Born: 292 BCE (circa), Iraq (assumed)
Died: Unknown (after 249 BCE)
Country most active: Libya
Also known as: Apame II
Apama II was a prominent Greco-Syrian princess hailing from the Seleucid dynasty, who ascended to the position of Queen of Cyrenaica through marriage.
Apama II boasted a lineage of Greco-Macedonian and Persian descent. She was the daughter of Antiochus I and Stratonice of Syria, with illustrious ancestors including Seleucus I and Antigonus I Monophthalmus. Apama II’s marriage to her third maternal cousin, Magas, the King of Cyrene, in approximately 275 BC, was a strategic move orchestrated by her father to forge an alliance aimed at invading Egypt.
As Queen of Cyrenaica, Apama II left inscriptions attesting to her reign alongside Magas. The union produced a known daughter, Berenice II, born around 270 BC. In 250 BC, after Magas’s death, Apama sought to safeguard Cyrenaica from the Ptolemaic dynasty. She arranged the marriage of her daughter Berenice II to her paternal cousin, Ptolemy III, thus ensuring continued influence in the region.
Tragedy struck when Magas died in 250 BC or 249 BC, leaving Apama a widowed queen. In an effort to protect Cyrenaica, she turned to her maternal uncle, Demetrius the Fair, offering him the throne through marriage to her daughter. However, Demetrius’s ambitions led to unforeseen consequences, including a tumultuous affair with Apama.
Following Demetrius’s death, Cyrenaica became part of the Ptolemaic Empire, and Berenice II moved to Egypt, where she eventually became Queen. Apama, accompanying Berenice II to Alexandria, settled in the city with her daughter and family.
Apama II is occasionally referenced as Arsinoe, possibly adopting the name after her marriage to Magas. Connected to the Ptolemaic dynasty through marriage, she was a distant relative of Euridice and Berenice I, both wives of Ptolemy I.