Orodaltis

Orodaltis (Greek: Ωροδάλτις) was a princess from Anatolia who lived in the 1st century BC and was a contemporary to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD.

Orodaltis is a name of Iranian origin.^[1] She was of Persian and Greek ancestry. Orodaltis was the daughter of Lycomedes of Comana a nobleman from Bithynia who was of Cappadocian Greek descent, who was the priest of the goddess Bellona and priest-ruler of the temple-state of Comana, Cappadocia who ruled as priest-ruler from 47 BC until after 30 BC and his wife Orsabaris.^[2] The mother of Orodaltis, Orsabaris was a princess from the Kingdom of Pontus, who was the youngest daughter born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from an unnamed woman from the concubine of Mithridates VI.^[3]

Coins minted after 72 BC have been found at the Bithynian city of Prusias ad Mare, which inscribes the names of Orodaltis and Orsabaris.^[4][5] The city of Prusias ad Mare was the city that the Pontian paternal ancestors of Orsabaris originated from.^[6]

An example of coinage that survives, that bears the name of Orodaltis is on one coin, on the obverse side inscribes in Greek: ΩΡΟΔΑΛΤΙΔΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΚΟΜΗΔΟΥΣ ΘΥΓΑΤΡΟΣ, which means of Orodaltis, daughter of King Lycomedes, showing the head of Orodaltis. On the reverse side of the coin, is inscribed in Greek: ΠΡΟΥΣΙΕΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΘΑΛΑΣΣΗ. Orodaltis may have ruled the city of Prusias ad Mare.^[7] The portraits on her surviving coinage shows, Orodaltis would still have been young in 22 BC and it is unlikely that she would have died before this date.^[8] Oradaltis may have been dethroned by Augustus at an unknown date during his administrative reforms of Anatolia.^[9]

The Romans had approved the status of Orodaltis and her family, as they ruled over Comana and possibly Prusias ad Mare for a substantial period.^[10] Orodaltis and her mother could be viewed as potential successors of Mithridates VI on the Pontian throne,^[11] however the Kingdom of Pontus at the time became a Roman Client State who was ruled by her maternal uncle Pharnaces II of Pontus; the sons of Pharnaces II and eventually by Polemon I of Pontus.

References

Sources

• A. Mayor, The Poison King: the life and legend of Mithradates, Rome’s deadliest enemy, Princeton University Press, 2009
• The Dynastic History of the Hellenistic Monarchies of Asia Minor According to Chronography of George Synkellos by Oleg L. Gabelko