History of the Peloponnesian War

On reaching Megara they withdrew on foot to Corinth, and the Athenians, finding them no longer at Salamis, likewise sailed back. After this they kept stricter guard over the Peiraeus, closing up the harbour[*](i.e. by prolonging the walls at the entrance so as to leave only a narrow passage in the centre, which could be closed by a chain.) as well as taking other precautions.

About the same time, at the beginning of this winter, Sitalces the Odrysian, a son of Teres, king of the Thracians, made an expedition against Perdiccas son of Alexander, king of Macedonia, and against the Chalcidians of Thrace, wishing to exact fulfilment of one promise and to make good another.

For when Perdiccas was being hard pressed at the beginning of the war he had made Sitalces a promise on condition that he should reconcile him to the Athenians and should not bring back his brother Philip, who was hostile, to make him king; but Perdiccas would not fulfil his promise. On the other hand, Sitalces had made an agreement with the Athenians,[*](Thuc. 2.29.4.) at the time he entered into the alliance with them, to bring to an end their war with the Chalcidians in Thrace.

For both these reasons, then, he now began the invasion, and he took with him Philip's son, Amyntas,[*](Philip died meanwhile.) with a view to making him king of the Macedonians, as well as some Athenian envoys who had come to see him on this business, and Hagnon as commander[*](As commander of expected Athenian troops, which however failed to come (Thuc. 2.101.1).); for the Athenians were to furnish a fleet and as large an army as possible[*](Thuc. 1.101.1.) for the war against the Chalcidians.

Sitalces, accordingly, beginning with the Odrysians, summoned to his standard, first the Thracians under his sway between the mountains Haemus[*](The modern Balkans.) and Rhodope[*](Now Despotodagh.) and the sea,—as far as the shores of the Euxine and the Hellespont,— then, beyond Haemus, the Getae, and all the other tribes that are settled south of the river Ister[*](Danube.) in the general direction of the seaboard of the Euxine sea; and the Getae and the people of that region are not only neighbours of the Scythians but are also equipped like them, all of them being mounted archers.

And he summoned also many of the mountain Thracians who are independent and wear short swords, who are called Dii, most of them inhabiting Rhodope; and some of these were won to his service by pay, while others came along as volunteers.

He called out, further, the Agrianians and Laeaeans, and all the other Paeonian tribes which were under his sway.[*](Paeonian tribes that dwelt in the mountain regions bordering on Macedonia, watered by the Upper Strymon and the Axius; most of them were afterwards subject to Macedonia.)These peoples were at the outer limits of his empire ; for the bounds of his empire extended, on the side towards the Paeonians, who are independent, as far as the Laeaean Paeonians and the river Strymon,[*](Now Struma.) which flows from mount Scombrus through the country of the Agrianians and the Laeaeans.