Thracians

Bronze head of Seuthes III from his tomb

The Thracians (/ˈθrʃənz/; Ancient Greek: Θρᾷκες, romanizedThrāikes; 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 and northern Greece, but also in north-western Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey.

The exact origin of the Thracians is unknown, but it is believed that proto-Thracians descended from a purported mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers, arriving from the rest of Asia and Africa through Asia Minor (Anatolia).[3] The proto-Thracian culture developed also into the Getae and the Dacians, also several other smaller Thracian tribes. Writing in the sixth century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired".[4]

Thracian culture was described as tribal by the Greeks and Romans. They remained largely disunited, with their first permanent state being the Odrysian kingdom in the fifth century BC. They faced subjugation by the Achaemenid Empire around the same time. Thracians experienced a short period of peace after the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars. The Odrysian kingdom lost independence to Macedon in the late 4th century BC, and regained independence following Alexander the Great's death.

The Thracians faced conquest by the Romans in the mid second 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. The last reported use of a Thracian language was by monks in the sixth century AD.

Thracians were described as "warlike" and "barbarians" by the Greeks and Romans and were favored as mercenaries. Archaeology has been used since the mid-twentieth century in southern Bulgaria to identify more about them. Both Romans and Greeks called them barbarians since they were neither Romans nor Greeks, and due to the perceived primitiveness of their culture. Some Roman authors noted that even after the introduction of Latin they still kept their "barbarous" ways.[5] While the Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by Romans and Greeks, their culture was reportedly noted for its poetry and music.[6]

Thracians spoke the extinct Thracian language and shared a common culture.[1] The Thracians culturally interacted with the peoples surrounding them – Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Celts – although such interactions mostly affected the circles of the aristocratic elite of Thracian society.[7] Among their customs was tattooing, common among both males and females.[8] They followed a polytheistic religion. The 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, diveded 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. ^ Fragment B16 within "the well-known fragments" B14-B16, "Xenophanes", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
  5. ^ Victor Duruy (1886). History of Rome And of the Roman People, from Its Origin to the Invasion of the Barbarians · Volume 4, Part 1. Dana, Estes & Company. pp. 3–4.
  6. ^ "Thrace". Britannica. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Vlassopoulos, Kostas (2013). Greeks and Barbarians. Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-1-107-24426-9.