Thrace

Thrace runs farther out into the sea than Scythia;

Scyles, learning what had happened concerning him and the reason why it had happened, fled into Thrace;

But Darius, passing over the Bosporus on the floating bridge of ships, journeyed through Thrace to the sources of the Tearus river, where he camped for three days.

there is abundance of wine in your tents, which the ships of the Achaeans bring from Thrace daily over the sea [ pontos].

As when the two winds that blow from Thrace - the north and the northwest - spring up of a sudden and rouse the fury of the main [ pontos] - in a moment the dark waves uprear their heads and scatter their sea-wrack in all directions - even thus troubled were the hearts of the Achaeans.

These horses, however, about which you ask me, are freshly come from Thrace.

of which places, the one is the most convenient for their deriving the full benefit from their possessions Thrace-ward, and the other would have supplied the largest navy to the Peloponnesians.

and when he went through Thrace, Medes and Egyptians formed his body-guard;

He, in compliance with their request, having sent some other men with Learchus and Aminiades, seized them as they were travelling through Thrace to the vessel in which they were to cross the Hellespont, before they went on board, and gave orders to deliver them up to the Athenian ambassadors;

On the demise of Cotys three persons instead of one became kings of Thrace—Berisades, Amadocus, and Cersobleptes;

Let us suppose that a fate that has doubtless befallen others before now should befall him—that he should withdraw from Thrace and come and live somewhere in a civilized community;

And that man is Athenodorus, or Simon, or Bianor, kings of Thrace, or any other man who may wish to lay you under obligation by restraining Charidemus when he is trying to act in opposition to you.

Do you send us word of what comes from Samosata, and we will report whatever we learn from Thrace.

I both wrote to your Reverence through the vicar of Thrace, and I wrote other letters by a certain superintendent of the treasuries at Philippopolis who was crossing from our country into Thrace, and I asked him to take them up when he set off.

Nevertheless these excellent envoys took so little heed of it that they loitered in Macedonia for three whole months, until Philip returned from Thrace, having subdued the whole country;

When Philip had sworn to the peace, having first secured Thrace because of their disobedience to my decree, he bribed them to postpone our departure from Macedonia until he had made ready for his expedition against the Phocians.

Foreseeing that result, and appreciating its importance, I moved that the embassy should repair to the place where they would find Philip and swear him in without delay, in order that the oath might be taken while your allies the Thracians were still holding the places about which Aeschines was so sarcastic—Serrium, Myrtenum, and Ergisce—and that Philip might not get control of Thrace by seizing t …

for never yet have I gone to the land of the Bistones.

such a hero shall there come to Pheres’ halls, by Eurystheus sent to fetch a team of steeds from the wintry world of Thrace;

This lady take and keep for me until I come bringing hither the steeds of Thrace, after I have slain the lord of the Bistones.

With Polymestor, the king of this country?

In this very land, where his corpse was found.

preserve my son, the last and only anchor of my house, now settled in Thrace, the land of snow, safe in the keeping of his father’s friend.

and when he had captured that city, he came to Byzantium, bringing with him all the forces of the Chersonesians and soldiers from Thrace and more than three hundred horsemen.

To be sure, almost all of you know that Olynthus is the largest of the cities on the coast of Thrace.

But soon after this Thrasybulus, of the deme Collytus, came sailing from Thrace with eight ships, desiring to unite with the other Athenian ships.

and thirdly, that Cersobleptes, king of Thrace, should not be included in the oaths, nor share the alliance and peace—indeed, an expedition was already being levied against him.

But if, as I briefly recall the dates, and cite the resolutions which Demosthenes moved in cooperation with Philocrates, the truthful audit of the facts shall convict Demosthenes of having moved more resolutions than Philocrates concerning the original peace and alliance, and of having flattered Philip and his ambassadors with a shamelessness which was beyond measure, and of being responsible to t …

But when we reached Macedonia and found Philip returned from Thrace, we held a meeting;

now it happened on the occasion of our first embassy, that at the moment when I was leaving for home with the rest of the ambassadors, Philip was setting out for Thrace;

that when Demosthenes urged that we should go to Thrace, where Cersobleptes was being besieged, and should solemnly call on Philip to cease doing this thing, I, as leader of the ambassadors and influential with you, refused, and sat down in Oreus, I and the rest of the ambassadors, busy with getting foreign consulships for ourselves.

for ever since he handed Halus over to the Pharsalians, settled the Phocian question, and subdued the whole of Thrace, coining false excuses and inventing hollow pretexts, he has been all the time practically at war with Athens, though it is only now that he confesses it openly in the letter which he has sent.

Then having settled Pherae, Pagasae, Magnesia, and the rest of that country to suit his purposes, off he went to Thrace, and there, after evicting some of the chiefs and installing others, he fell sick.

Yet it was your neglect and abandonment of them that ruined Thrace and Cersobleptes, who was your ally.

Were you not deceived about Phocis, Thermopylae, the Thrace-ward districts, Doriscus, Serrium, Cersobleptes himself?

For none of you is so simple as to believe that though Philip covets these wretched objects in Thrace—for what else can one call Drongilus and Cabyle and Mastira and the other places he is said to be now holding?

The really serious problem is the state of the Chersonese and Philip’s Thracian campaign, now in its eleventh month;

He is now established in Thrace with a large force, and is sending for considerable reinforcements from Macedonia and Thessaly, according to the statements of those on the spot.

What if he quits Thrace and never approaches the Chersonese or Byzantium—for you must take that also into your reckoning—but turns up at Chalcis and Megara, just as he did at Oreus not long ago?

In your decrees you order me in so many words to leave Thrace to the rule of Teres and Cersobleptes, because they are Athenians.

Furthermore, about the same date, Diopithes attacked Crobyle and Tiristasis and enslaved the inhabitants, laying waste the adjacent parts of Thrace.

Now, if you can persuade either of these peoples to restore their exiled tyrants, then you may apply to me for as much of Thrace as was ruled by Teres and Cersobleptes.

If we had carried out our resolution in earnest and sailed to Thrace then, Philip would not have survived to trouble us today.

You remember, men of Athens, when news came three or four years ago that Philip was in Thrace besieging the fortress of Heraeum.

Is born in Thracia’s lion fold,

—we seem to have the traditional divine king of the Thracian tribes about Pangaion, seen through the eyes of Greek romance.

Thereon he loosed the bonds that bound them, and as soon as they were free they scampered off, Ares to Thrace and laughter-loving Aphrodite to Cyprus and to Paphos, where is her grove and her altar fragrant with burnt offerings.

Having thus settled our sisters, gentlemen, and, being ourselves of military age, we adopted the career of a soldier and went abroad with Iphicrates to Thrace.

and Potidaea and Torône among the settlements in Thrace?

And finally he took Potidaea, upon which Athens had in times past squandered twenty-four hundred talents, and he met the expense from money which he himself provided and from contributions of the Thracians;

For you resemble men in that state of mind—you who have lost all the cities in Thrace, squandered to no purpose more than a thousand talents on mercenary troops, provoked the ill-will of the Hellenes and the hostility of the barbarians, and, as if this were not enough, have been compelled to save the friends of the Thebans at the cost of losing our own allies;

And first of all, when Phormio led a thousand of the flower of Athenian soldiers to Thrace, my father served with this expedition, and so distinguished himself in the perilous actions of the campaign that he was crowned and received a full suit of armour from his general.

And, mark you, it will be possible for us to cut off from the region of Thrace enough land so that we shall not only have abundance ourselves but shall also be able to furnish adequate means of subsistence to those of the Hellenes who are in need and, because of their poverty, are now wandering from place to place.