Note 1796 — BOOK XVI.

Cotys. This was as generic a name for the Thracian kings as Arsaces among the Parthians. Livy mentions a Cotys, son of Seuthes, king of the Odrysæ, who brought a thousand cavalry to the support of Perseus against the Romans, and speaks of him in the highest terms of commendation: lib. xlii., 29, 51, 67; xliii., 3. Another Cotys assisted Pompey, for which handsome presents were sent to him: cf. Lucan, Phars., v., 54. A third Cotys, or Cottus, king of the Bessi, is mentioned by Cicero as having bribed L. Calpurnius Piso, the proconsul, with three hundred talents: In Pison., xxxiv. The first of the three is probably intended here, as Livy tells us that after the termination of the Macedonian war (in which Scipio served), Bitis, the son of Cotys, was restored with other captives unransomed to his father, in consequence of the hereditary friendship existing between the Roman people and his ancestors. The sayings of Cotys, therefore, might have been current at Rome in Lucilius' time. Liv., xlv., 42.