Pythodoris of Pontus

Pythodoris of Pontus, also spelled Pythodorida, was a Roman client queen of Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom, Cilicia, and Cappadocia.

Origins and early life

According to an honorific inscription dedicated to her in Athens in the late 1st century BC, her royal title was Queen Pythodoris Philometor. Philometor means "mother-loving" and this title is associated with the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
Pythodoris was born and raised in Smyrna. She was the daughter and only child of the wealthy Ionian, and friend to the late triumvir Pompey, Pythodoros of Tralles and a woman named Antonia. This Antonia was thought by Theodore Mommsen to be the daughter of Mark Antony, but recent scholarship has revealed the assertion to be problematic. Domitilla Campanile suggests it is more likely the father of this Antonia was the child of Gaius Antonius or Lucius Antonius, brothers of the more famous Marcus.

Queen

The successive marriages of Pythodoris illustrate how elite women, like Rome's client states, were shuffled around in the game of power politics. 13 or 12 BC, Pythodoris married King Polemon Pythodoros of Pontus as his second wife. By this marriage she became Queen of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom.
Pythodoris and Polemon had two sons and one daughter, who were:

Zenon, also known as Zeno-Artaxias or Artaxias III, who became King of Armenia in 18 AD and reigned until his death in 35 AD
Marcus Antonius Polemon Pythodoros, also known as Polemon II of Pontus
Antonia Tryphaena who married King of Thrace, Cotys VIII

Polemon I died in 8 BC, and Pythodoris continued as Queen of Pontus until her death. Pythodoris was able to retain Colchis and Cilicia but not the Bosporan Kingdom which was granted to her first husband's stepson, Aspurgus. She then married King Archelaus of Cappadocia. Archelaus and Pythodoris had no children. Through her second marriage, she became Queen of Cappadocia. Pythodoris had moved with her children from Pontus to Cappadocia to live with Archelaus. When Archelaus died in 17, Cappadocia became a Roman province and she returned with her family back to Pontus.
In later years, Polemon II assisted his mother in the administration of the kingdom. Following her death, Polemon II succeeded to the throne. Pythodoris was remembered by a friend and contemporary, the Greek geographer Strabo, who is said to have described Pythodoris as a woman of virtuous character. Strabo considered her to have a great capacity for business and that under Pythodoris' rule Pontus had flourished.