign relations and regional politics playing out in Antiochist's reign during and after the Second Syrian War. [SPEAKER_00]: All of the little kingdoms of northern Anatolia were angling for power and competition with one another, and through a marriage pact, Antiochus singled out Capidogia.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over in Babylon, there was some sort of uprising or long-term unrest in the first half of Antiochus' reign, but we only know about it from some very fragmentary astronomical records. [SPEAKER_00]: There was pillaging outside the walls and rioting, if not outright combat within. [SPEAKER_00]: Then all the way in the northeast, the sattraps of Parthia and Bactria.
[SPEAKER_00]: Androgoris and Diodas became increasingly self-sufficient and autonomous under Antiochis' rule, as they were left to fend off the invading Parney Saka. [SPEAKER_00]: While mostly successful, Parthia, in particular, suffered a heavy loss when the Parni War Lord Arsakeez, conquered Ostawene, renamed it Arshaq in his own honor, and declared himself an independent king in Hellenistic fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to leave Arsakeez on a cliffhanger for now, and get back to the Salukid Royal Court. [SPEAKER_00]: As usual with these things, we start with Antiochist the God's Mother, Strattonique. [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned that she died shortly before the end of the Second Serian War in that episode, and told the little story about the elderly queen getting involved with a scandalous painting to picture herself, nude with a local fisherman.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is actually pretty reflective of the few stories of Stratonique as Queen Mother that have survived. [SPEAKER_00]: By all accounts, she was very popular with the people in Sardis and Ephesus, a patron of the arts, and some combination of good humored and vain that is hard to pin down. [SPEAKER_00]: The later Roman poet Lukean wrote that poets of the time were sure to praise the Queen Mother's good looks and luscious hair, despite her hair falling out from disease.
[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, she died in early autumn of 254 BC, after a long period of terminal illness, survived by all but one of her children. [SPEAKER_00]: The only known child to die before Stratoneke was, of course, Crown Prince Salukus, for his attempted rebellion against Antiochist Soterre, which paved the way for Antiochist, they asked to wear the crown in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're now three generations into the silhoukets, and they've fully evolved into a royal family at this point, with all of the reasonably well-documented cousins and in-laws that we got used to with the accaminates.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike the Persian dynasty before them, who were usually marrying within their own nobility, [SPEAKER_00]: The salukids and other diodocoidinisties were all intermarrying as well, resulting in an even wider spread and better documentation for more family members. [SPEAKER_00]: So we begin with Antiochus II's older sister slash step-grandmother, Fila.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is really just a check-in and farewell to the only daughter of Stradenege and Celucus Nikotor before Stradenege remarried Antiochus so tear. [SPEAKER_00]: Fila was the wife of Antigonus Ganadas and Queen of Macedon.
[SPEAKER_00]: By all indication, they had a happy enough marriage and Fila showed little interest in politics, [SPEAKER_00]: Ganadas and Fila had two sons, one of which died early in their reign, and the other, Demetrius, was the clear heir to his father's throne, and likely ruled as co-king alongside the elderly Ganadas. [SPEAKER_00]: Even before coming to power on his own, this Dmitrius had a growing reputation for military success after defending Macedon from an epirot invasion around 260 BC.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moving on to Antiochus' Theosus' full siblings, we start with an easy example of how blurry generational lines can get with Stratonique of Macedon. [SPEAKER_00]: If you Google this strategy gay and her mother, the names and titles get very odd. [SPEAKER_00]: To clear things up, strategy gay of Syria is the mother, a Macedonian princess who moved to Syria to Mary Silucas and then married in Taya-kes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stradineke of Macedon is the daughter, a princess from Syria who moved to Macedon in order to marry her nephew, Demetrius. [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike her sister and father-in-law, Stratonique and Metrius had a rocky marriage on the whole. [SPEAKER_00]: She found the Antigonid Prince Boresh, but politics and marriage being what they were at the time they did have one child during Antiochist II's reign, a daughter named Apama.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, as a princess herself, Apama will rejoin the story in her own marriage alliance down the line, but for now, Stratineke and Metrius II primarily served to reinforce the saluted and tignate alliance against Egypt for another generation. [SPEAKER_00]: And Tyacus II also had another sister, who was, of course, another Apama. [SPEAKER_00]: And at this point, she was probably the second most powerful of all her siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: This Apama is the one who was sent west just before the first Syrian war to Mary Magus of Karanayaka, the tolemake rebel who split off his own little kingdom in Libya. [SPEAKER_00]: Well around 250 King Magus did two things. [SPEAKER_00]: He arranged to reconcile with his brother, Tolami Philadelfus, through a marriage pact.