A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Δρομιχαίτης).

1. A king of the Getae, contemporary with Lysimachus, king of Thrace, and known to us only by his victory over that monarch. He first defeated and took prisoner Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, but sent him back to his father without ransom, hoping thus to gain the favour of Lysimachus. The latter, however, thereupon invaded the territories of Dromichaetes in person, with a large army; but soon became involved in great difficulties, and was ultimately taken prisoner with his whole force. Dromichaetes treated his captive in the most generous manner, and after entertaining him in regal style, set him at liberty again on condition of Lysimachus giving him his daughter in marriage and restoring the conquests he had made from the Getae to the north of the Danube. (Diod. Exc. Peiresc. xxi. p. 559, ed. Wess., Exc. Vatic. xxi. p. 49, ed. Dind.; Strab. vii. pp. 302, 305; Plut. Demetr. 39, 52 ; Polyaen. 7.25; Memnon, 100.5, ed. Orell.) Pausanias, indeed, gives a different account of the transaction, according to which Lysimachus himself escaped, but his son Agathocles having fallen

into the power of the enemy, he was compelled to purchase his liberation by concluding a treaty on the terms already mentioned. (Paus. 1.9.6.) The dominions of Dromichaetes appear to have extended from the Danube to the Carpathians, and his subjects are spoken of by Pausanias as both numerous and warlike. (Paus l.c.; Strab. vii. pp. 304, 305; Niebuhr, Kleine Schriften, p. 379 ; Droysen, Nachfolg. Alex. p. 589.)