Borders
Today, the region covers the west of Erdemli district and the east of Silifke district in Mersin province. The region is very rich in archaeological artefacts. The capital of the state was a city called Olba on a plain known today as Uğuralanı on the Taurus Mountains. The capital Olba was about a thousand metres above the sea and its acropolis was about 50 metres above the valley it dominated.
History
The Kingdom of Olba was under the Seleucid Empire during the Hellenistic period and later under the Roman Empire. The state, which had a very strong economy depending on olive cultivation and viticulture, faced a great problem in the last years of the Seleucid Empire.
Kanlıdivane – Olive Processing Workshop
Cilician pirates taking advantage of the vacuum of authority raided the harbours and villages, plundered, captured the inhabitants of the villages and sold them in slave markets. This situation caused great damage to Olba State.
The Seleucid Empire could not cope with the pirates. The Roman Empire, on the other hand, initially turned a blind eye to the pirates supplying slaves. However, when the pirates started to harm the Roman Empire, the Roman senate decided to campaign against the pirates. However, the success of the first campaigns was temporary. Although the expeditions under the command of Marcus Antonius Orator in 104 BC and Servilius Vatia Isauricus in 79 BC partially prevented piracy, the problem could not be solved.
Finally, Pompey, a member of the First Triumvirate, who was sent to the region with extraordinary powers, completely eliminated the pirates in 66 BC. Thus, Olba State had the opportunity to recover. The Roman Empire was now the dominant power of the region. Already three years later, the Seleucid Empire had disappeared from history.
Queen Aba
For some time after the elimination of the pirates, it was Queen Aba who led the politics of Olba. Aba, the daughter of Xenophanes, one of the pirates, was raised in the temple after the murder of her father and entered the dynasty through marriage, becoming one of the most recognisable names in the history of Olba.
Bloody Divane – Monumental Tomb of Queen Aba
Queen Aba, who was in power between 43-39 BC, ensured the continuation of Olba as a vassal state of the Roman Empire. Aba lost her husband and two sons in a plague epidemic. She built a mausoleum for her relatives west of Kanlıdivane. After Aba’s death, the state continued to be ruled by Aba’s descendants.
End of the Kingdom
Olba continued for a while thanks to the good relations established by Queen Aba with Marcus Antony and Cleopatra, but after their deaths, Olba’s status within the Roman Empire began to deteriorate. Olba lost power during the reign of Archelaus Sisines, the king of Cappadocia, who was appointed as governor of the region by Emperor Augustus in 25 BC. However, after the death of Archelaus in 17 AD, it is understood that the state of Olba continued its semi-subordinate life for a while. Because Olba was able to print its own money until 138 AD.
When Antoninus Pius became the Roman Emperor in 138 AD, Olba started to mint money on behalf of the Roman Empire. After the collapse of the Kingdom of Olba, the capital Olba maintained its existence as a Roman city. In 199 A.D., Emperor Septimus Severus built an aqueduct and fountain starting from the vicinity of today’s Kızılgeçit village, bringing water from the Lamas River to the city of Olba. The inscription on this aqueduct reads “City of Olbans”.
