Collection of Greek Coins of Thrace
Sitalces Rex Thraciae
Σιτάλκης Βασιλέας Θράκης 450-424 BC
| Babelon 431-424 BC;
Κουρτίδης: -422 BC; Oppermann: 450-424 BC; Pauly: 450-425 BC; Peter:
--- BC; Χριστόπουλος mid 5th c. BC |
|
Sitalkes was a brave warrior and a wise ruler. He improved the economy
and increased farther the size of his kingdom beyond anything that was
achieved by a Thracian ruler before him. It extended from Abdera to the
mouth of the river Danube on the Black Sea and from Byzantion to the
river Strymon in the west. The Athenians, aware of the power of Sitalkes, won him as an ally against the Mecedonians. The Spartans sent a delegation to Sitalkes to try to convince him to denounce the alliance and to help them instead with the relief of Potidaia which stood under siege by the Athenians. However, Sadokos, the son of Sitalkes and an Athenian citizen, captured the delegates before they reached the king, and brought them to Athens where they were executed without a trial. At the beginning of the winter Sitalkes marched against Perdikkas II, son of Alexander I, and the Chalkidians. He recruited a very inhomogenious army of about 150000 men, including the Thracians from the mountains of Aimos and Rhodope, the Getae from beyond the Aimos, the mountain tribes of the Dioi, as well as the Paeonian tribes east of the Strymon river over which he ruled. The Macedonians were not in a position to fight such a numerous enemy and withdrew to the mountains and their strongholds. However, the support by the Athenians from the sea failed to materialize and the army started suffering from the winter weather and lack of supplies. Sitalkes decided after thirty days to finish the expedition and retired to his homelands in the third year of the Peloponnesian war, 428 BC. Sitalkes died 422 BC during a campaign against the Triballian Thracians, and was succeeded by his nephew Seuthes I, son of his brother Sparadokos. No coins coins were minted in the name of Sitalkes. |
Tribes,
Dynasts and Kingdoms of Thrace
Greece
Sylloge |