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philadelfus' grandson and heir apparent after the second Syrian war would marry Magus and Apomas' daughter, Baranique, when the children both came of age. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, this Tolamiic Prince was named Tolami. [SPEAKER_00]: They do have standards to maintain. [SPEAKER_00]: Then, shortly after the Betrothal, Magus died. [SPEAKER_00]: Since Baranique was an only child, the Betrothal plan would have rejoined Libya and Egypt in Merital Union rather than conquest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, the saluted queen of Karinega, got worried that Philadelphia's would just invade and take them by force now that Magus was dead. [SPEAKER_00]: So she summoned Demetrius the fair. [SPEAKER_00]: The younger brother of King Antigonus in Macedon, and they had a wedding. [SPEAKER_00]: Not for herself, but for her daughter, a teenager at the time. [SPEAKER_00]: This made demetrious the new king, and tied Kiranayaka into the wider and tignid saluted protectorate more firmly.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wedding ceremony was pure political theater, Apama and Dmitrius were the actual lovers in this situation, but in the next couple of years, as Barinike reached her late teens and near to adulthood, she realized she hated that arrangement. [SPEAKER_00]: She was the legitimate heir to the kingdom but had no power.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was supposed to marry a powerful king, but was instead legally married to a second son, and in that marriage to a famously handsome older man, she was being cucked by her own mother. [SPEAKER_00]: So probably with a little help from the Tollamies, the 18 or 19-year-old Libyan Princess orchestrated a palace coup against her mother and husband in 248 BC.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were both killed, which allowed the old Kirinei and Republic to resume for a few years, with Barinike as the ceremonial head of state while making arrangements to restore her own marriage pact with the future, Togumi III. [SPEAKER_00]: Now we move on to the cousins. [SPEAKER_00]: We are getting far enough removed in time and space that we don't really know what happened with figures like Antiochus II's Aunt Laude Gay, who married Shandra Gupta, Maria.
[SPEAKER_00]: Presumably, if she had children, they are now part of the Indian nobility somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: So while we can really follow is the lineage from Antiochus' uncle, Akaya. [SPEAKER_00]: Like their father before them, most of Akaya's known children were very influential nobles and governors in Anatolia. [SPEAKER_00]: Akaya's had at least two daughters of note, one, Laudique, wasn't Taya kiss the second queen, so we'll save her for later.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other, Antiochis, was married to Adalis, a cousin of humanis, the tyrant ruler of [SPEAKER_00]: Adelis was a pretty run of the mill noble. [SPEAKER_00]: He and Antiochis were involved in patronizing local temples, as well as the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. [SPEAKER_00]: And Adelis competed in Olympic chariot racing at least once. [SPEAKER_00]: However, it's their son we need to focus on.
[SPEAKER_00]: This purgamyun cousin of the Salukid King, also named Adalis, was legally adopted by the childless humanis to become air of purgamon. [SPEAKER_00]: And this Adalis will eventually lend his name to the Adalid dynasty of kings. [SPEAKER_00]: Akaias had sons as well, Alexander, and Ramakas, and I have hypothesized in the past about another Akaias.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alexander and Andromoccus were just continuing the busy work of managing vast estates and urbanization projects all over Anatolia. [SPEAKER_00]: They signed land deeds and managed tax policy at various silucid outposts around the region, especially when it came to granting land payments to veterans [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, it seems that Alexander was promoted all the way up to Sattrap of Lydia, a position likely occupied by Akaya's in the previous generation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last cousin on this tier is another younger Laldike, daughter of Akaya, which is partly why I suspect there was a second Akaya in the family tree, but before talking about Laldike [SPEAKER_00]: We are going to take a break and come back with Laude Gay the first. [SPEAKER_00]: We are back, and let's climb a little bit further down the family tree to Lao Dike, the first eldest daughter of the original Akaius who was betrothed early on to Antiochus the second.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was already his wife when he took power into 61 and remained fully at that status until the end of the second Syrian war. [SPEAKER_00]: This is where I ended episode 151. [SPEAKER_00]: Up to that point, Laudique had been queen, but not particularly involved in Imperial politics. [SPEAKER_00]: That changed when she was formally pushed to the side if not legally divorced in order to disinherit her two sons with the king and make room for the new Tala-mayek princess Baronique.
