Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/855

Rh SITALCES. in the lower world (Hygin. Fab. 60). Another tradition states that when Zeus had carried off Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, from Phlius, Sisyphus betrayed the matter to Asopus, and was rewarded by him with a well on Acrocorinthus, but Zeus punished him in the lower world. (Apol- lod. i. 9. § 3, iii. 12. § 6 ; Paus. ii. 5. § 1 ; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 176.) Others, again, say that Zeus, to avenge his treachery, sent Death to Sisyphus, who, however, succeeded in putting Death into chains, so that no man died until Ares delivered Death, whereupon Sisyphus himself also expired (Eustath. ad Horn, pp.631, 1702). Be- fore he died he desired his wife not to bury him. She having complied with his request, Sisyphus in the lower world complained of his being neglected, and desired Pluto, or Persephone, to allow him to return to the upper world to punish his wife. When this request was granted, he refused to return to the lower world, until Hermes carried him off by force ; and this piece of treachery is said to be the cause of his punishment (Eustath. /. c. ; Theogn. 700, &c. ; Schol. ad Find. Isihm. i. 97, ad Soph. Aj. 625 ; Horat. Carm. ii. 24. 20). His punishment was represented by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi (Paus. x. 31. § 2). He was believed to have been buried on the isthmus, but very few even among his contemporaries knew the exact place. (Paus. ii. 2. § 2 ; comp. Volcker, Mythnl. des lapet. Geschl. p. 241.) [L. S.] SITALCES (StraA/cTjs), king of Thrace, or rather of the powerful Thracian tribe of the Odry- sians, was a son of Teres, whom he succeeded on the throne. His father had already transmitted to him a powerful and extensive monarchy [Teres], but he himself increased it still farther by success- ful wars, so that his dominions ultimately com- prised the whole territory from Abdera to the mouths of the Danube, and from Byzantium to the sources of the Strymon (Thuc. ii. 29, 97 ; Diod. xii. 50). The date of his accession is unknown, but it seems certain that Diodorus {I. c.) is in error in representing it as immediately preceding the Peloponnesian War: and Sitalces must at that period have been long seated on the throne, as he had already raised his power to the height of great- ness at which we then find it. It was in the first year of that war (b. c. 431) that he was persuaded by Nymphodorus the son of Pythes, a citizen of Abdera, whose sister he had married, to enter into an alliance with Athens (Thuc. ii. 29) ; and in the following year he showed his zeal in support of his new allies, by seizing and giving up to the Athe- nians the Corinthian and Lacedaemonian ambas- sadors, who had repaired to his court on their way to Asia to ask assistance of the king of Persia (Herod, vii. 137 ; Thuc. ii. 67). The Athenians, on their part, appear to have cultivated his friend- ship by repeated embassies, which were received in the most friendly manner, both by the king himself and his son Sadocus, who had been admitted to the rights of Athenian citizenship (Thuc. /. e. ; Aris- toph. Acharn. 134 — 150, and Schol. ad loc). The great object of the Athenians was to obtain the powerful assistance of Sitalces against Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, with whom the Thracian monarch was already on terms of hostility on account of the support which the latter had afforded or promised to Piiilip, the brother of Perdiccas. The Macedonian king had for a time bought off the hostility of his powerful neighbour by large | SITHON. 843 [ promises, but these had never been fulfilled, and Sitalces now determined at once to avenge himself and support his Athenian allies, by invading the dominions of Perdiccas. The army which he as- sembled for this purpose was the most numerous that had been seen in Greece since the Persian in- vasion, amounting to not less than 50,000 horse and 100,000 foot. With this mighty host he crossed the passes of Mount Cercine, in the autumn of B. c. 429, and descended to Doberus in Paeonia. Perdiccas was wholly unable to oppose him in the field, and allowed him to ravage the open country, almost without opposition, as far as the river Axius. From thence he advanced through Mygdonia into Chalcidice, laying waste every thing on his passage. But he was disappointed of the expected co-opera- tion of an Athenian fleet, and his vast army began to suffer from want of provisions and the approach of winter, so that he was induced to listen to the representations of his nephew Seuthes (who had been secretly gained over by Perdiccas), and with- drew into his own dominions, after having remained only thirty days in Macedonia. (Thuc. ii. 95 — 101 ; Diod. xii. 50, 51.) Of the remaining events of his reign we have scarcely any information. We learn, indeed, that he was at one time on the eve of a war with the Scythians, in support of Scyles, king of that country'-, Avho had taken refuge with him [Scylks] : but hostilities were prevented by a treaty between Sitalces and Octamasades, who had been chosen king by the Scythians, and who was himself son of a sister of the Thracian monarch. Sitalces con- sented to give up the fugitive Scyles, in exchange for a brother of his own, who had taken refuge with Octamasades (Herod, iv. 80). But the date of these events is wholly uncertain, and we know not whether they occurred previously or subsequent to the great expedition of Sitalces into Macedonia. The last event of his reign was an expedition against the Triballi, in which he engaged in b. c. 424, but was totally defeated, and himself perished in the battle. (Thuc. iv. 101.) 2. The leader of a body of Thracian light-armed troops, which accompanied Alexander the Great as auxiliaries on his expedition to Asia, and which rendered important services on various occasions, among others, at the battles of Issus and Arbela (Arr. Anab. i. 28, ii. 5, 9, iii. 12). He was one of those officers who were left behind in Media under the command of Parmenion, and to whom the mandate for the death of the aged general was afterwards delivered for execution. In this pro- vince he remained until after the return of Alex- ander from India, when he repaired, together with Cleander and Heracon, to meet that monarch in Carmania, b. c. 326. Hither he was followed by many persons from Media, who accused him of nu- merous acts of rapine, extortion, and cruelty, and on these charges he was put to death by order of Alexander. (Arr. ih. iiL 26, vi. 27 ; Curt. x. 1.) [E.H.B] SITHON {%ea)v), a son of Poseidon and Assa, or of Ares and Achiroe, the daughter of Neilus, was married to the nymph Mendeis, by whom he became the father of Pallene and Rhoeteia. He was king of the Hadomantes in Macedonia, or king of Thrace (Tzetz. a<i Z,yco/)A. 1356). Pallene, on account of her beauty, had numerous suitors, and Sithon, who promised her to the one who should conquer him in single combat, slew many.