A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

3. Daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Phila, the daughter of Antipater. In B. C. 300, at which time she could not have been more than seventeen years of age, her hand was solicited by Seleucus, king of Syria, and she was conducted by her father Demetrius to Rhosus, on the Pierian coast, where her nuptials were celebrated with the utmost magnificence (Plut. Demetr. 31, 32). Notwithstanding the disparity of their ages, she appears to have lived in perfect harmony with the old king for some years, and had already borne him one child, when it was discovered that her step-son Antiochus was deeply enamoured of her, and Seleucus, in order to save the life of his son, which was endangered by the violence of his passion, gave up Stratonice in marriage to the young prince, whom he at the same time constituted king of the provinces of Upper Asia. (Plut. Dem. 38 ; Appian. syr. 59 ; and the other authorities cited under ERASISTRATUS, where the well-known circumstances of this story are more fully related.) The union commenced under such strange auspices seems to have been a prosperous one, but we find little subsequent mention of Stratonice. She bore three children to Antiochus : 1. Antiochus II., surnamed Theos; 2. Apama, married to Magas, king of Cyrene; and 3. Stratonice [No. 4.]. The city of Stratoniceia in Caria was named after her, but whether it was founded in her honour by Seleucus or by Antiochus, is uncertain. (Strab. xiv. p.660; Steph. Byz. s. v. Στρατονίκεια.)