just as among the Persians, Scythians, and Macedonians, an institution of "table companions" existed in Thrace whose members consisted of Thracian and foreign nobility, close relatives of the royal family, particularly brave warriors, and other distinguished individuals; Cotys I invited only high officials to his banqueting halls; and Seuthes II summoned only the most eminent of his people and promised to Xenophon that he would make the Greeks his brothers and boon companions if they were to help him. Important political, military, social, diplomatic, and administrative issues were discussed during the feasts, whose participants were entertained by clowns and musicians, and which usually ended with a dance by the king himself (Seuthes was the first to get up to dance at his feasts). The Thracian royal feasts were splendid and lavish events. For example, during the wedding of Cotys I's daughter to Iphicrates, the city square was carpeted with purple, the feast was attended by dishevelled "fat-gobbling" men, and there were copper cauldrons larger than a room for twelve beds. Cotys himself served the food and wine, ladling soup out of a gold vessel, and he had become inebriated before his guests from tasting the wine in the mixing bowls, reflecting the role of the king as the dispenser of food to his subjects. Similarly, Seuthes II in this role used to take the bread and meat laid out before him, break them, and then throw the pieces to his guests as he deemed fit, and during his feasts, his guests sat in a circle while he distributed the food and wine. This role of the king is also attested in the myth of Maron, who jealously guarded his wine and himself offered it to his guests. According to Xenophon, during Seuthes's banquet, a Thracian arrived leading a white horse, took a full horn and drank to Seuthes, and presented the horse; another Thracian brought a young slave and, similarly, drank to Seuthes and offered him the slave; a third Thracian again drank to Seuthes and offered him garments for his queen; Timasion of Dardanus also drank to Seuthes and offered him a silver cup and a carpet worth ten minas. The preciousness of the gifts and the pouring of libations at the feast meant that this ceremony was also a ritual of deifying either the king himself or the institution of royalty, and Thucydides was likely referring to this