Sapaei

• a Thracian people on the Propontis, Plin. 4, 11, 18, § 40; Ov. F. 1, 389.

SAPAEI (Σαπαῖοι or Σάπαιοι), a Thracian people, occupying the southern portion of the Pangaeus, in the neighbourhood of Abdera. (Strab. 12. p. 549.) In this passage, however, Strabo calls them Sapae (Σάπαι), and assumes their identity with the Sinti, which in another place (10. p. 457) he treats as a mere matter of conjecture. The Via Egnatia ran through their country, and especially through a narrow and difficult defile called by Appian (App. BC 4.87, 106) the pass of the Sapaei, and stated by him to be 18 miles from Philippi; so that it must have been nearly midway between Neapolis and Abdera. The Sapaei are mentioned, and merely mentioned, by Herodotus (Hdt. 7.110) and by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.11. s. 18). Their town is called Sapaica (Σαπαϊκή) by Steph. B. (s. v.).

(Σαπαῖοι). A people in Thrace, dwelling on Mount Pangaeus, between Lake Bistonis and the coast (Herod.vii. 110).

• on Xerxes' route: Hdt. 7.110