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The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, Republic of Moldova, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). They spoke the Thracian language.
The origins of the Thracians are obscure. They emerge into history from the 6th century BC, occupying the area east and north of the Black Sea. Their migration into the Balkans and Eastern Europe is sometimes associated with the Cimmerian raids into Anatolia in the 8th century BC. By the 5th century BC, the Thracian presence was pervasive enough to have made Herodotus (book 5) call them the second-most numerous people in the known world (after the Indians), and potentially the most powerful, if not for their disunity. The Thracians were thus broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized during some periods, such as the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace and the Dacia of Burebista.
Most of the Thracians would eventually become Hellenized (in the province of Thrace) or Romanized (in Moesia, Dacia, etc.). Small groups of Thracian speakers however may still have been in existence when the Slavs arrived in the Balkans in the 6th Century AD, and theoretically some Thracians may have become Slavicized. Scholars have even proposed that the present-day Albanians may be Thracians who maintained their language, but this is controversial.
During the 2000s, Bulgarian archaeologists made discoveries in Central Bulgaria which were summarized as "The Valley of the Thracian Kings|: On 19 August 2005 some archaeologists announced they have found the first Thracian capital, which was situated near Karlovo in Bulgaria. A lot of polished ceramic artifacts (pieces of roof-tiles and Greek-like vases) were discovered revealing the fortune of the city. The Bulgarian ministry of culture declared its cooperation to supporting the excavations.
Sources
The Iliad records that the Thracians from around the Hellespont and also the Thracian Cicones fought on the side of the Trojans (Iliad, book II). Many mythical figures, such as the god Dionysus, princess Europa and the hero Orpheus were borrowed by the Greeks from their Thracian neighbours.
In book 7 of his Histories, Herodotus describes the equipment of the Thracians fighting under the Persians,
- The Thracians went to the war wearing the skins of foxes upon their heads, and about their bodies tunics, over which was thrown a long cloak of many colours. Their legs and feet were clad in buskins made from the skins of fawns; and they had for arms javelins, with light targes, and short dirks. This people, after crossing into Asia, took the name of Bithynians; before, they had been called Strymonians, while they dwelt upon the Strymon; whence, according to their own account, they had been driven out by the Mysians and Teucrians. The commander of these Asiatic Thracians was Bassaces the son of Artabanus.
In book 5, Herodotus describes the customs of various Thracian tribes.
- The Thracians who live above the Crestonaeans observe the following customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no sooner does a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the wives upon the question which of them all the husband loved most tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on her behalf, and she to whom the honour is adjudged, after receiving the praises both of men and women, is slain over the grave by the hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband. The others are sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a disgrace.
- The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which follow. They sell their children to traders. On their maidens they keep no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct of their wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased of their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing among them marks noble birth, and the want of it low birth. To be idle is accounted the most honourable thing, and to be a tiller of the ground the most dishonourable. To live by war and plunder is of all things the most glorious. These are the most remarkable of their customs.
- The gods which they worship are but three, Mars, Bacchus, and Dian. Their kings, however, unlike the rest of the citizens, worship Mercury more than any other god, always swearing by his name, and declaring that they are themselves sprung from him.
- Their wealthy ones are buried in the following fashion. The body is laid out for three days; and during this time they kill victims of all kinds, and feast upon them, after first bewailing the departed. Then they either burn the body or else bury it in the ground. Lastly, they raise a mound over the grave, and hold games of all sorts, wherein the single combat is awarded the highest prize. Such is the mode of burial among the Thracians.
Josephus claims the founder of the Thracians was the biblical character Tiras, son of Japheth. "Thiras also called those whom he ruled over Thirasians; but the Greeks changed the name into Thracians." AotJ I:6.
Thracian tribes
These next tribes are not certainly Thracian:
Famous Thracians
- Decebalus, a great king of Dacia, ultimately defeated by the forces of Trajan.
- Orpheus, in Greek legend, was the chief representative of the art of song and playing the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece and Bulgaria.
- Spartacus was a Thracian enslaved by the Romans, who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy in (73 - 71 B.C.). His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War.
See also
References
Hoddinott, Ralph F., The Thracians, 1981.
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