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King Perdiccas II, considering switching sides again

King Perdiccas II (rule: 454 BC-413 BC) is one of these individuals of antiquity who is known to anyone who ever read even just the first two books of Thucydides‘ Peloponnesian War, but obscure enough for not being known by anyone else.
His rule over Macedon is far from secure. When you read even just the first books of Thucydides, Perdiccas strikes the reader as ruthlessly opportunistic. However, it’s not always unreasonable. Athens, having control over a lot of important cities on his doorstep, does regularly try to undermine his position. Hostilities in the area start when Athens - „friend of Perdiccas“ - allies with Perdiccas‘ brother and rival to the throne Philip. Thus, Perdiccas supports Sparta from that point forward.
In 429 BC, Athens concludes an alliance with the Thracian king Sitalces, who ravages Macedonia for 30 days with his 150.000 soldiers which forces the Macedonian king into a peace with Athens. By 424 BC, he is again ready to undermine the Athenian position in his neighbourhood by supporting the Spartan general Brasidas in kicking out the Athenians from a few cities, most notably Amphipolis. A failed joint campaign with Brasidas against Perdiccas‘ enemies, however, sours the relations with Sparta and in 423 BC, Perdiccas is back in the Athenian alliance.
During the short „peace“ of Nicias (421-415 BC) between the Athenians and Spartans, Athens supported Sparta‘s rival Argos in attacking Sparta. The endeavour failed at the disastrous battle at Mantinea (417 BC) and Argos was incorporated into the Spartan alliance, which Perdiccas promptly joined in, as well. Thus - again - Athens attacks Perdiccas‘ territory on a couple occasions until 413 BC, where they join together in a campaign against Amphipolis (though Perdiccas dies later that year).

The material is mainly taken from Aigai (dated to the 6th-4th centuries BC) and the coin is from Perdiccas‘ own coinage.

Thracian man playing the pan-flute, ca. 7th century BC

This is probably the most stereotypical-looking Thracian I could’ve drawn. He is donning clothing and weaponry that most Athenians would’ve associated with the term „Thracian“ in the Archaic (c. 800-480 BC) and Classical Periods (c. 480-323 BC).
Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, describes them like this:
„The Thracians served (in the Persian army) having fox-skins upon their heads and tunics about their body, with loose mantles of various colours thrown round over them; and about their feet and lower part of the leg they wore boots of deer-skin; and besides this they had javelins and pelte (shield) and small daggers.“ (Hdt. 7.75)
I felt inspired by a fragment in Athenaeus 4.82 that two Thracians - Seuthes and Rhomances the Maedi - might have been the inventors of the one-reeded syrinx, from which Pan‘s-pipe („many-reeded syrinx“) derives.

The material mainly comes from the site of Katrishte (which could correspond to the later area of the Maedi tribe near the upper Strymon (mod. Struma) river): the axe is from tomb 6 dated to the late 7th to early 6th century BC, the spears and dagger from tomb 11, dated to the 7th century BC (Georgieva; Nehrizov; Aljakova, (1998): La necropolis du premier age du fer près du village de Katrište). The pelte shield, from which the Thracian warriors which were called „peltasts“ derived their name, is taken from 6th century BC Attic black figure pottery.
I considered using a pelte shields from later pottery, which are often decorated with smiley-like faces or other motifs, but early Attic pottery shows them usually as just made up of wicker without decoration or facing.
The Maedi, also called „Strymonians Thracians“, were one of the oldest and longest living Thracian tribes, already mentioned by Thucydides in the 5th century BC, and finally conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC.

Woman from Lake Ohrid, ca. 7th century BC

This woman comes from a region southwest of Lake Ohrid, the big archaeological site of Kuç i Zi in modern Albania. This region saw some changes to the people living there in antiquity.
When the Romans came to conquer the region, it was inhabited by the Illyrian Dassareti. Before them the Enchelei lived around it, among whom the mythical Kadmos and Harmonia resided. In the Archaic Period (c. 800-480 BC) they probably shared the lands in the south with the Brygians, who are located by ancient authors either at the (north-)western borders of Macedonia and the (north-)eastern borders of Epirus, thus corresponding to the strip of land reaching right through the mountainous area south of the lakes.
This could mean that the archaeological site of Kuç i Zi, particularly the 7th century BC female grave whose objects I used as inspiration, belonged to a Brygian woman.
What the Brygians were exactly, is somewhat of a mystery. There was a later tribe with that name during the Persian Wars that was counted to the Thracians, but the old „Brigians“ were seen as ancestors of the Macedonians and the Phrygians according to Herodotus. Residing in a land usually associated with the Illyrians, I wanted to make her look more active, according to ancient Illyrian and Epirote stereotypes, where women had a bigger role in society and the economy, and thus she tied her dress into a knot to gain more freedom of movement.
She also wears a hooded cloak, rather typical for the Archaic Alpine area (later ascribed to „Northern Illyria“ in the Roman period), where images of clothing styles survive as visual sources, which are sadly entirely absent for southern illyria until the Greek influences of the Hellenistic Period (see the drawing of the Epidamnian woman)

Berenike, regent of the Odrysian Kingdom ca. 280 BC.

