BITHYNIA. Kios (as Prusias ad Mare). Orsobaris Musa, daughter of Mithradates VI Eupator, circa mid to late 1st century BC. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 23 mm, 6.93 g, 12 h), circa 30-22 BC (?). [BAΣIΛIΣΣHΣ - OPΣOBAPIOΣ / MOYΣHΣ] Diademed head of Orsobaris Musa to left.
Rev. [ΠPOYΣIEΩN TΩN / ΠPOΣ ΘAΛAΣΣHI] Bearded head of Herakles to left. RPC I 2020. Very rare. Thick deposits and with minor traces of corrosion and light scratches
, otherwise, fine.
From a European collection, formed before 2005.
The dates of birth and death of Orsobaris Musa remain uncertain. According to Appian, she was a daughter of Mithradates VI of Pontos and was brought to Rome in 61 BC - together with other descendants of the Pontic king - to be paraded in Pompey’s great triumph (App. Mithr. 117). At some unknown point in her life, Orsobaris married Lykomedes of Comana, an unsuccessful claimant to the Bithynian throne in 74 BC and priest-king of the temple-state of Comana from 47 to 30 BC.
The chronology becomes even more complex when considering this coin type issued in the Bithynian city of Prusias ad Mare, which names her as 'Queen Orsobaris Musa', as well as another issue from the same mint struck in the name of 'Orodaltis, daughter of Lykomedes' (RPC 2021). It seems likely that Orodaltis was the daughter of Lykomedes and Orsobaris, and that she lived in Prusias ad Mare sometime in the late 1st century BC - perhaps prior to, or until, the administrative reforms of Agrippa in Asia Minor in 22 BC.
This raises a chronological question: if Orsobaris was married to Lykomedes and likely living in Comana between 47 and 30 BC, when did she rule Prusias ad Mare? A plausible assumption is that Orsobaris was granted Prusias ad Mare as a principality by Augustus after her husband’s death in 30 BC, and that the coin types issued in her name and in that of her daughter form part of a single coordinated series, struck in the years that followed.
This interpretation helps to explain the remarkable stylistic similarities between the two coinages, especially in the rendering of the portraits and the unusual placement of the legends - both indicative of a single engraver’s hand. As the senior figure, Orsobaris likely issued the larger denomination, identifying herself as 'queen' and associating herself on the reverse with Herakles, the mythical founder of Kios-Prusias. Her daughter, in contrast, appears on the smaller half-denomination without a title, described only as the 'daughter of Lykomedes'.
