BETWEEN PHARSALUS AND PHILIPPI: THRACE IN THE FORTIES
BETWEEN PHARSALUS AND PHILIPPI: THRACE IN THE FORTIES

Summary/Abstract: The Thracians were actively involved in the Roman civil wars during the forties of the first century BC, which reached their double culmination in the battles at Pharsalus and Philippi in 48 and 42 BC respectively. This explains the preservation of some information on ancient Thrace in the surviving historical evidence on this decade of turmoil. Although that information has been subjected to numerous comments in modern historiography, it contains many controversial and debatable points. The paper offers a new reading of a key passage in Cassius Dio (47, 25, 1) in which, instead of the usual restoration of the name of the Astaean king Sadalas II, it is suggested to read the name of the last Pergamene king Attalus III. This ostensibly small change leads to serious implications for the reconstruction of Thracian history during that complicated period, marked by the rivalry between the last two big dynasties in Southern Thrace: the royal houses of the Astae and the Sapaeans.

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