![PaeoniaPaioniaMap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/PaeoniaPaioniaMap.png)
Odomanti or Odomantes ( grc, Ὀδόμαντες) were an ancient tribe. Some regard it as
Paeonian
In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia ( grc, Παιονία, Paionía) was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians or Paionians ( grc, Παίονες, Paíones).
The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, a ...
, while others claim, that the tribe was with certainty Thracian. The Odomanti are noted by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
,
Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
,
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
and
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
.
The district which they occupied, was called after them, Odomantice (). The tribe were settled upon the whole of the great mountain Orbelus, extending along the northeast of the lower
Strymonic plain, from about
Melnik (Bulgaria) and
Sidirokastro
Sidirokastro ( el, Σιδηρόκαστρο; Bulgarian and Macedonian: ''Valovišta''; tr, Demirhisar) is a town and a former municipality in the Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipali ...
(Greece) to Zikhne inclusive, where they bordered on
Pangaion, the gold and silver mines of which they worked with the
Pieres
The Pieres (Ancient Greek: Πίερες) were an ancient tribe that long before the archaic period in Greece occupied the narrow strip of plain land, or low hill, between the mouths of the Peneius and the HaliacmonE.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thuc ...
and
Satrae The Satrae ( el, "Σάτραι") were, in ancient geography, a Thracian people, inhabiting part of Mount Pangaeus between the rivers Nestus (Mesta) and Strymon (Struma).
According to Herodotus, they were independent in his time, and had never be ...
. (Herod. ''l. c.'') Secure in their inaccessible position, they defied
Megabazus
Megabazus (Old Persian: ''Bagavazdā'' or ''Bagabāzu'', grc, Μεγαβάζος), son of Megabates, was a highly regarded Persian general under Darius, to whom he was a first-degree cousin. Most of the information about Megabazus comes from ' ...
. (Herod. v. 16.) The northwest portion of their territory lay to the right of
Sitalces
Sitalces (Sitalkes) (; Ancient Greek: Σιτάλκης, reigned 431–424 BC) was one of the great kings of the Thracian Odrysian state. The Suda called him Sitalcus (Σίταλκος).
He was the son of Teres I, and on the sudden death o ...
as he crossed
Mount Cercine; and their general situation agrees with the description of Thucydides (ii. 101), according to whom they dwelt beyond the Strymon to the north, that is to say, to the north of the Lower Strymon, where, alone, the river takes such a course to the east as to justify the expression.
Cleon
Cleon (; grc-gre, Κλέων, ; died 422 BC) was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself. He strongly advocate ...
invited Polles, their chieftain, to join him with as many Thracian mercenaries as could be levied. (Thuc. v. 6; Aristoph. Acharn. 156, 164; Suid. s. v. ἀποτεθρίακεν; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 210, 306, 465.)
During the Roman period, most of their land belonged to the territory ("chora") of the ancient city of Sirra (today
Serres
Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki.
Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...
)
Dimitrios C. Samsaris, A history of Serres (in the Ancient and Roman times) (in Greek), Thessaloniki 1999, p. 137 (Website of Municipality of Serres)
See also
*Peltast
A ''peltast'' ( grc-gre, πελταστής ) was a type of light infantryman, originating in Thrace and Paeonia, and named after the kind of shield he carried. Thucydides mentions the Thracian peltasts, while Xenophon in the Anabasis disting ...
*Paeonians
Paeonians were an ancient Indo-European people that dwelt in Paeonia. Paeonia was an old country whose location was to the north of Ancient Macedonia, to the south of Dardania, to the west of Thrace and to the east of Illyria, most of their lan ...
References
{{Paionians
Ancient tribes in the Balkans
Thracian tribes of Macedonia
Paeonian tribes
Serres (regional unit)
Thracian tribes