Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, the only time
by the way at which it appears possible, the sun was eclipsed after
noon. After it had assumed the form of a crescent and some of the stars
had come out, it returned to its natural shape.
During the same summer Nymphodorus, son of Pythes, an Abderite, whose
sister Sitalces had married, was made their proxenus by the Athenians
and sent for to Athens. They had hitherto considered him their enemy;
but he had great influence with Sitalces, and they wished this prince
to become their ally. Sitalces was the son of Teres and King of the
Thracians. Teres, the father of Sitalces, was the first to establish
the great kingdom of the Odrysians on a scale quite unknown to the rest
of Thrace, a large portion of the Thracians being independent. This
Teres is in no way related to Tereus who married Pandion’s daughter
Procne from Athens; nor indeed did they belong to the same part of
Thrace. Tereus lived in Daulis, part of what is now called Phocis, but
which at that time was inhabited by Thracians. It was in this land that
the women perpetrated the outrage upon Itys; and many of the poets when
they mention the nightingale call it the Daulian bird. Besides, Pandion
in contracting an alliance for his daughter would consider the
advantages of mutual assistance, and would naturally prefer a match at
the above moderate distance to the journey of many days which separates
Athens from the Odrysians. Again the names are different; and this
Teres was king of the Odrysians, the first by the way who attained to
any power. Sitalces, his son, was now sought as an ally by the
Athenians, who desired his aid in the reduction of the Thracian towns
and of Perdiccas. Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus concluded the alliance
with Sitalces and made his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen, and
promised to finish the war in Thrace by persuading Sitalces to send the
Athenians a force of Thracian horse and targeteers. He also reconciled
them with Perdiccas, and induced them to restore Therme to him; upon
which Perdiccas at once joined the Athenians and Phormio in an
expedition against the Chalcidians. Thus Sitalces, son of Teres, King
of the Thracians, and Perdiccas, son of Alexander, King of the
Macedonians, became allies of Athens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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