Apama II

Who is Apama II?

Apama II, sometimes known as Apame II was a Syrian Greek Princess of the Seleucid Empire and through marriage was a Queen of Cyrenaica.

Apama II was of Greek Macedonian and Persian descent. She was one of the daughters and among the children born to the second Seleucid King Antiochus I Soter and Seleucid Queen Stratonice of Syria. Among her siblings were Stratonice of Macedon and the Seleucid King Antiochus II Theos. Her paternal grandparents was the first Seleucid King Seleucus I Nicator and his wife Queen Apama I while her maternal grandparents was the King from the Antigonid dynasty Demetrius I of Macedon and his wife Queen Phila. Apama was the name sake of her paternal grandmother and paternal aunt of the same name. Apama was born and raised in the Seleucid Empire.

Around 275 BC, Apama married her maternal third cousin the Greek King Magas of Cyrene. The maternal grandmothers of Apama and Magas were paternal first cousins. The fathers of their grandmothers were brothers. Although her marriage to Magas was a dynastic one, Antiochus I arranged this marriage to occur as a part of a political alliance between him and Magas to invade Egypt. Through her marriage to Magas, Apama became Queen of Cyrenaica. In Cyrenaica, there is a surviving honorific inscription dedicated to Apama, as a monarch and wife of Magas.