Orodaltis

Who is Orodaltis?

Orodaltis 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. 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. 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.

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

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. 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. Oradaltis may have been dethroned by Augustus at an unknown date during his administrative reforms of Anatolia.