Aelia — Wife of Teiranes and Queen of Bosporus

Abstract

Our attention was drawn to the text on the pedestal of the trophy erected in memory of the victory won by King Teiranes. It mentions his wife Aelia. Our interest in this fact is by no means accidental. After all, the Bosporus sovereigns, as a rule, were in the shadow of their royal spouses. We assume that Aelia belonged to the noble Roxolani clan whose leaders received Roman citizenship from Hadrian and, accordingly, became Publii Aelii. There is every reason to believe that the alliance concluded by Teiranes with this group of nomads from the northwestern Black Sea region allowed him to win the victory immortalized in the studied inscription.