Konstantin А. Anisimov

History teacher

Center of education No 23

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-2-20-30

Abstract. The article examines examples of diplomatic practices of the Odrysian kingdom in the period of 513–424 BC. The key directions of the foreign policy of the Odrysians at the early stage of the history of their power were relations with the Scythians in the Northern Black Sea area and the Persian Achaemenids. Despite the fact that sources often emphasize the savagery and barbarity of the Thracians, their nobles and individual kings, a careful analysis shows that the kings of the Odrysians preferred military methods to diplomatic ones. The diplomatic practices of the Odrysians towards these political partners were quite flexible, varying according to the situation. Descriptions of the first contacts with the Achaemenids indicate a restrained but hostile stance of the Odrysians. Nevertheless, the Odrysians avoided a direct military confrontation. In the aftermath, as many circumstantial accounts indicate, this led to a close alliance between the Persians and the Odrysians that lasted for a long time. Thanks to this alliance, as the Persians withdrew from Thrace, their territories came under the control of the Odrysians. The Scytho-Odrysian relations developed more dynamically. A military clash with the Scythians during the Ionian revolt, culminating in a marriage alliance between the Scythian king Ariapeithes and the daughter of the Odrysian king Teresa, may be assumed. The marriage alliance secured an agreement on the border along the Danube River. Under King Sitalces a new aggravation, connected with the internal struggle in the two kingdoms, almost led to war, but it was avoided by means of diplomatic solutions. The arsenal of diplomatic means included the use of political marriages, the use of political defectors, military demonstrations, and the exchange of gifts.
Keywords: Odrysian kingdom, Thrace, diplomacy, Achaemenids, Scythians.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Anisimov, КА 2022, ‘Diplomacy of the Odrysians: Between the Scythians and the Persians’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (10), pp. 20–30, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-2-20-30 (in Russ.)

