A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

870 COTYS.

CRANAEA.

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. (Dem. c. Aristocr. 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, apparently by Timotheus, to raise the siege; but the
town soon after revolted from Athens and submitted to Cotys, who, having in vain tried to persuade 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. Timoteh.
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
Pausanias 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. Athen. vi. p.
248. In B. c. 358, he was assassinated by Python 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. Lairt. 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 murdered his wife, of whom he was jealous, with circumstances 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. Atien. xii. pp. 531,
532; Suid. s. v.; Plut. Reg. 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 sum
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.
10, xxx. 12; Suid. s. v.; Liv. xlii. 29, 51, 57, 59,
67, xliii. 18, xlv. 42.)

4. A king of Thrace, took part against Caesar
with Pompey, 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 Rhescuporis 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, invited Cotys to a conference, and, at the banquet
which followed, he treacherously seized him, and,
having thrown him into chains, wrote to Tiberius,
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 Tomi, alludes
to his cultivated taste for literature, and claims his
favour and protection as a brother-poet. (Tac. Ann.
ii. 64-67, iii. 38; Vell. 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 inexperienced, 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 Periplus. The obverse represents the head of Cotys,
the reverse that of Hadrian. (Eckhel, ii. pp. 376,
378.) [E. E.]

CRANAEA (Kpava-a), a surname of Artemis,
derived from a temple on a hill near Elateia in