Thracians

For other uses, see Thracian (disambiguation).
Bronze head of Seuthes III from his tomb
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The Thracians (/ˈθreɪʃənz/; Ancient Greek: Θρᾷκες, romanized: Thrāikes; Latin: Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.[1][2] Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia and northern Greece, but also in north-western Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey.

The exact origin of the Thracians is uncertain, but it is believed that Thracians like other Indo-European speaking groups in Europe descended from a mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers.[3]

Around the 5th millennium BC, the inhabitants of the eastern region of the Balkans became organized in different groups of indigenous people that were later named by the ancient Greeks under the single ethnonym of "Thracians".[4][5][6][7]

The Thracian culture emerged during the early Bronze Age, which began about 3500 BC.[4][8][9][10] From it also developed the Getae, the Dacians and other regional groups of tribes. Historical and archaeological records indicate that the Thracian culture flourished in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.[4][11][12] Writing in the 6th century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired".[13]

According to Greek and Roman historians, the Thracians were uncivilized and remained largely disunited, until the establishment of their first permanent state the Odrysian kingdom in the 5th century BC. The Thracian kingdom faced subjugation by the Achaemenid Empire around the same time. After the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars, the Thracians experienced a short period of peace. In the late 4th century BC the Odrysian kingdom lost independence to Macedon, becoming incorporated into the empire, but it regained independence following Alexander the Great's death.

The Thracians faced conquest by the Romans in the mid 2nd century BC under whom they faced internal strife. They composed major parts of rebellions against the Romans along with the Macedonians until the Third Macedonian War. Beginning in 73 BC, Spartacus, a Thracian warrior from the Maedi tribe who was enslaved as a gladiator by the Romans, led a revolt that posed a significant challenge to Roman authority, prompting a series of military campaigns against it. The aftermath of the rebellion saw the crucifixion of 6,000 surviving rebels along the Appian Way.

Thracian armor from the Odrysian kingdom, 4th century BC

Thracians were described as "warlike" and "barbarians" by the Greeks and Romans since they were neither Romans nor Greeks but in spite of that they were favored as excellent mercenaries. While the Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by the Romans and Greeks, their culture was reportedly noted for its sophisticated poetry and music.[14] Since the 19th century-early 20th century, Bulgaria and Romania have used Archaeology to learn more about Thracian culture and way of life.

Thracians followed a polytheistic religion with monotheistic elements. One of their customs was tattooing, common among both men and women.[15] The Thracians culturally interacted with the peoples surrounding them – Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Celts[16] [17] Thracians spoke the now extinct Thracian language and shared a common culture.[1] The last reported use of a Thracian language was by monks in the 6th century AD. The scientific study of the Thracians is known as Thracology.

  1. ^ a b Webber 2001, p. 3. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area between northern Greece, Romania, and north-western Turkey. They shared the same language and culture... There may have been as many as a million Thracians, divided among up to 40 tribes."
  2. ^ Modi et al. 2019. "One of the best documented Indo-European civilizations that inhabited Romania, Bulgaria is the Thracians..."
  3. ^ Modi et al. 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Nature (2019) Ancient human mitochondrial genomes from Bronze Age Bulgaria: new insights into the genetic history of Thracians
  5. ^ Popov, D. The Greek intellectuals and the Thracian world. Iztok - Zapad 2, 13–203 (2013).
  6. ^ Fol, A. The Thracian orfeism. Sofia, 145–244 (1986).
  7. ^ Fol, A. The History of Bulgarian lands in antiquity. Tangra TanNakRa, 11–300 (2008).
  8. ^ Chichikova, M. The Thracian city - Terra Antiqua Balcanica. GSU IF C, 85–93 (1985).
  9. ^ Danov, H. G. Thracian a source of knowledge. Veliko Tarnovo, 50–58 (1998).
  10. ^ Raicheva, L. Thracians and Orpheism. IK Ogledalo, 5–59 (2014).
  11. ^ Fol, A., Georgiev, V. & Danov, H. The History of Bulgaria. Primarily - communal and slavery. Thracians. BAS, Sofia 1, 110–274 (1979).
  12. ^ Mihailov, G. The Thracians. New Bulgarian University 2, 1–491 (2015).
  13. ^ Fragment B16 within "the well-known fragments" B14-B16, "Xenophanes", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
  14. ^ "Thrace". Britannica. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  15. ^ Vlassopoulos, Kostas (2013). Greeks and Barbarians. Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-1-107-24426-9.
  16. ^ Shchukin, M. B. (1989). Rome and the Barbarians in Central and Eastern Europe: 1st Century B.C.-1st Century A.D. B.A.R. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-86054-690-0.
  17. ^ Hind, J. G. F. "Archaeology of the Greeks and Barbarian Peoples around the Black Sea (1982-1992)." Archaeological Reports, no. 39, 1992, pp. 82–112. JSTOR