The road was of course a creation of the Roman imperial authorities.
Yet its course encapsulates the close underlying connections between
lower Macedonia and the Aegean coast of Thrace that preceded Roman
expansion. A prior route network can be traced back at least to the road
built by Persian armies under the Great Kings Dareios and Xerxes in the
first two decades of thefifth centurybc. The ecology of communities
along this coastline presupposes tracks and roads linking settlements on
the sea with those farther inland.
CONCEPTUALIZING ROYAL ECONOMIES
Monarchic‘economy’is one of the four forms of economic management
identified by the pseudo-Aristotelian pamphlet [Ar.]Oeconomica, and
the most important of the four in the author’s view. This document is
really a sketch of what were perceived by some contemporaries as the main
fiscal tools of crown authority.^14 It is not therefore the best starting point
for understanding the interplay of ambitions, aspirations, and achieve-
ments in real time scenarios. Close study of epigraphic documents has
made it easier to understand how kings interacted with cities and other
political entities in thefinal three centuriesbc. Documents from Macedo-
nia and Thrace are beginning tofit the rulers of these kingdoms into the
patterns of policy exhibited by other Hellenistic monarchs.^15
The Macedonians had a good deal in common, culturally, socially, and
economically, not only with their southerly Greek neighbours, but also
with their eastern counterparts in Thrace. Before his eventual capture,
Perseus was apparently planning toflee to the Odrysian king Kotys (Livy
45.6). Polybius tells us that Kotys was a likeable man, which suggests that
he was personally rather better known within Greek and Macedonian
circles than the surviving sources imply (27.12; cf. Livy 42.67.3). The
Odrysian cavalry played a loyal part in supporting Perseus’forces at
Pydna. Moreover, Livy tells us that even before hostilities emerged with
Rome, Kotys was (42.29)‘secretly’on the side of Perseus. Notwithstand-
ing Philip V’s invasion of central Thrace in 204bc, both Philip V and
Perseus maintained strong relations with the Odrysian princes and
their kin, confirmed by at least one known marriage alliance. This
(^14) Van Groningen 1933; Descat 2003; Brodersen 2006.
(^15) Bringmann and von Steuben 1995, 110–85; 233–34 (Samothrace); pp. 550–51 (Index
5.1, Argeadae; 5.2, Diadochen); Hatzopoulos 1988a; 1996, I, 334–59, 361–9, 371–460,
1999b; Archibald 2010.
10 Introduction