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Seuthes III – Odrysian King of Thrace: circa 330-295 B.C.
Bronze 19mm (4.90 grams) Struck circa 324 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1725; B.M.C. 3.1,2; SNGCop 1072; Moushmov 5730; SNG BM Black Sea 317-318
Bearded head of Seuthes right.
ΣEYΘY, Horseman cantering right, wreath beneath.
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Seuthes III was a king of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace from ca. 331 BC to circa 295 BC, at first tributary to Alexander the Great of Macedon.
 Thrace had been largely subject to Macedon since the campaigns of Alexander’s father Philip II in 347-346, followed by his conquest of southern Thrace in 341 BC. After Philip’s death in 336 BC, the Thracian tribes revolted against Alexander, who waged a campaign against and defeated the Getai and King Syrmus of the Triballi. All other Thracians submitted to him and sent troops to join his army. A son of Seuthes, Cotys II, had gained Athenian citizenship.
Seuthes in turn revolted against the Macedonians about 325 BC, after Alexander’s governor Zopyrion was killed in battle against the Getae. He was apparently subdued by Antipater, but after Alexander died in 323 BC he again took up arms in opposition to the new governor Lysimachus. They fought each other to a draw and each withdrew from battle, but ultimately Seuthes was compelled to acknowledge the authority of Lysimachus, by then one of Alexander’s successor kings. In 320 BC, Seuthes III moved the Odrysian kingdom to central Thrace and built his capital city at Seuthopolis (Kazanluk). In 313 BC he supported Antigonus I in the latter’s war against Lysimachus, occupying the passes of Mount Haemus against his overlord, but was again defeated and forced to submit. Lysimachus ultimately died in the Battle of Corupedium against Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC, following which Thrace came under the suzereinty of Ptolemy II.
The Odrysian kingdom was a union of Thracian tribes that endured between the 5th century BC and the 3rd century BC. It consisted largely of present-day Bulgaria, spreading to parts of Northern Dobruja, parts of Northern Greece and modern-day European Turkey. King Seuthes III later moved the capital to Seuthopolis.
The Odrysians
The Odrysians (Odrysae or Odrusai, Ancient Greek: “Οδρύσαι”) were one of the most powerful Thracian tribes that dwelled in the plain of the Hebrus river. This would place the tribe in modern European Turkey close to Edirne. The river Artescus passed through their land as well. Xenophon writes that the Odrysians held horse races and drunk large amounts of wine and after the burial of their dead warriors. Thucydides writes on their custom, practised by most Thracians, of giving gifts for getting things done. Herodotus is the first that mentions the Odrysae.
The Odrysian kingdom
Thrace had nominally been part of the Persian empire since 516 BC and was re-subjugated by Mardonius in 492 BC. The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler, King Teres in the 5th century BC.
Extent and control
Initially, during the reign of Teres or Sitalces the state was at its zenith and extended from the Black Sea to the east, Danube to the north, the region populated with the tribe called Triballi to the north-west, and the basin of the river Strymon to the south-west and towards the Aegean. Later its extent changed from present day Bulgaria, Turkish Thrace and Greece between the Hebrus and the Strymon except for the coastal strip the Greek cities occupied. Sovereignty was never exercised over all of its lands as it varied in relation to tribal politics.
Historian Z.H. Archibald writes:
The Odrysians created the first state entity which superseded the tribal system in the east Balkan peninsula. Their kings were usually known to the outside world as kings of Thrace, although their power did not extend by any means to all Thracian tribes. Even within the confines of their kingdom the nature of royal power remained fluid, its definition subject to the dictates of geography, social relationships, and circumstance
This large territory was populated with a number of Thracian and Daco-Moesian tribes that united under the reign of a common ruler, and began to implement common internal and external policies. Those were favorable conditions for overcoming the tribal divisions which could lead gradually to the formation of a more stable ethnic community. This was not realised and the period of power of the Odrysian kingdom was brief. Despite the attempts of the Odrysian kings to bolster the central power, the separatist tendencies were very strong. Odrysian military strength was based on intra-tribal elites making the kingdom prone to fragmentation. Some tribes were rioting constantly and tried to separate while others remained outside the borders of the kingdom. At the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth century BC, as a result of conflicts the Odrysian kingdom split in three parts. The political and military decline continued, while Macedonia was rising as a dangerous and ambitious neighbour.
Historians
According to the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, a royal dynasty emerged from among the Odrysian tribe in Thrace around the end of the 5th century BC, which came to dominate much of the area and peoples between the Danube and the Aegean for the next century. Later writers, royal coin issues, and inscriptions indicate the survival of this dynasty into the early first century AD, although its overt political influence declined progressively first under Persian, Macedonian, later Roman, encroachment. Despite their demise, the period of Odrysian rule was of decisive importance for the future character of south-eastern Europe, under the Roman Empire and beyond.
Teres’ son, Sitalces, proved to be a good military leader, forcing the tribes that defected the alliance to acknowledge his sovereignty. The rich state that spread from the Danube to the Aegean built roads to develop trade and built a powerful army. In 429 BC, Sitalces allied himself with the Athenians and organized a massive campaign against the Macedonians, with a vast army from independent Thracian and Paeonian tribes. According to Thucydides it included as many as 150,000 men, but was obliged to retire through failure of provisions, and the coming winter.
In the 4th century BC, the kingdom split itself in three smaller kingdoms, of which one, with the capital at Seuthopolis survived the longest. During the Hellenistic era it was subject at various times to Alexander the Great, Lysimachus, Ptolemy II, and Philip V, and was at one time overrun by the Celts, but usually maintained its own kings. During the Roman era its Sapaean rulers were clients of Rome until Thrace was annexed as a Roman province in 46 AD.
Hellenization
Under the Odrysians Greek became the language of administrators and of the nobility, and the Greek alphabet was adopted. Greek customs and fashions contributed to the recasting of east Balkan society. The nobility adopted Greek fashions in dress, ornament and military equipment, spreading it to the other tribes. Thracian kings were among the first to be Hellenized.
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