Zoltes was a chief of the southern Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

, living in the Haemus

Haemus Mons

In earlier times the Balkan mountains were known as the Haemus Mons. It is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge', which is unattested but conjectured as the original Thracian form of Greek Haimos....

 mountains area. Leading small groups, he often made incursions into the Pontic

Pontic Greeks

The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...

 cities and within their territories. He attacked the city of Histria

Histria (Sinoe)

Ancient Histria or Istros , was a Greek colony or polis on the Black Sea coast, established by Milesian settlers to trade with the native Getae. It became the first Greek town on the present day Romanian territory. Scymnus of Chios , the Greek geographer and poet, dated it to 630 BC...

, calling off the siege only after having received 7500 drachmas and 5 talents (approx. 30000 drachmas).

Etymology

Zaltys in Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

language means a grass-snake.

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