Editing Cotys I (Odrysian) (section)

==Character==
As a former ally of Athens who became a dangerous foe, Cotys I has been portrayed in a fairly negative light in our sources, depicted as irritable, intemperate, drunken, inordinately cruel, and perfidious, most notably in the polemics of Demosthenes. [[Plutarch]] provides a more nuanced depiction of Cotys' character in the following anecdote: 
''Cotys, when one gave him a leopard, gave him a lion in return. He was naturally prone to anger, and punished the mistakes of his servants severely. When a stranger brought him some earthen vessels, thin and brittle, but delicately shaped and admirably adorned with carvings, he rewarded the stranger for them, and then broke them all into pieces, "Lest (he said) my passion should provoke me to punish those that break them excessively."'' <ref>Plutarch, ''Sayings of kings and commanders'' 15, adapted from Goodwin 1878: 189.</ref>