The Seleucid king Seleukos II Kallinikos (reigned 246–225 BC) founded ar-Raqqah as the eponymous city of Kallinikos (in Greek Καλλίνικος, Latinized as Callinicum).
Seleucus II married his cousin Laodice II, by whom he had five children and among them were: Antiochis, Seleucus III Ceraunus and Antiochus III the Great.
•
At the Battle of Ancyra (about 235 BC) Seleucus sustained a crushing defeat and left the country beyond the Taurus to his brother and the other powers of the peninsula.
•
However, Antiochus Hierax, a younger brother of Seleucus, was set up as a rival in Asia Minor against Seleucus by a party to which Laodice herself adhered.
Seleucus I Nicator | Seleucus | Seleucus III Ceraunus | Mithridates I Callinicus | Seleucus II Callinicus | Callinicus |
Laodice I bore her husband two sons: Seleucus II Callinicus, Antiochus Hierax and three daughters: Apama, Stratonice of Cappadocia and Laodice.