Accounts from the Treasury of Seuthes III: Inscribed Silver Plate Found in the Tomb of the Golyama Kosmatka Mound

by Chavdar Tzochev

Hesperia, Volume 85, Issue 4
Page(s): 779-794
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.85.4.0779
Year: 2016
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ABSTRACT:

A Hellenistic tomb attributed to the Thracian ruler Seuthes III yielded two silver vessels inscribed with the name of their owner and their weights in monetary units. I argue that the vessels belonged to the treasury of Seuthes III. The inscriptions, which indicate that the vessels were weighed against coins on the Alexandrian/Attic standard, were inscribed when the vessels were acquired, or as part of later audits of the treasury. Compared to the inscriptions on silver plate from the treasuries of earlier Odrysian kings, these are rather practical and devoid of political message. This difference is the result of the political changes in Thrace that followed the Macedonian expansion.