, also independent, were the Treres and Tilataeans, who
dwell to the north of Mount Scombrus and extend towards the setting sun
as far as the river Oskius. This river rises in the same mountains
as the Nestus and Hebrus, a wild and extensive range connected with
Rhodope.

The empire of the Odrysians extended along the seaboard from Abdera to
the mouth of the Danube in the Euxine. The navigation of this coast by
the shortest route takes a merchantman four days and four nights with
a wind astern the whole way: by land an active man, travelling by the
shortest road, can get from Abdera to the Danube in eleven days. Such
was the length of its coast line. Inland from Byzantium to the Laeaeans
and the Strymon, the farthest limit of its extension into the interior,
it is a journey of thirteen days for an active man. The tribute from
all the barbarian districts and the Hellenic cities, taking what they
brought in under Seuthes, the successor of Sitalces, who raised it to
its greatest height, amounted to about four hundred talents in gold and
silver. There were also presents in gold and silver to a no less amount,
besides stuff, plain and embroidered, and other articles, made not only
for the king, but also for the Odrysian lords and nobles. For there was
here established a custom opposite to that prevailing in the Persian
kingdom, namely, of taking rather than giving; more disgrace being
attached to not giving when asked than to asking and being refused;
and although this prevailed elsewhere in Thrace, it was practised most
extensively among the powerful Odrysians, it being impossible to get
anything done without a present. It was thus a very powerful kingdom;
in revenue and general prosperity surpassing all in Europe between the
Ionian Gulf and the Euxine, and in numbers and military resources coming
decidedly next to the Scythians, with whom indeed no people in Europe
can bear comparison, there not being even in Asia any nation singly a
match for them if unanimous, though of course they are not on a level
with other races in general intelligence and the arts of civilized life.

It was the master of this empire that now prepared to take the field.
When everything was ready, he set out on his march for Macedonia, first
through his own dominions, next over the desolate range of Cercine that
divides the Sintians and Paeonians, crossing by a road which he had made
by felling the timber on a former campaign against the latter peopl