Artakama

Artakama was the second wife of Ptolemy I Soter. Artakama married Ptolemy (then a general) in April 324 BC at a strange Susa marrige festival as ordered by Alexander the Great. However, a large number of Macedonian and Greek officers took persian wives shortly after. Nobody ever heard of Artakama again, probably because Ptolemy quietly discarded her after Alexander's death when he left Babylon for Egypt. If so, his action was a contrast to that of his friend Seleucus, whose Perian wife, Apama, married also on that occasion, remained with him permanently, and became the ancestress of the kings of the Seleucid dynasty-ancestress also, through a future dynastic marrige, of the last Ptolemies and Cleopatras. Artakama is called Apama by Plutarch, but this is likely an error. Ptolemy had no known children by Artakama.

Artakama was a daughter of Artabazus of Phrygia, a grandson of king Artaxerxes II and queen Strateira. Her father was a Satrap of Dascylium under Artaxerxes III and Darius III, and a Satrap of Bactria under Alexander. Her mother was most likely the only known wife of Artabazus, an anonymous sister of the Rhodian generals Memnon and Mentor, who were in Persian service in the late 340 BCs and the 330 BCs.