[SPEAKER_00]: At that point, Laudique was given immense economic power in her own right, with huge tracts of land in her name all over Anatolia, and as much power over those lands and their inhabitants as she could have, without just becoming an independent queen. [SPEAKER_00]: Despite all of the commotion and compensation at the start of this new arrangement, [SPEAKER_00]: And Tyachus, they are still loved, or at least liked, Laudique more than Baronique.
[SPEAKER_00]: If nothing else, she was the mother of all of his children up to that point. [SPEAKER_00]: So, and Tyachus kept spending more and more time with Laudique than his new official bride. [SPEAKER_00]: Laudique and Antiochus had at least five children together before the legal separation. [SPEAKER_00]: We've met one of the daughters before, yet another stradineke, probably the eldest or second eldest of the trio.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was married off to King Ariarathese III in Capedokia to establish a saluqid ally among the [SPEAKER_00]: Their son, another Ariarathes, was probably born in the mid-2040s, but we frankly only know about Hellenistic Capodokia when it interacts with other kingdoms, so we're in a blank space there at the moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second daughter of Laudige and Antiochis was another Apama, and frankly, it's a miracle [SPEAKER_00]: A pome of the daughter of the king just happens to be a phrase that survived in Babylonian astronomical diaries dated to Antiochus II's reign.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some early 20th century historians, namely William Woodthorpe Tarn, who suggest that Antiochist may have arranged for one of his daughters to marry Satraptia Dodas in Bakhtria, as a substitute for installing Asalukid Prince in that position. [SPEAKER_00]: if that were true, Apama would be the prime candidate. [SPEAKER_00]: We know she was, at least, as far east as Babylon at some point, and nothing else about her, so she's the obvious pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that idea is also rooted in the incorrect belief that the accaminids always installed their crown princes in bacteria, so who knows? [SPEAKER_00]: Laudeca's third and youngest daughter was, of course, another Laudeca. [SPEAKER_00]: What else would you name a princess you've only got like four options? [SPEAKER_00]: In the mid to 40s, Laudeca had just reached the right age to start considering marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems likely that her parents were already engaged in negotiations and hearing proposals from some of the more pro-Solucid kings in the region. [SPEAKER_00]: By 246 BC, nothing was firmly established, but based on the amount of time it took to arrange international treaties and wedding ceremonies, they were probably already in discussions with King Mithredaides the second in Pontus, more on him in a future episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: That just leaves the brothers, Salukus and another Antiochus. [SPEAKER_00]: We actually don't know much about these two during their father's reign. [SPEAKER_00]: They seem to have been pretty close together in age, probably both born in the late two sixties, with Salukus right around 20 years old in 246, and in Tyacus, somewhere in his late teens. [SPEAKER_00]: They were both remembered with Epithets by later historians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salukus would eventually become Salukus Calinicus, the beautifully triumphant. [SPEAKER_00]: But early on and, more often, by his opponents, he was Salukid Pagan, meaning the bearded. [SPEAKER_00]: If you look at his contemporary portraits, the title is a little funny to me. [SPEAKER_00]: But it was also the most facial hair a Greek king had worn since Alexander the Great's generation popularized shaving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Antiochus was eventually named Hierax, the Hock, for reasons that are not well recorded, but presumably have something to do with his appearance or hunting. [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, [SPEAKER_00]: Neither brother was officially in the running for King after their parents' separation in 253, but that didn't exclude them from marriage politics. [SPEAKER_00]: Higher-ax was notably married to a capidokian princess to solidify his father's alliance with Ariarathes.
[SPEAKER_00]: While Celucus was married to yet another Laudique, apparently the daughter of Anakaya's or sister of Andromachus. [SPEAKER_00]: Though whether she was the whether or not she was actually the existing Queen's much younger sister is not at all clear. [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately much like her husband, we effectively know nothing about Laudique the second at this point in the story. [SPEAKER_00]: So now we switch over to Baranique.
