to Brasidas, but he was not necessarily sorry. He could live out the rest of
his days as a tax exile in the Thasianperaia, or close by, a fact that in itself
tells us something significant about the limitations of Athenian influence
on the mainland. Athenian tetradrachms are conspicuous by their absence
in Thrace, so perhaps Athenian traders were not welcome here, or had
some difficulty establishing a network of reliable acquaintances.^39
Thucydides’comfortable retirement on the mainland is particularly
striking when we consider the ways in which Athenians were establishing
themselves or acquiring property on Thasos in the third quarter of the
fifth centurybc. The Atticstelairecording the confiscations of those who
defiled the Herms in the Athenianagorain 415bcinclude two vineyards
owned by Adeimantos, (one of perhaps of 8–10 ha, supervised by a slave,
and which yielded 22pithoiof wine for the auction of confiscated
property; the other yielded 93pithoi, a wine press, and a basin, suggesting
a property of at least 30 ha.^40
The second factor that helps explain Thasian economic power is
connected to the first. The close coexistence, indeed cooperation,
between the Thracian inhabitants of Thasos and the Parian settlers is
one of the most interesting aspects of recent research into the island’s
history and archaeology (Fig. 6.2).^41 This cooperation extended to
mining and processing operations, as well as physical coexistence in
the area of the later civic space, in the sanctuaries of Artemis and
Herakles, and that of Pan. Angeliki Kottaridi’s description of Aegeai as
a‘town in clusters’can be applied equally well to thefirst two centuries of
Thasos town. This cooperation across a range of activities and special-
isms, which reflects a creative synergy between the experience of mining
and metallurgy among the island’sindigenouspopulationandthesea-
going experience of the Parians, explains why the Thasians were so
much more successful on the north Aegean mainland than some other
Greek settlers. They could share the same networks as their indigenous
peers and explore new options much deeper into the continental
heartland.
The geography of the Thasianperaiastill presents challenges to
research. One of these concerns the nature of mining activities. The
lack of a comprehensive geomorphological study of the Strymon valley,
(^39) Inventoryno. 553 (Amphipolis); Thucydides: Plut.Cim. 4; Marcell.Vita Thuc. 14;
Isaac 1986, 34; Archibald 1998, 116–17; Picard 2007, 467:‘les chouettes ne circulent pas en
pays thrace, alors que les trésors contiennent des monnaies de Thasos’.
(^40) Stele VI, ll. 54–6, Fornara no. 147, p.173–4; Grandjean and Salviat 2000, 182; Brun
2004, 93–4 andfig. p. 93.
(^41) Owen 2009, 87–95; Muller 2010, 216–23.
264 The lure of the northern Aegean