Olthacus
Ὀλθακός
(Ὀλθακός), a chief of the Scythian tribe of the Dandarians, who served in the arny of Mithridates the Great, and enjoyed a high place in the favour of that prince, but subsequently deserted to the Romans. This was, however, according to Plutarch, a mere feint, for the purpose of obtatiinng access to Lucullus, and thus effecting his assassination; but being accidentally foiled in this project, he again returned to the camp of Mithridates. (Plut. Luc. 16.) Appian, who also relates the same story (Mlithr. 79), writes the name Olcabas.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.