Women in ancient Thrace are basically invisible in our sources. In contrast to the neighbouring Illyrians, I am barely aware of any woman known from the Thracian peoples.
Additionally, our ancient authors paint a rather grim picture of the position of women in Thracian society. Like the Macedonians, the Thracians practiced polygany (a man having several wives), as various sources speak of this (Herodotus, Aristotle, etc.). Herodotus says Thracian men focused on warfare, implying that women and slaves did most of the economic work, which was somewhat confirmed in the fictitious dialogue of Plato‘s laws, where the Athenian says: „Shall [the mode of life for women] be that of the Thracians […], who employ their women in tilling the ground and minding oxen and sheep and toiling just like slaves?“

With the conquest of Thrace and other „barbarians“ by the Macedonian king Philip II (the father of Alexander the Great) in 341 BC, it came to an intermarriage between the Macedonian and these „foreign“ dynasties.
Berenike‘s own name points to her being a daughter of a Macedonian. She became wife of Seuthes III, a philhellenic Thracian king of the Odrysian dynasty, heavily involved in the wars of Alexander the Great‘s successors in the late 4th century BC.
Seuthes built one of the few hellenised cities in Thrace called „Seuthopolis“ („city of Seuthes“). We only know this, due to it being mentioned in a diplomatic inscription, made by his wife after his death, „Oath of Berenike and her sons to Epimenes.“ (SEG_42.661). It demonstrates that Berenike acted as regent for her sons, continuing the management of the realm after her husband‘s death. Though the inscription doesn’t tell us much about her, I always wanted to put her in center of a drawing. The material is early 3rd century BC, contemporary to the inscription and her fashion derived from a wall painting on the ceiling of the Seuthopolis site.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Epidamnian woman pouring libations, ca. 3rd century BC

Epidamnus (Dyrrhachium, modern day Durrës in Albania) was a Greek city founded ca. 627 BC by Corinthian and Corcyraean (mod. Corfu) settlers on the Adriatic coast in ancient Illyrian lands. Its history, though obscure, is still very interesting. In 435 BC, the banishment of Epidamnian oligarchs by their own population was one of the many points of conflict that would eventually lead to the famous Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Sparta and Athens.
Epidamnus and the other Greek city in the area, Apollonia, always had to maintain good relations with their Illyrian hinterland. Oftentimes, Greek cities founded in „barbarian lands“ had to find some sort of arrangement with their neighbours, and Epidamnus seemed to have managed that quite well. In 313 BC, during the Wars of the successors of Alexander the Great, Epidamnus put itself under the protection of the local Illyrian King Glaucias, the man who also raised Pyrrhus of Epirus in his court.
In 228 BC, as the Northern Illyrian Kingdom of the Ardiaei was expanding into Southern Illyria and Epirus, the Epidamnians (along with the Apolloniates) appealed to Rome for protection, where it stayed well into the Middle Ages (then in the realm of the Eastern Romans).
The items depicted here are taken from the collection included in Neritan Ceka‘s chapter in „Albanien. Schätze aus dem Land der Skipetaren“ (1988). The objects were all was found in Epidamnian necropoleis, with close dating. The earliest might be the statue of a girl/woman, dated to the late 4th century BC, though I mainly used it as an inspiration for clothing and hair style. The gold earrings are broadly dated to the 3rd century BC, the oinochoe to the second half of the 3rd century BC and the gold necklace to the 3rd-2nd century BC.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Paionian horseman, ca. 5th century BC

A horseman of the Paionian tribe, based on 5th century BC findings from Zhdanets (Skopje). He‘s trying to catch his bison and whistling for help

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

First time presenting at a conference! Of course it’s about the Thracians! #WAWIC26

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Easter egg but it’s the Athenian acropolis

Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Reposted by Jan on a train 🚈

They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Definitely one of the writers of all time

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Weege (1910) about Italian farmers eating an Italic wall painting in form of dust pills

Quote from Weege (1910) about Italian farmers eating an Italic wall painting, as well as a surviving depiction of said wall painting

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The Antigonids (at least at Sellasia) seem to have put much more confidence in the (literal) weight of their phalangites

Though I’d say it maybe speaks to it being seen as not that necessary but it’s hard to judge, seeing that we’re missing any detail on how Macedonian-style phalanx vs phalanx battles went. It seems like a novelty that Ptolemy relied on the extra phalanx numbers at Raphia instead of cavalry though-

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Do they mean the "amount" of armour? Are certain parts missing? Is it the cuirass-type they're wearing? (Probably not, because 3 obols difference would be quite shocking for something that small) Who knows?

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Won't deny that haha One could even add the ambiguous "half-armoured" [ἡ̣μιθωράκιον] from the Aitolian-Akarnanian alliance inscription (IG_9.1².3), who - with 9 obols - make 3 obols less than a "πανοπλίαν" hoplite

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Wasted opportunity to call one the Argo

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Though it's Polyainos, so who knows where he got that from...

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It's really complicated to quote something around the character limit lol

Though for Alexander's soldiers it's just the front: Poly. 4.3.13 Alexandros gave the soldiers *hemithorakia* instead of *thorakon*, so that they were protected from the front [κατὰ πρόσωπον] holding their ground but if they fled, they would not be able to protect their back parts [τὰ ὄπισθεν μέρη]

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All the more impressive how Boiotia and Athens can balance their armies (though I’m not sure how intentional it is for the Boiotians, but the Athenians at least subsidise their cavalry force, besides having a strong hoplite and naval force as well as light infantry)

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But still augment their forces heavily with the light infantry branch (the Malians and other peoples bordering Thessaly seemingly providing expertise in that regard or Thracians/Bottiaians/Mygdonians in the Chalkidike)

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Yeah, it’s a very interesting point (and perhaps underexplored one - due to the regular focus on Athens and Sparta) that the „aristocratic“ elements may weigh very heavily into just one branch, like cavalry in Thessaly and the Chalkidike cities, which don’t seem to field strong hoplites in the CP

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