Cotys I or Kotys I was a king of the Odrysians in Thrace from 384 BC to his murder in 360 BC. He was known to have been born during the reign of Seuthes I, based on ancient sources and date of birth estimates for Cotys, his daughter who married the Athenian general Iphicrates, and her son Menestheus. According to Harpokration, he reigned for 24 years, which places his accession in 384 BC. Although his origins are actually unknown, An Athenian inscription dated to 330 BC, which honors Reboulas, brother of Cotys and son of king Seuthes. As the ordinal of Seuthes is not mentioned, it was unclear, however, which of the preceding kings named Seuthes is meant by the inscription. While scholars originally believed Seuthes II to be the father of Cotys I, now it is known that Seuthes I was his father, as Seuthes II was only 7 years old at the time of Seuthes I's abdication in 411 BC.
The Thracians were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history. Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria, Romania and northern Greece, but also in north-western Anatolia in Turkey.
The Odrysian kingdom was an ancient Thracian state that thrived between the early 5th century BC and the early 3rd / late 1st century BC. Located in present-day Bulgaria, southeastern Romania, northern Greece and European Turkey, it was a tribal amalgam dominated by the Odrysians that was the first large political entity to develop in the eastern Balkans. Before the foundation of Seuthopolis in the late 4th century it had no fixed capital.
The Bessi or Bessae were a Thracian tribe that inhabited the upper valley of the Hebros and the lands between the Haemus and Rhodope mountain ranges in historical Thrace.
Asti is the name of a Thracian tribe which is mentioned by Livy. It is believed that they lived around the old Thracian capital of Bizye.
Rhescuporis I was king of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace from ca. 18 BC to ca. 13 BC, in succession to his father Cotys VII.
Rhoemetalces I (Sapaean) (Ancient Greek: Ῥοιμητάλκης) was king of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace from 15 BC to 12 AD. He was king of Odrysian kingdom of Thrace in succession to his nephew Rhescuporis II (Astaean).
Rhescuporis II was king of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace from 12 to 19 AD. He ruled half of the kingdom in succession to his brother Rhoemetalces I, and briefly ruler of the entire realm thereafter, usurping the other half from nephew Cotys VIII. He was a son of the earlier Thracian king Cotys VI and the younger brother of kings Cotys VII and Rhoemetalces I. The Roman Historian Tacitus describes his character as "treacherous".
Thracia or Thrace is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek Diadochi ruler Lysimachus, but became a client state of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire as the Sapaean kingdom. Roman emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom as a Roman province in 46 AD.
Rhoemetalces II was a Client Ruler in association with his mother Antonia Tryphaena of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace under the Romans. He ruled from 19 until 38 AD. On coinage his royal title is in Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΡΟΙΜΗΤΑΛΚΟΥ or of King Rhoemetalces. Rhoemetalces II and Tryphaena succeeded his paternal great-uncle Rhescuporis II, who had usurped the throne from Rhoemetalces II's father Cotys VIII. The Roman Emperor Tiberius deposed Rhescuporis II and installed Rhoemetalces II and Tryphaena on the throne in his place. They served as loyal client rulers, even in 26 putting down Thracian malcontents for Tiberius. Rhoemetalces II never married and had no children. After his death in 38, his father's cousin Rhoemetalces III, the son of Rhescuporis II, was appointed king, while his mother retired to live as a private citizen in Cyzicus.
Pythodoris II or Pythodorida II was a client ruler of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace under Roman rule, in association with her father's cousin Rhoemetalces III.
Sapaeans, Sapaei or Sapaioi were a Thracian tribe close to the Greek city of Abdera. One of their kings was named Abrupolis and had allied himself with the Romans. They ruled Thrace after the Odrysians until its incorporation by the Roman Empire as a province.
Cotys IV was a king of the Odrysians in Thrace from before 171 until after 166 BC. He was the son of Seuthes V and succeeded either his father or another king, Amadocus III, who was captured by the Macedonians in 184 BC. While the survival of a specifically Odrysian state past the mid-3rd century has been doubted, Cotys IV is described as an Odrysian by Polybius and Livy, although the term may have been used in a less than specific sense.
Rhoemetalces III was a King of the Sapaean Thracians. He was the son of the Monarch Rhescuporis II. In association with his wife Pythodoris II, they were client rulers of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace under the Romans from AD 38 to 46, in succession to Pythodoris' mother Tryphaena and Pythodoris' brother Rhoemetalces II.
Sextus Julius Cotys III was the Sapaean Roman client king of eastern Thrace from 12 to 18 AD.
The history of Thracian warfare spans from the 10th century BC up to the 1st century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans. Apart from conflicts between Thracians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Thracian tribes.
Cotys I was a Sapaean client king of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace from c. 57 BC to c. 48 BC. He was the son of Rhoemetalces.
Rhescuporis I was a possible king of the Odrysians in Thrace in the 3rd century BC. Scholarship has long associated a coin type struck for a king Cotys on one side and a king Rhescuporis on the other and also a king Cotys, father of a Rhescuporis, named in a decree from Apollonia (Sozopol) with the Odrysian rulers Cotys III and Rhescuporis I. However, these associations have been doubted, and some scholars have redated both the coin type and the inscription to almost three centuries later, when the same names and relationships appear again among the Astaean and Sapaean kings of Thrace. It is therefore uncertain whether Cotys III was succeeded by a son named Rhescuporis. If he was, the coin type struck for both kings would be the only certain proof that Rhescuporis reigned, because the Apollonia decree only mentions that he had spent time in the town as hostage on his father's behalf.
The gold wreaths from Thrace are jewellery wreaths found in inner Thrace, which is within present day Bulgaria. The gold wreaths were found in the mounds and tombs of aristocrats at various locations in Thrace that have been dated to a period from the latter half of the fourth century and early part third century BC.
