Editing Cotys I (Odrysian) (section)

==Conflict with Athens==
As Cotys tried to enlarge his kingdom, including towards the Aegean and the Chersonese, his actions led to increasing tensions with Athens. In the early 370s BC, the Second Athenian Confederacy was founded with a number of neighboring cities and islands joining the Confederacy as a safeguard against the threat from Cotys, among others.<ref name=":0" />

In 375 BC Cotys probably supported [[Hales (king)|Hales]], leader of [[Triballi]], a powerful Thracian tribe in northwestern Thrace, in their attack on the city of [[Abdera, Thrace|Abdera]]. According to [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]], the city was saved only after the intervention of the Athenian general, Chabrias, whose forces then garrisoned the city.<ref>Diodorus 15.36.1–4. Tacheva 2006: 147–149; Zahrnt 2015: 44.</ref> In 367 BC [[Ariobarzanes of Phrygia|Ariobarzanes, the Persian satrap of Phrygia]], occupied [[Sestos]]. Following [[Ariobarzanes of Phrygia|Ariobarzanes']] revolt against the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] king [[Artaxerxes II of Persia|Artaxerxes II]] in 365 BC, Cotys apparently opposed Ariobarzanes and his ally, Athens, but his actions are ambivalent and unclear. The same year Cotys welcomed the return of his son-in-law, the dismissed Athenian general Iphicrates, and a new ally, the mercenary commander [[Charidemus]], who married another daughter of Cotys.<ref>Tacheva 2006: 154–155; she considers Charidemus' wife a granddaughter of Cotys: 158, n. 51.</ref> The Athenians under their general [[Timotheus (general)|Timotheus]] were able to gain Sestos and Krithote. Soon after, in 363 or 362 BC, Cotys sent Miltokythes into the [[Thracian Chersonese]] to take Sestos. Miltokythes besieged the city and starved it into surrender, then attacked Krithote. Athenian generals sent to relieve the attacked towns were unsuccessful.<ref name=":0" />

At this time, in 362 BC, however, Miltokythes rebelled against Cotys, seizing the royal treasury at Hieron Oros and, finding himself besieged there by Cotys, appealed for help to both Ariobarzanes and Athens. Cotys also appealed for help from Athens, and allied himself to the Persian satrap of [[Lydia]] [[Autophradates]], enemy of Ariobarzanes. Athens chose to support Miltokythes, and sent a fleet to his aid, but this was defeated by Cotys with the help of his son-in-law Iphicrates. Miltokythes was forced to abandon Hieron Oros in spring 361 BC, and Cotys now besieged Sestos. Athens now allied with Sparta against Cotys. Ariobarzanes surrendered Sestos and Kritothe to the Athenian general Timotheus, and the Athenians dispatched two more commanders to aid Miltokythes against Cotys. Nevertheless, Cotys prevailed with the continued assistance of Iphicrates and Charidemus. According to Demosthenes, they bribed the Athenian military and naval commanders, and several were tried and condemned after being recalled to Athens. Despite an attempt for peace between Athens and Cotys, proclaiming him an ally, Charidemus is found besieging the last remaining Athenian fortresses in the southern Chersonese again in 360 BC.<ref>Tacheva 2006: 152–158.</ref>