References

1. Agbunov, MV 1989, Puteshestviye v zagadochnuyu Skifiyu (Journey to the mysterious Scythia), Moscow. (In Russ) 2. Alekseyev, AYu 2003, Khronografiya Yevropeyskoy Skifii VII–IV vv. do n.e. (Chronography of European Scythia 7th-4th centuries BC), St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 3. Anisimov, KA 2020, ‘Vnutrenniye i vneshniye aspekty obrazovaniya Odrisskogo tsarstva’ (Internal and external factors of formation of the Odrisian Kingdom and the problem of localization of the original territory of the Odrysians), Istoricheskiy Format (Historical Format), no 4, pp. 98–114. (In Russ) 4. Anisimov, KA 2021, ‘Ustanovleniye odrisskoy gegemonii na severe Balkanskogo poluostrova v V veke do n.e.’ (The establishment of the Odrysian hegemony in the North of the Balkan Peninsula in the 5th century BC), Istoricheskiy Format (Historical Format), no 2, pp. 97-112. (In Russ) 5. Anisimov, KA 2022, ‘Zabytyy frakiyskiy tsar' Sparadok’ (Forgotten Thracian King Sparadocos), Thracia Balcanica, no 1, pp. 183–198. (In Russ) 6. Borza, YuN 2013, Istoriya Antichnoy Makedonii (do Aleksandra Velikogo) (History of Ancient Macedonia (before Alexander the Great)), St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 7. Herodotus, 2005 Istoriya (The Histories), trans. GA Stratanovsky, Ladomir Publ, Moscow. (In Russ) 8. Gindin, LA 1981, Drevneyshaya onomastika Vostochnykh Balkan (frako-khetto-luviyskiye i frako-maloaziyskiye izoglossy) (Ancient onomastics of the Eastern Balkans (Thraco-HettoLuvian and Thraco-Asia Minor isoglosses)), Sofia. (In Russ) 9. Danov, Khr 1982, Traki. Sofia. (In Bulgarian) 10. Diodorus Siculus, 2012 Istoricheskaya biblioteka (Bibliotheca), trans. VV Latyshev, ME Sergeyenko, VM Strogetskiy, OP Tsybenko, AG Aleksanyan, OA Vasil'yeva, DV Meshchanskiy et al, Samizdat Publ, Moscow. (In Russ) 11. Izdmirski, M 2008, ‘Persiyskata administratsiya v drevna Trakiya’, Anali, nono 2-4, pp. 129–136. (In Bulgarian) 12. Sobolevsky, SI, Grabar'-Passek, ME & Petrovsky, FA (eds.) 1955, Istoriya grecheskoy literatury. V 3-kh tomakh. Tom II: istoriya, filosofiya, oratorskoye iskusstvo klassicheskogo perioda (History of Greek Literature. In 3 volumes. Volume II: history, philosophy, oratory of the classical period), Moscow. (In Russ) 13. Boardman, J, Hammond, NGL, Lewis, DM & Ostwald, M (eds.) 2017, Kembridzhskaya istoriya Drevnego mira. T. IV. Persiya, Gretsiya i Zapadnoye Sredizemnomor'ye ok. 525-479 gg. do n.e. (Cambridge History of Ancient World. Vol. IV. Persia, Greece, and the Western Mediterranean.), trans. AV Zaykov, Moscow. (In Russ) 14. Krykin, SM 1993, Frakiytsy v antichnom Severnom Prichernomor'ye (Thracians in the ancient Northern Black Sea region), Moscow. (In Russ) 15. Xenophon, 2011, Anabasis. Grecheskaya istoriya (Anabasis), trans. SYa Lur'ye, MI Maksimovskaya, SI Sobolevsky, Ladomir Publ, Moscow. (In Russ) 16. Lucian of Samosata & Zaytsev, AI (ed) 2001, Sochineniya. V 2-kh tomakh. Tom II (Works. In 2 vols. Volume II), St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 17. Nevskaya, VP 1953, Vizantiy v klassicheskuyu i ellinisticheskiye epokhi (Byzantium in the classical and Hellenistic eras), Moscow. (In Russ) 18. Plutarch, 1994, Sravnitel'nyye zhizneopisaniya. V 2 t. (Parallel Lives), eds. SS Averintsev, ML Gasparov, SP Markish, Nauka Publ, Moscow. (In Russ) 19. Porozhanov, K 2011, Odriskoto tsarstvo, polisite po negovite kraybrezhiya i Atina ot kraya na VI vek do 341 g.pr.khr. Blagoevgrad. (In Bulgarian) 20. Saprykin, SYu 2018, Drevneye Prichernomor'ye (Ancient Black Sea region), Izd-vo RKHGA Publ, Moscow, St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 21. Strogetskiy, VM 2008, Afiny i Sparta. Bor'ba za gegemoniyu v Gretsii v V v. do n.e. (478–431 gg.) (Athens and Sparta. The struggle for hegemony in Greece in the 5th century BC (478–431)), St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 22. Surikov, IE 2008, Politiki v kontekste epokhi: Vremya rastsveta demokratii (Politicians in the context of the era: The heyday of democracy), Moscow. (In Russ) 23. Tacheva, M 2006, Tsarete na drevna Trakiya. Kniga p"rva, Sofia. (In Bulgarian) 24. Topalov, S 2014, K"m politicheskata istoriya na Odriskoto tsarstvo ot kraya na VI do sredata na IV v. pr. n.ye. Ch. II, Sofia. (In Bulgarian) 25. Fol, A 1972, Politicheska istoriya na trakite, Sofiya. (In Bulgarian) 26. Fol, A & Spiridonov, T 1983, Istoricheska geografiya na trakiyskite plemena do III v. pr. n.ye, Sofia. (In Bulgarian) 27. Thucydides, 1999, Istoriya (The History), trans. GA Stratanovsky, Ladomir Publ, Moscow. (In Russ) 28. Yustin, MYu 2005, Epitoma sochineniya Pompeya Troga «HISTORIAE PHILIPPICAE», trans. AA Dekonsky, Izd-vo S.-Peterburgskogo universiteta Publ, St. Petersburg. (In Russ) 29. Bacheva, GD 2012, ‘Detecting a satrapy: The Skudra case’, Thracia. Volume XX. Sofia, pp. 11–26. 30. Psoma, S 2002, ‘Le monnayage de Sparadokos des Odryses. Unetat de la question’, Thrace and the Aegean. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Thracology, Sofia-Yambol, 25-29 September 2000, Sofia, vol. II, pp. 513–522. (In French) 31. Stronk, JP 1995, The Ten Thousand in Thrace. An archaeological and historical commentary on Xenophon`s Anabasis, books VI – iii-vi – VII, Amsterdam. 32. Vasilev, MI 2015, The Policy of Darius and Xerxes towards Thrace and Macedonia, Leiden.