Sapaean kingdom in the context of "Thracia"

Ovid, the Latin poet of the Roman Empire, was banished in 8 AD from Rome to Tomis (now Constanța, Romania) by decree of the emperor Augustus. The reasons for his banishment are uncertain. Ovid's exile is related by the poet himself, and also in brief references to the event by Pliny the Elder and Statius. At the time, Tomis was a remote town on the edge of the civilized world; it was loosely under the authority of the Kingdom of Thrace (a satellite state of Rome), and was superficially Hellenized. According to Ovid, none of its citizens spoke Latin, which as an educated Roman, he found trying. Ovid wrote that the cause of his exile was carmen et error ("a poem and an error"), probably the Ars Amatoria and a personal indiscretion or mistake.

Ovid was one of the most prolific poets of his time, and before being banished had already composed his most famous poems – Heroides, Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, Medicamina Faciei Femineae, his lost tragedy Medea, the ambitious Metamorphoses and the Fasti. The latter two works were left, respectively, without a final revision and only half finished. In exile, the poet continued producing works that survive today: Ibis, Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto, and possibly several other, minor poems. These works consist of letters to friends and enemies, and also depict the poet's treatment by the Scythians – particularly the Getae, a nomadic people related to the Dacians or Thracians.

Rhoemetalces III (Ancient Greek: Ῥoιμητάλκης) was a king of the Sapaean Thracians. He was the son of Rhescuporis II. In association with his wife Pythodoris II, (daughter of his cousin Cotys III), they were client rulers of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace under the Romans from AD 38 to 46, in succession to Pythodoris' mother Tryphaena and Pythodoris' brother Rhoemetalces II.

Rhoemetalces III was murdered in 44 AD. The subsequent fate of Pythodoris II is unknown; it seems he did not have any children with his cousin. Thrace became incorporated into the Roman Empire as a province.

Rhoemetalces I (Ancient Greek: Ῥοιμητάλκης) was king of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace from 15 BC to 12 AD in succession to his nephew Rhescuporis II.

Rhoemetalces I was a loyal ally to the first Roman Emperor Augustus. He was a direct descendant of the Thracian King Rhescuporis I, and the middle child of the earlier Thracian king Cotys II. His younger brother was Rhescuporis II; his sister married to Cotys VII.

Sapaeans, Sapaei or Sapaioi (Ancient Greek, "Σαπαίοι") were a Thracian tribe close to the Greek city of Abdera. One of their kings was named Abrupolis and had allied himself with the Romans. They ruled Thrace after the Odrysians until its incorporation by the Roman Empire as a province.