Abstract

Mesambria Pontica is a clear example that Greek colonies on the euxine Pontus were a good place for the meeting – and sometimes for the hostilities – with the thracians. the first section of the article deals with the history of Mesambria from its foundation to the roman conquest, focusing on the political and economical contacts between the city and the thracians. such a reconstruction has been possible because of the combined data provided by literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological sources. the second part is devoted to analyzing an important piece of evidence for Greek-thracian relations – namely the “inscription of sadala” – and evaluating recent bibliography on the subject, in order to put the document into context and give it a plausible dating. since only weak clues connect the thracian prince sadala to the odrysian or astean dynasties, a strictly local identification is more likely, and so is a dating to the first quarter of the iii century b.c