is, from outside the territories administered directly by the Odrysian
princes who formulated the legislation guaranteeing the rights of mer-
chants at Pistiros. At the same time, a slave named after this location
carried with him some of the cachet of that international hub.A SUMMARY OF THE NARRATIVE
The framing story of our account was shaped by the extraordinary
demands made on the north Aegean communities by the Persian armies
of occupation. The whole area explored in this book was affected by
the Persian presence, even if large areas never saw a soldier from the
occupying forces. Whatever the nature of Persian administration in
the region, the Persian military monopoly of the Bosporus, the Helle-
spontine Straits, and the whole north Aegean coastline as far south as the
Vale of Tempe, intercepted the natural patterns of communication
linking Europe with Asia, and the inland parts of the east Balkans with
coastal harbours. To be sure, this area was not occupied continuously by
large armies; but from the time of Megabazos’campaign on the Euro-
pean mainland in 512bc, following the expedition into the steppe region
north of the Black Sea against the European Scythians, the patterns of
traffic through the Bosporus began to be affected, then individual har-
bour cities were picked off, beginning with Perinthos (Hdt. 5.1–11), then
Byzantion and Kalchedon (4.144), followed by the renewed attacks of
Mardonios and other Persian commanders, in the wake of revolts by
many of the cities in the Straits and Bosporus in 500bc. Of greater long-
term significance was the construction of an immensely ambitious pro-
gramme of works, intended to create a permanent link between the
Straits and Macedonia, in the form of a coastal road (Hdt. 7.115.3),
with an extension through the forests of Perrhaibia (7.131), a canal
across the Athos peninsula in Chalkidike (7.22–24), a bridge over the
River Strymon, and,finally, a (temporary) bridge of boats, supported
onflax and papyrus cables, across the Straits from Abydos to Sestos
(7.33–36.5). The whole endeavour was supported by a logistical plan that
involved the forward supply of the invasion armies with grain dumps at
various points along the proposed route, at the‘White Cape’in Thrace, at
Tyrodiza, at that time in the territory of Perinthos; at Doriskos, Eion, and
unnamed locations in Macedonia (Hdt. 7.25.2).
Herodotus compared the consumption levels of the Persian forces
with geomorphological processes. He describes how the pack animals
of the armies drank dry the lake, full offish, near the left bank of the
Societies and economies 123