page_title: Dromichaetes
section_title: The war with Lysimachus
hierarchical_section_title: Dromichaetes / The war with Lysimachus
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Lýsimachova mince s řeckým nápisem ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΚΟΥ (král Lýsimachos). English: Coin of Lysimachus. Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΚΟΥ ([coin] of King Lysimachus).
context_page_description: Dromichaetes was king of the Getae on both sides of the lower Danube around 300 BC.
context_section_description: In 313 BC, during the Third War of the Diadochi, the Greek colonies of the western Black Sea shores revolted against Lysimachus, a former general of Alexander the Great, and expelled the military garrisons imposed by him. Lysimachus besieged successively Odessus and Histria and forced them to capitulate. A peace treaty was drawn up in 311, but the siege of Callatis continued until 310 or 309 BC.  No other action of Lysimachus is known north of Haemus until the clash with Dromichaetes in the 290s BC.
  The evidence for the conflict is incomplete and contradictory, although attested by a number of ancient authors. It was probably provoked by the territorial expansion of Lysimachus and the control of the Greek colonies was perhaps the issue at stake.
  The two fragments of Diodorus' history suggest two separate campaigns. During the first the Getae captured Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, but later set him free hoping to recover the territories lost to Lysimachus. During the second Lysimachus himself was taken prisoner and then released under similar conditions. However Pausanias, mentioning the same two episodes, implies they are parallel versions of one and the same event.
  The campaign in which Lysimachus fell captive to the Getae is dated by scholars variously between 294 and 291 BC. Lysimachus invaded with significant forces and his offensive enjoyed some early success before ending in disaster. According to Polyaenus, Seuthes, a general of Dromichaetes, presented himself as a deserter, deceived Lysimachus and led him into difficult terrain. Attacked by Dromichaetes, the army of Lysimachus was defeated and the king had to surrender.
  Diodorus gives our only account of the captivity and subsequent release of Lysimachus. Dromichaetes succeeded in persuading the assembly of his compatriots that the release of the enemy king would bring them greater political advantage than his punishment. Dromichaetes also set out a feast to demonstrate the barbarian ways and the poverty of his people, using different furniture, tableware and food.  He then asked Lysimachus:
  Why then, forsaking such ways, a splendid manner of life, and a more glorious kingdom as well, did you desire to come among men who are barbarous and lead a bestial existence, and to a wintry land deficient in cultivated grains and fruit? Why did you force a way against nature to bring an army into such a place as this, where no foreign force can survive in the open?
  — Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, book XXI, chapter 12 
  Dromichaetes crowned Lysimachus with a wreath and then set him free, after receiving promises of loyalty and friendship and the return of the Getic territories occupied by Lysimachus. As precaution, the Getae held some high-born hostages like Clearchus, the son of the tyrant Dionysius of Heraclea. Lysimachus also had to give his daughter in marriage to Dromichaetes.
caption: Coin of Lysimachus.
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