These Gauls had quitted their homes together with Brennus and his Gauls, and after escaping from the disaster at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delphi&groupId=534&placeId=363">Delphi</a> reached the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Hellespont&groupId=620&placeId=1141">Hellespont</a>, where instead of crossing to Asia, they remained on the spot, as they took a fancy to the country near <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Byzantium&groupId=415&placeId=767">Byzantium</a>.
Here when they had conquered the Thracians and had established their capital at Tylis, they placed the Byzantines in extreme danger.
At first, during the inroads made under Comontorius the first king, the Byzantines continued to pay on each occasion three thousand, five thousand, and sometimes even ten thousand gold pieces to save their territory from being laid waste,
and finally they were compelled to consent to pay an annual tribute of eighty talents down to the reign of Cavarus, during which the kingdom came to an end and the whole tribe were in their turn conquered by the Thracians and annihilated.
It was in these times that, being hard pressed by the tribute, they at first send embassies to the Greeks imploring them in their distress and danger.
But when most states paid no attention to their solicitations they were driven by sheer necessity to begin exacting duties from vessels trading with the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pontus&groupId=910&placeId=1634">Pontus</a>.
Walbank Commentary