The golden life-size mask of Teres I found in his tomb in the Valley of the Thracian Kings

Teres I (, ; reigned 460–445 BC) was the first king of the

Odrysian kingdom The Odrysian Kingdom (; Ancient Greek: ) was a state grouping many Thracian tribes united by the Odrysae, which arose in the early 5th century BC and existed at least until the late 1st century BC. It consisted mainly of present-day Bulgaria an ...

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

. Thrace had nominally been part of the

Persian empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

since 516 BC during the rule of

Darius the Great Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

, and was re-subjugated by Mardonius in 492 BC. The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many

Thracian tribes This is a list of ancient tribes in Thrace and Dacia ( grc, Θρᾴκη, Δακία) including possibly or partly Thracian or Dacian tribes, and non-Thracian or non-Dacian tribes that inhabited the lands known as Thrace and Dacia. A great number o ...

under a single ruler, King Teres probably in the 460's after the Persian defeat in Greece. Teres, who united the 40 or more Thracian tribes under one banner, was well known for his military abilities and spent much of his life on the battlefield. He died during a military campaign in 445 BC. Historians argue it was against the Triballi, a Thracian tribe occupying a large amount of land to the north of Thrace. He was succeeded by his second son,

Sitalces Sitalces (Sitalkes) (; Ancient Greek: Σιτάλκης, reigned 431–424 BC) was one of the great kings of the Thracian Odrysian state. The Suda called him Sitalcus (Σίταλκος). He was the son of Teres I, and on the sudden death ...

, who seemed to have taken on his father's fighting prowess and used all the tribes to wage war with Macedon. Teres Ridge on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, is named for Teres.

Family

He had issue: *

king of Thracian Odryses, father of

Amadocus I Amadocus I ( grc, Ἀμάδοκος, Amadokos, also Amatokos, perhaps more accurately Μήτοκος/Μήδοκος, Mētokos/Mēdokos, of which the Latin form would be Medocus) was a Thracian king of the Odrysae in the late 5th to early 4th centur ...

. *

Maisades Maisades ( Ancient Greek, "Μαισάδης") was a Thracian of the Odrysian kingdom and perhaps the father of Seuthes II. Xenophon in Anabasis (7.2.32) mentions Maisades as the father of Seuthes. References {{reflist See also *List of Thracia ...

, father of

Seuthes II Seuthes II ( grc, Σεύθης, ''Seuthēs'') was a ruler in the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, attested from 405 to 387 BC. While he looms large in the historical narrative thanks to his close collaboration with Xenophon, most scholars consider Seuthe ...

. *

Sparatocos Sparadocos ( Ancient Greek, Σπαράδοκος) was a king of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace from ca. 450 BC to before 431 BC, succeeding his father, Teres I. Family His son was: * Seuthes I. References See also *List of Thracian tribes This ...

, father of

Seuthes I Seuthes I (; grc, Σεύθης, ''Seuthēs'') was king of the Odrysians in Thrace from 424 BC until at least 411 BC. Seuthes was the son of Sparatocos (Sparadocus), and the grandson of Teres I. While his father Sparadocus is the first Odrysian mo ...

References

445 BC deaths 5th-century BC rulers 5th-century BC Greek people Year of birth unknown Odrysian kings {{Ancient-Thrace-stub