Thracians

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Thrace
Geography
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Culture
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Tribes
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History
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Warfare
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Roman Thrace
Spartacus Third Servile War Thraco-Roman Maximinus Thrax Justinian the Great
Mythology
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Legacy
Thracian Bulgarians Thracian Greeks Pomaks Archaeology Thracology
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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 and north-western Anatolia in antiquity.^[1][2] They primarily resided on the territories of modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, northern Greece and north-western Turkey.

The exact origin of the Thracian people is uncertain, but it is believed that they descended from a purported 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 Thracian culture flourished in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.^[4][11][12]

According to ancient 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 Achaemenid Empire exercised some authority on the eastern corners of the Thracian kingdom around that time.^[13] 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.

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.