[SPEAKER_00]: The new queen from Tollameic Egypt, after the second Syrian war. [SPEAKER_00]: She was known to historians as Baranique for Nothoros, the dowry bringer, for the massive hall of treasure she brought as a wedding dowry, which effectively served as a war in [SPEAKER_00]: Baranike knew what she was getting into, at least to some degree.
[SPEAKER_00]: She knew this marriage had been forced on Antiochus, and according to one story, she was so apprehensive about leaving home that her father routinely sent bottled water from the Nile, so that she would never have to drink from an unfamiliar source. [SPEAKER_00]: As I've said before, Antiochus II and Baranike were not together very often. [SPEAKER_00]: in the carnal or social senses of the phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was despite Tolamese repeated insistence that they have a son and actually complete anti-accuses end of the treaty obligation. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we don't actually know whether or not anti-accus and Baranique were trying to make that happen over the course of the early two forties, but the general impression seems to be that they were not. [SPEAKER_00]: This is until Tollamy Philadelphus's health started declining in 247.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philadelphus was in his early 60s and had been king for most of his life when he started to decline. [SPEAKER_00]: That seemed to be enough pressure for Antiochus to perform his marital duties. [SPEAKER_00]: When Philadelphus died, it would nullify all of their existing treaties. [SPEAKER_00]: And if Antiochus didn't have a half-tall-amac air to show the incoming tallamy the third, it might just cause another Syrian war.
[SPEAKER_00]: To avoid that specific outcome, he started spending more time with Barinike. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, nothing sets the mood quite like finding out that her dad is in terminal decline. [SPEAKER_00]: More Bid Circumstances aside, they seemed to have conceived not long before Philadelphia's past in January of 246. [SPEAKER_00]: And Tommie III, Yergetes, came to power. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, there were no pregnancy tests at the time and word traveled slowly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Yergatees also complained that his sister still hadn't had a son, but they all would have found out the good news within a month or two. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was good news for Antiochist, they asked, Yugeratees, and Baranique, Laudiquei and her sons were none too pleased to find out they were officially being sideline just as [SPEAKER_00]: But, they held their tongues and stayed their hands for a few months.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all, Baranique could have a daughter which would buy Laudique's households some time before Baranique could try again, or she'd have a miscarriage, or she'd have a healthy baby boy who then got, I don't know, Typhus. [SPEAKER_00]: They were not that lucky. [SPEAKER_00]: Sometime around late spring or early summer of 246, Barinike gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Antiochus, even as the king went back to Anatolia to live with Laudike and his adult sons.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what exactly conspired behind the scenes. [SPEAKER_00]: Ancient historians were quick to blame Queen Laudique the first, as nefarious and powerful woman much in the tradition of the accatemented queens. [SPEAKER_00]: Although, I don't know how much sense that actually makes. [SPEAKER_00]: And Taya kissed clearly favored her, and this new baby was just that, a baby. [SPEAKER_00]: Anything can happen to a baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're blaming queens, Barronique seems much more plausible, and even that doesn't seem like the most likely option to me at this point in time. [SPEAKER_00]: Because again, anything can happen to a baby. [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it was one of his wives, agents of another king, or just natural bad luck, king and tie-a-kiss fell crushingly ill in early July of that year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many historians blamed poison, but it was the third century BC, it could have been an infected toenail for all it matters. [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of the exact cause, the king died. [SPEAKER_00]: He was Antiochus the second thayos, Antiochus the god. [SPEAKER_00]: He was around 40 years old and had been king, the Vasileus [SPEAKER_00]: He died at Laudiquez's state in Anatolia, which gave his first wife the advantage of, but you can hardly keep the King's death secret for too long.
[SPEAKER_00]: So soon, Barrenique found out in Antioch. [SPEAKER_00]: and she had the advantage of having her friends in allies already inside the walls of a capital very close to the border with her brother's kingdom. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the empire exploded. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to delay that story for two episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: The whole Hellenistic world is about to be on fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: So next time, we need to check in with the Saluca's powerful neighbors and establish their political situations before launching into a war on all fronts. [SPEAKER_00]: until then. [SPEAKER_00]: If you want more information about this podcast, you can go to hopfulmedia.com. [SPEAKER_00]: That's where you'll find things like my bibliography, episode imagery, and additional resources.
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