Kings of Thrace. Olynthos (?). Sparadokos 445-435 BC.
Diobol AR

12 mm, 1,26 g

ΣΠΑ, forepart of a horse left / Eagle flying left, holding serpent in its beak; all within incuse square.

Very Fine

HGC 3.2, 1671; Peykov B0060; SNG Copenhagen 1066.

"Sparadokos was a 5th-century BC Thracian dynast, who minted coins with his name but there is no written record of his reign. Based on two passages in Thucydides, he is believed to be a brother of the Odrysian king Sitalkes and, accordingly, Teres’ son. Thucydides mentions him as the father of Seuthes, Sitalkes’ nephew. However, the text of Thucydides does not indicate that Sitalkes and Sparadokos were brothers. The word ἀδελφιδοῦς “nephew” denotes both the brother’s son and the sister’s son, which allows the assumption that Sparadokos could have been a brother-in-law of Sitalkes, not his brother. The marriage between a daughter of Teres and Sparadokos could have formed an im- portant political alliance with him as a powerful ruler in southern Thrace. The great influence his son Seuthes had in Sitalkes’ court, according to Thucydides, may indicate some undefined bond. Perhaps the lack of coinage of both Teres and Sitalkes is also an indication of two different ruling houses." - quote from "Was, wenn Sparadokos kein Sohn von Teres war?" - Dobriela KOTOVA