Dual Faces of Power: Balance and Gender in Hellenistic Rule

Hellenistic kingship has long been defined according to the tenets found in Suda s.v βασιλεία, that “kingship derives not from either royal descent or formal legitimacy, but rather from the ability to command armies and to govern effectively.” This definition has remained the basis of inquiries into the nature of rulership in the Hellenistic world, despite the sharp rise of scholarly interest in the power and agency of royal women of the period over the past two decades. Recent scholarship has explored female economic agency through euergetism and patronage with Hellenistic poleis, the roles of royal women in civic and dynastic cults, in military activity, and their inclusion on royal coinages, to name only a few recent topics. Nevertheless, inquiries into the nature and praxis of rulership remain polarized along gender lines, not yet seeking a more integrative and multi-faceted approach to rulership capable of taking into account recent developments in the study of Hellenistic royal women. In order to move forward with the study of women and royal power, it is necessary to widen our gaze to consider how their civic involvement, economic power, and dynastic significance were incorporated into the larger narrative of royal rule; that is, to ask how female power and authority both impacted and functioned as a necessary component of rulership within the Hellenistic world. This paper will focus particularly on the lives and rule of two such royal women from the Seleucid dynasty, Laodice III (wife of the Seleucid king Antiochus III), and Cleopatra Thea (Ptolemaic princess and wife to three Seleucid kings in turn), considering how the actions and representations of each constituted a core component of the larger political, religious, and dynastic currents of their time.