Seuthes

(Σεύθης).

1. A king of the Thracian tribe of the Odrysians, was a son of Sparadocus or Spardacus, and nephew of Sitalces, king of the Odrysians, whom he accompanied on his great expedition into Macedonia, B. C. 429. On that occasion he was gained over by Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, who promised him his sister Stratonice in marriage; and in consequence exerted all his influence with Sitalces to induce him to withdraw his army from Macedonia. His efforts were successful, and after his return to Thrace, he was married to Stratonice according to the agreement (Thuc. 2.101). In B. C. 424 he succeeded Sitalces on the throne, and during a long reign raised his kingdom to a height of power and prosperity which it had never previously attained, so that his regular revenues amounted to the annual sum of 400 talents, in addition to contributions of gold and silver in the form of presents to a nearly equal amount (Thuc. 2.97, 4.101.). From a passage in the letter of Philip to the Athenian people (apud Demnosth. p. 161, ed. Reiske) it would appear that Seuthes was accused of having had some hand in the death of Sitalces; but this is wholly at variance with the account given by Thucydides [Sitalces]. From the same passage we learn that he maintained friendly relations with the Athenian people, by whom he was admitted to the privileges of citizenship.

2. Another Odrysian prince, a son of Maesades, who had reigned over the tribes of the Melanditae, Thyni, and Tranipsae, but had been expelled from his kingdom before his death, on which account Seuthes was brought up at the court of Medocus, or Amadocus, king of the Odrysians (Xen. Anab. 7.2.32). He was, however, admitted to a certain amount of independent power, and we find him in B. C. 405 joining with Amadocus, in promising his support to Alcibiades, to carry on the war against the Lacedaemonians (Diod. 13.105). In B. C. 400, when Xenophon with the remains of the ten thousand Greeks that had accompanied Cyrus, arrived at Chrysopolis; Seuthes applied to him for the assistance of the force under his command to reinstate him in his dominions. His proposals were at first rejected; but he renewed them again when the Greeks had been expelled from Byzantium, and found themselves at Perinthus without the means of crossing into Asia; and they were now induced, principally by Xenophon himself, to accept the offers of the Thracian prince. By the assistance of these new auxiliaries, Seuthes obtained an easy victory over the mountain tribes, and recovered the whole of his father's dominions. But when it came to the question of paying the services of the Greeks, great disputes arose, and Seuthes, at the instigation of Heracleides, endeavoured by every subterfuge to elude his obligations. He was at length, however, compelled to pay the stipulated sum, and the Greeks thereupon crossed into Asia (Xen. Anab. 7.1.5, 2_7). Not long afterwards, B. C. 399, we find him sending an auxiliary force to the Spartan general, Dercyllidas, in Bithynia (Id. Hellen. 3.2.2). At a subsequent period (B. C. 393), he was engaged in hostilities with his former patron Amadocus; but the quarrel between them was terminated by the intervention of Thrasybulus; and Seuthes, at the suggestion of that general, concluded an alliance with Athens. (Ibid. 4.8.26; Diod. 14.94.)

3. A king of Thrace, or more properly of the Odrysians, contemporary with Alexander the Great, to whom he was tributary. But in B. C. 325, Zopyrion, who had been left by the Macedonian king as governor in Thrace, having fallen in an expedition against the Getae, Seuthes raised the standard of revolt (Curt. 10.1.45). He appears to have been for the time repressed by Antipater ; but after the death of Alexander (B. C. 323), we find him again in arms, and opposing Lysimachus, the new governor of Thrace, with an army of 20,000 foot and 8000 horse. An obstinate struggle ensued, without any decisive result; and both parties withdrew, we are told, to prepare for a renewal of the contest. (Diod. 18.14.) No further account of this has been transmitted to us, but it is clear that Seuthes was ultimately compelled to acknowledge the authority of Lysimachus. In B. C. 313, however, he took advantage of the war between the Thracian king and Antigonus to declare in favour of the latter, and occupied the passes of Mount Haemus with an army, but was once more defeated by Lysimachus. and finally reduced to submission. (Id. 19.73.) [E.H.B]