5th century, when Sitalces had not yet succeeded his father, the Odrysians intervened in a Scythian civil war, seemingly on the side of the dethroned king Scylas against Octamasadas, who was a son of Ariapeithes and Teres' sister. When the two armies met at the Danube, however, Sitalces simply agreed to hand over Scylas (who was killed on the spot) for an unnamed brother of his who resided among the Scythians. Another important event may have happened further east, in the Bosporan Kingdom, when a Thracian named Spartokos seized power in around 438. It is not unlikely that he was of Odrysian descent and that his takeover was instigated by the Odrysian royal house, although this must remain speculation. The early Odrysian elite in archaeology Archaeological evidence confirms that by the middle of the 5th century BC, a new and powerful elite had emerged that accumulated a wealth of precious artifacts of both local and regional origin. Burial practices were changing after the Persian withdrawal and a new type of elite burial emerged in central Thrace in the form of tombs with ashlar masonry, sometimes with stone sarcophagi. The tomb of Rouets from the late 5th century even contained traces of wall paintings. The earliest of these new elite tombs can be found in the necropolis of Duvanli, with the oldest tombs dating to the mid-5th century. Their inventory is exceptional not only by contemporary Thracian, but even Mediterranean standards. According to the archaeologist Tonkova they contained "splendid sets of head and body ornaments, consisting of numerous hoop or boat-shaped earrings, pendants for earrings, a necklace, a torque, bracelets, finger-rings, chains with pendants and fibulae, and pectorals." Most Thracian elite tombs have been identified as warrior burials as they contained weapons and gold pectorals. Two burials from Svetitsa (second half of the 5th century BC) and Dalakova (early 4th century BC) also contained finely crafted and rather impressive gold funeral masks. The Odrysians and the Peloponnesian war (431–404 BC) Sitalces and his alliance with Athens Teres, who is claimed to have lived 92 years, had died by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war in 431. His successor was his son Sitalces, whose reign is mostly known thanks to the account of Thucydides. Before the war he is known to have campaigned against the Paeonians in the west, subjugating some of the tribes living along the upper reaches of the Strymon.