Bisaltia ( el, Βισαλτία) or Bisaltica was an ancient country which was bordered by

Sintice Sintice or Sintike ( Greek: Σιντική) was an ancient region and later district of the kingdom of Macedon. It was located north of Bisaltia and Odomantike up to Messapio mount and west of Crestonia and South Paeonia to Strymon river and ...

on the north,

Crestonia Crestonia (or Crestonice) ( el, Κρηστωνία) was an ancient region immediately north of Mygdonia. The Echeidorus river, which flowed through Mygdonia into the Thermaic Gulf, had its source in Crestonia. It was partly occupied by a remnant o ...

on the west,

Mygdonia Mygdonia (; el, Μυγδονία / Μygdonia) was an ancient territory, part of Ancient Thrace, later conquered by Macedon, which comprised the plains around Therma (Thessalonica) together with the valleys of Klisali and Besikia, including the ...

on the south and was separated by

Odomantis Odomanti or Odomantes ( grc, Ὀδόμαντες) were an ancient tribe. Some regard it as Paeonian, while others claim, that the tribe was with certainty Thracian. The Odomanti are noted by Herodotus, Thucydides, Stephanus of Byzantium and Pliny ...

on the north-east and Edonis on the south-east by river Strymon.The eponymous inhabitants, known as the Bisaltae, were a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

people. Later, the region was annexed by the

kingdom of Macedon Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

and became one of its districts. The most important town in Bisaltia was the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

city of Argilos. There was also a river named Bisaltes in the region, which has not been certainly identified.

History

Bisaltia, along with Crestonia, was ruled by a Thracian prince at the time of the

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

Xerxes I of Persia Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of ...

, but by the onset of the

Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of th ...

it was annexed by

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...

. In Roman times, Bisaltia crossed a branch of the via Egnatia, in which the Roman sources (Itineraria) mention four horses change stations : ''Trinlo'' (=Tragilos), ''Graero'', ''Arason'' (=Arolos) and ''Euporia''. In various sites of Bisaltia have been found so far several interesting inscriptions of imperial times.D. C. Samsaris, La vallée du Bas-Strymon á l’ époque impériale (Contribution épigraphique á la topographie, l’ onomastique, l’ histoire et aux cultes de la province romaine de Macédoine), Dodona 18 (1989), fasc. 1, p. 215-225, n. 1-23 =
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 1, # PH150638)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150639?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 2, # PH150639
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 3, # PH150640)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150641?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 4, # PH150641
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 5, # PH150642)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150643?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 6, # PH150643
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 7, # PH150644)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150645?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 8, # PH150645
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 9, # PH150646)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150647?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 10, # PH150647
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 11, # PH150648)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150649?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 12, # PH150649
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 13, # PH150650)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150651?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 14, # PH150651
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 15, # PH150652)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150653?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 16, # PH150653
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 17, # PH150654)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150655?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 18, # PH150655
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 19, # PH150656)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150657?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 20, # PH150657
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 21 # PH150658)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/150659?bookid=126&location=4 The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 22 # PH150659
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 23 # PH150660)
/ref> Important towns of Bisaltia were Argilos, Berge and Brea. Today, Bisaltia is contained within the Serres regional unit and part of the Thessaloniki regional unit in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

References

{{coord, 40.9583, N, 23.3861, E, source:wikidata, display=title Geography of ancient Thrace Geography of ancient Macedonia Historical regions in Greece Lower Macedonia