Odrysian kingdom

Odrysian kingdom
475 BC–46
Odryssian kingdom in 4th century BC. Odryssian kingdom in 4th century BC.
Capital	Seuthopolis
Common languages	Thracian language
Religion	Polytheism
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Classical Antiquity
• Teres	475 BC
• Roman conquest	46
Preceded by Succeeded by Prehistoric Balkans Thrace

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 Romanian Northern Dobruja, as parts of Northern Greece and modern-day European Turkey. King Seuthes III later moved the capital to Seuthopolis, now located at the bottom of the "Koprinka" reservoir near the town of Kazanlak in Central Bulgaria.

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. Initially, the state included eastern Thrace and regions as far north as the mouths of the Danube. Later, its territory increased significantly and was contained in the following borders: the Black Sea to the east, Danube to the north, the region populated with the tribe Tribali to the north-west, and the basin of the river Strymon (Struma) to the south-west. This large territory was populated with a number of Thracian and Daco-Moesian tribes that united under the reign of a common ruler (king), 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.

Part of a series on the
History of Bulgaria
Odrysian kingdom 460 BC – 46 AD Roman times 46–681 Dark Ages c. 6th–7th cent. Old Great Bulgaria 7th cent., 632–668 First Bulgarian Empire 681–1018 Christianization Golden Age 896–927 Cometopuli dynasty 968–1018 Byzantine Bulgaria 1018–1185 Second Bulgarian Empire 1185–1396 Second Golden Age 1230–1241 Mongol invasion 1274–1300 Darman and Kudelin 1273–1291 Recovery and expansion 1300–1371 Fragmentation and fall 1371–1396 Vidin Dobruja Lovech Ottoman Bulgaria 1396–1878 Resistance after 1413 National Revival 1762–1878 Early Late Establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate 1870 April Uprising 1876 Liberation War 1877–1878 Third Bulgarian State 1878–present Serbo-Bulgarian War 1885 Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising 1903 Balkan Wars 1912–1913 World War I 1915–1918 World War II 1941–1945 Communist era 1946–1990 Transition era since 1990
List of monarchs Military history Struggle for Macedonia 1893–1944
Main category Bulgaria portal
v t e

According to the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, a royal dynasty emerged from among the Odrysian tribe in Thrace around the end of the sixth 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 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. Under the Odrysians Greek became the language of administrators; Greek customs and fashions contributed to the recasting of east Balkan society. 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.

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 organized a massive campaign against the Macedonians, with a vast army from independent Thracian and Paionian 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.^[1]

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 rulers were clients of Rome until Thrace was annexed as a Roman province in 46 AD.

Map of the Odrysian kingdom in 5th century BC - (borders in red) - [1].

• Teres I 450 BC - 431 BC
• Sitalces 431 BC - 424 BC
• Seuthes I (424 BC - 410 BC)
• Amadocus I (410 BC - 390 BC)

• Seuthes II (405 BC - 391 BC)

• Hebryzelmis (390 BC - 384 BC)
• Cotys I (384 BC - 359 BC)

• Cersobleptes (359 BC - 341 BC)
• Berisades (359 BC - 352 BC)

• Cetriporis (358 BC - 347 BC)

• Amadocus II (359 BC - 347 BC)

• Teres II (347 BC - ?)

• Seuthes III (ca. 330 BC - ca. 300 BC)
• Pleuratus (213 BC-208 BC)
• Cotys VI (180 BC-168 BC)
• Cotys VII (57 BC-48 BC)
• Rhescuporis I and Rhascus (48 BC-13 BC)
• Rhoemetalces I (12 BC-12)

• Cotys VIII (12-18)
• Rhescuporis II (12-19)

• Rhoemetalces II and Tryphaena (18-38)
• Rhoemetalces III and Pythodoris II (38-46)

• Thracians
• Thrace
• List of Thracian tribes
• Thracian language
• Thracian mythology

• Odrysian Kingdom
• The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology)