ABSTRACT
The role of women in the Seleukid dynastic system was pivotal. Apart from the primary wife and queen, there were often secondary wives of inferior rank, concubines, and mistresses. The royal daughters and sisters played a major part in alliances. Through marriages, the Seleukids tried to establish peaceful relations with other rulers and dynasties, including those of the Antigonids, Ptolemies, Pontos, Kappadokia, Sophene, Kommagene, Atropatene, and Baktria. In this dynastic architecture, the House of Achaios played a crucial role in the third century BCE. Antiochos III intended to create a stable system of dynastic succession, based on the marriages of the king and his appointed successor within the Seleukid clan. However, the marriages of full siblings produced a number of children forming dynastic branches which fiercely competed for the throne. Women became active rulers or co-rulers who had de facto control of the state (e.g. Kleopatra Thea and Kleopatra Selene).
