Nysa (wife of Pharnaces I of Pontus)

Nysa
Greek Seleucid Princess and a Queen of the Kingdom of Pontus.

Nysa or Nyssa (Greek: Νύσ(σ)α, flourished 2nd century BC) was a Greek Seleucid Princess and a Queen of the Kingdom of Pontus.

Nysa was of Greek Macedonian and Persian descent. She was the child born to the Seleucid Prince Antiochus and Seleucid Queen Laodice IV. Her parents were blood siblings and her parent’s marriage was the first sibling marriage to occur in the Seleucid dynasty. The grandparents of Nysa was the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great and Seleucid Queen Laodice III. Her father crown prince Antiochus, was appointed by her grandfather to succeed him and was his first heir.

Nysa was born and raised in the Seleucid Empire and she was born between 196 BC-193 BC. In 193 BC, her father had died. Her family were in complete grief of his death, in particular Antiochus III. Laodice IV, later had married her brothers Seleucus IV Philopator and Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who were the uncles and stepfathers of Nysa. Through her mother’s marriages, she had various half brothers and sisters. In the year 172 BC or 171 BC, through the diplomatic work of her maternal half-brother Seleucid King Demetrius I Soter, Nysa married the King Pharnaces I of Pontus.

Through marriage Nysa became a Queen of Pontus. The marriage that occurred between Pharnaces and Nysa was a continuation and the strengthening of the pro-Seleucid orientation in foreign policy of Pontus. Through his marriage to Nysa, Pharnaces tried to increase his political influence and Pontian power and affairs in foreign political relations with the Roman Republic and in Anatolia. Nysa and Pharnaces were related as he was a first cousin to Nysa’s parents, thus Pharnaces was related to the Seleucid dynasty. Little is known on Nysa’s relationship with Pharnaces and how she reigned as Queen of Pontus.

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