Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/888

Rh 870 COTYS. The effect of it certainly was so to discourage Miltocythes that he abandoned the struggle, while Cotys, having gained his point, never dreamed of fulfilling his promises. (Dera. c. Aiistocr. p. 655, c. PolycL 1207.) [AuTOCLES, No. 2.] In the same year he vigorously opposed Ariobarzanes and the other revolted satraps of the western provinces. Here again he shewed his hostility to Athens, which sided with the rebels, while another motive with him for the course he took seems to have been, that the satraps protected the cities on the Hellespont, over which he desired to establish his own authority. Having besieged Sestus, which belonged to Ariobarzanes, he was compelled, ap- parently by Timotheus, to raise the siege ; but the town soon after revolted from Athens and sub- mitted to Cotys, who, having in vain tried to per- suade Iphicrates to aid him [Iphicrates], again bought the services of Charidemus, made him his son-in-law, and prosecuted the war with his assistance. (Xen. Ages^ ii. § 26 ; Nep. Timoih. 1 ; Dem. de Rhod. Lib. p. 193, c. Aristocr. pp. 663, 664, 672—674.) [Charidemus.] This appears to have occurred in b. c. 359, and in the same year, and not long after Philip's accession, we find him supporting the claims of the pretender Paiisanias to the Macedonian throne ; but the bribes of Philip induced him to abandon his cause. (Diod. xvi. 2, 3.) For his letter to Philip, perhaps on this occasion, see Hegesand. ap. Aihen. vi. p. 248. In B. c. 358, he was assassinated by Py- thon or Parrhon and Heracleides (two citizens of Aenus, a Greek town in Thrace), whose father he had in some way injured. The murderers were honoured by the Athenians with golden crowns and the franchise of the city. (Arist. Polit. v. 10, ed. Bekk. ; Dem. c. Aristocr. pp. 659, 662, 674; Plut. adv. Colot. 32 ; Diog. Laert. iii. 46, ix. 65.) Cotys, from the accounts we have of him, was much addicted to gross luxury, and especially to drunkenness, the prevalent vice of his nation. His violence and cruelty were excessive, almost, in fact, akin to madness. He is said to have mur- dered his wife, of whom he was jealous, with cir- cumstances of the most shocking barbarity ; on one occasion also he persuaded himself, or chose to assert, that he was the bridegroom of the goddess Athena, and, having drunk deeply at what he called the nuptial feast, he put to death two of his attendants successively, who had not presence of mind or courtly tact sufficient to fall in with his mad humour. (Theopomp. ap. Atlien. x. pp.531, 532 ; Said. s. v. ; Plut. JReff. et Imp. Apophth.) 3. A king of the Odrysae in Thrace. He was originally an ally of Rome, but was forced into an alliance against her with Perseus, to whom he gave hostages for his fidelity, and supplied a force of 2000 men. When Perseus was conquered by Aemilius Paullus in B. c. 168, Bites, the son of Cotys, was taken prisoner and carried to Rome, and his father sent ambassadors to offer any sura of money for his freedom, and to account for his own conduct in having sided with Macedonia. The Roman senate did not admit the excuse of Cotys as a valid one, but they made a flourish of generosity, and released the prince unransomed. Cotys is honourably recorded as differing widely from the generality of his countrymen in sobriety, gentleness, and cultivation of mind. (Polyb. xxvii. 0, XXX. 12 ; Suid. s. v. ; Liv. xlii. 29, 61, 57, b^, 67, xiiii. 18, xlv. 42.) CRANAEA. 4. A king of Thrace, took part against Caesar with Pompcy, and sent him a body of auxiliaries under his son Sadales in b. c. 48. (Caes. Bell. Civ, iii. 4 ; Lucan. Phars. v. 54.) 5. Son of Rhoemetalces, king of Thrace. On the death of Rhoemetalces his dominions were divided by Augustus between his brother Rhescu- poris and his son Cotys. Rhescuporis desired to subject the whole kingdom to himself, but did not venture on palpable acts of aggression till the death of Augustus. He then openly waged war against his nephew, but both parties were commanded by Tiberius to desist from hostilies, Rhescuporis then, feigning a wish for friendly negotiation, in- vited Cotys to a conference, and, at the banquet which followed, he treacherously seized him, and, having thrown him into chains, wrote to Tibeiius, pretending that he had only acted in self-defence and anticipated a plot on the part of Cotys. He was, however, commanded to release him, and to come to Rome to have the matter investigated, whereupon (a. d. 19) he murdered his prisoner, thinking, says Tacitus, that he might as well have to answer for a crime completed as for one half done. Tacitus speaks of Cotys as a man of gentle disposition and manners, and Ovid, in an epistle addressed to him during his exile at Torai, alludes to his cultivated taste for literature, and claims his favour and protection as a brother- poet. (Tac. Ann. ii. 64—67, iii. 38 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 129 ; Ov. ex Pont. ii. 9.) 6. A king of a portion of Thrace, and perhaps one of the sons of No. 5. (See Tac. Ann. ii. 67.) In A. D. 38, Caligula gave the whole of Thrace to Rhoemetalces, son of Rhescuporis, and put Cotys in possession of Armenia Minor. In a. d. 47, when Claudius wished to place Mithridates on the throne of Armenia, Cotys endeavoured to obtain it for himself, and had succeeded in attaching some of the nobles to his cause, but was compelled by the commands of the emperor to desist. (Dion Cass. lix. 12 ; Tac. Ann. xi. 9.) 7. King of the Bosporus, which he received from the Romans on the expulsion of his brother Mithridates. As only a few cohorts under Julius Aquila had been left in the country to support the new king, who was himself young and inex- perienced, Mithridates endeavoured to recover his dominions by force of arms, A. D. 50 ; but he was conquered and carried prisoner to Rome. (Tac. Ann. xii. 15 — 21.) The second of the coins figured on p. 777, a. belongs to this Cotys, who is sometimes called Cotys I., king of the Bosporus. The coin given below belongs to Cotys II., who reigned under Hadrian, and is mentioned by Arrian in his Peri- plus. The obverse represents the head of Cotys, the reverse that of Hadrian. (Eckhel, ii. pp. 376, 378.) [E. E.J CRANAEA {Kpavaia)^ a surname of Artemis, derived from a temple on a hill near Elateia in