King, Queen, and Greek cities. Polycratia and Philip V

In Asia Minor, an inscription from the Carian sanctuary of Panamara, I. Stratonikeia 3, honours the king, Philip V of Macedonia, with his queen, basilissa, and their children. The document sheds light on the king’s wife and contributes to the interpretation of the literary tradition on Philip’s marriage. By examining the Anatolian epigraphic record, this paper collects and analyses the available evidence on the king’s dynastic politics. It relates them with the Hellenistic political context to clarify who was Philip V’s wife Polycratia, if she also was a basilissa, and, most notably, the rationale behind this marriage, which suffered an adverse narrative from the literary sources. Finally, by highlighting the link between the king’s marriage and his international relations with Asia Minor and Egypt, the study eventually considers the Greek elite origin of the royal wife and its ramifications in the Mediterranean political chessboard.