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

SITALCES. SITHON. 843
in the lower world (Hygin. Fab. 60). Another promises, but these had never been fulfilled, and
tradition states that when Zeus had carried off Sitalces now determined at once to avenge himself
Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, from Phlius, and support his Athenian allies, by invading the
Sisyphus betrayed the matter to Asopus, and was dominions of Perdiccas. The army which he asre~warded by him with a well on Acrocorinthus, sembled for this purpose was the most numerous
but Zeus punished him in the lower world. (Apol- that had been seen in Greece since the Persian inleod. i. 9. ~ 3, iii. 12. ~ 6; Paus. ii. 5. ~ 1; vasion, amounting to not less than 50,000 horse
Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 176.) Others, again, say that and 100,000 foot. With this mighty host he
Zeus, to avenge his treachery, sent Death to crossed the passes of Mount Cercine, in the autumn
Sisyphus, who, however, succeeded in putting of B. c. 429, and descended to Doberus in Paeonia.
Death into chains, so that no man died until Ares Perdiccas was wholly unable to oppose him in the
delivered Death, whereupon Sisyphus himself also field, and allowed him to ravage the open country,
expired (Eustath. ad Hone. pp. 631, 1702). Be- almost without opposition, as far as the river Axius.
fore he died he desired his wife not to bury him. From thence he advanced through Mygdonia into
She having complied with his request, Sisyphus in Chalcidice, laying waste every thing on his passage.
the lower world complained of his being neglected, But he was disappointed of the expected co-operaand desired Pluto, or Persephone, to allow him to tion of an Athenian fleet, and his vast army began
return to the upper world to punish his wife. to suffer from want of provisions and the approach
When this request was granted, he refused to of winter, so that he was induced to listen to the
return to the lower world, until Hermes carried representations of his nephew Seuthes (who had
him off by force; and this piece of treachery is said been secretly gained over by Perdiccas), and withto be the cause of his punishment (Eustath. 1. c.; drew into his own dominions, after having remained
Theogn. 700, &c.; Schol..ad Pind. Is/hm. i. 97, only thirty days in Macedonia. (Thuc. ii. 95acd Sopl. Aj. 625; Horat. Carm. ii. f4. 20). His 101; Diod. xii. 50, 51.)
punishment was represented by Polygnotus in the Of the remaining events of his reign we have
Lesche at Delphi (Paus. x. 31. ~ 2). He was scarcely any information. We learn, indeed, that
believed to have been buried on the isthmus, but he was at one time on the eve of a war with the
very few even among his contemporaries knew the Scythians,-in support of Scyles, king of that country,
exact place. (Paus. ii. 2. ~ 2; comp. Vilcker, who had taken refuge with him [ScYL1ES]: but
lyJthol. des lapet. Geschl. p. 241.) [L. S.] hostilities were prevented by a treaty between
SITALCES (sL-dXicKus), king of Thrace, or Sitalces and Octamasades, who had been chosen
rather of the powerful Thracian tribe of the Odry- king by the Scythians, and who was himself son
sians, was a son of Teres, whom he succeeded on of a sister of the Thracian monarch. Sitalces conthe throne. His father had already transmitted to sented to give up the fugitive Scyles, in exchange
him a powerful and extensive monarchy [TEREs], for a brother of his own, who had taken refuge
but he himself increased it still farther by success- with Octamasades (Herod. iv. 80). But the date
ful wars, so that his dominions ultimately com- of these events is wholly uncertain, and we know
prised the whole territory from Abdera to the not whether they occurred previously or subsequent
mouths of the Danube, and from Byzantium to the to the great expedition of Sitalces into Macedonia.
sources of the Strymon (Thuc. ii. 29, 97; Diod. The last event of his reign was an expedition
xii. 50). The date of his accession is unknown, against the Triballi, in which he engaged in B. C.
but it seems certain that Diodorus (I. c.) is in error 424, but was totally defeated, and himself perished
in representing it as immediately preceding the in the battle. (Thuc. iv. 101.)
Peloponnesian War: and Sitalces must at that 2. The leader of a body of Thracian light-armed
period have been long seated on the throne, as he troops, which accompanied Alexander the Great as
had already raised his power to the height of great- auxiliaries on his expedition to Asia, and which
ness at which we then find it. It was in the first rendered important services on various occasions,
year of that war (B. c. 431) that he was persuaded among others, at the battles of Issus and Arbela
by Nymphodorus the son of Pythes, a citizen of (Arr. Anab. i. 28, ii. 5, 9, iii. 12). He was one
Abdera, whose sister he had married, to enter into of those officers who were left behind in Media
an alliance with Athens (Thuc. ii. 29); and in the under the command of Parmenion, and to whom
following year he showed his zeal in support of his the mandate for the death of the aged general was
new allies, by seizing and giving up to the Athe- afterwards delivered for execution. In this pronians the Corinthian and Lacedaernonian ambas- vince he remained until after the return of Alexsadors, who had repaired to his court on their way ander from India, when he repaired, together with
to Asia to ask assistance of the king of Persia Cleander and Heracon, to meet that monarch in
(Herod. vii. 137; Thuc. ii. 67). The Athenians, Carmania, B. C. 326. Hither he was followed by
on their part, appear to have cultivated his friend- many persons from Media, who accused him of nuship by repeated embassies, which were received in merous acts of rapine, extortion, and cruelty, and
the most friendly manner, both by the king himself on these charges he was put to death by order of
and his son Sadocus, who had been admitted to the Alexander. (Arr. ib. iii. 26, vi. 27; Curt. x.
rights of Athenian citizenship (Thuc. 1. c.; Aris- 1.) [E. H. B.]
toph. Acharn. 134-150, and Sclhol. ad loee.). The SITHON (iOtov), a son of Poseidon and Assa,
great object of the Athenians was to obtain the or of Ares and AchiroP, the daughter of Neilus,
powerful assistance of Sitalces against Perdiccas, was married to the nymph Mendeis, by whom he
king of Macedonia, with whom the Thracian became the father of Pallene and Rhoeteia. lie,
monarch was already on terms of hostility on was king of the Hadomantes in Macedonia, or
account of the support which the latter had afforded king of Thrace (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 1356). Pallene,
or promised to Philip, the brother of Perdiccas. on account of her beauty, had numerous suitors,
The Macedonian king had for a time bought off and Sithon, who promised her to the one who
the hostility of his powerful neighbour by large should conquer him in single combat, slew many.