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10th century BC

Thracians (Greek: Θρᾳκός; Latin: Thraci) — an ancient people inhabiting the eastern Balkans and adjacent territories. They spoke the Thracian language, which belongs to the Indo-European family. Judging by the preserved isoglosses, the Thracians are close to the Balts.

The first information about the Thracians in Greek sources dates to the 8th-6th centuries BC. ^[1] Already in the 5th century BC, the Greeks called the tribes living in the territory of modern Romania, who spoke one of the dialects of the Thracian language, Getae, and later the Romans called them Dacians.

The question of the origin of the Thracians is complex. Some scholars hold the view that the ancestors of the Thracians were tribes that came in the Bronze Age from the northern Danube regions to Southeastern Europe (and in particular to the territory of modern Bulgaria); others believe that the Thracians were the local indigenous population, not newcomers. There is a view that the southern Thracian group of tribes formed as a result of the mixing of ancient aborigines — proto-Thracians — with the Geto-Dacians related to them who appeared here from the north from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC ^[2].

Appearance

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes describes the Thracians as outwardly different from the Greeks due to their light hair and blue eyes. However, anthropologists believe that the Mediterranean type with a small Dinaric admixture still predominated among the Thracians, possibly with light pigmentation, i.e., they were mostly Pontids. The external distinctiveness of Moldovans, Romanians, and Bulgarians is also determined by the Thracian substrate.

Herodotus describes the equipment of the Thracians fighting the Persians:

"The Thracians in the campaign wore fox-skin caps on their heads. On their bodies, they wore tunics, and over them, colorful cloaks. On their feet and knees, they had wrappings of deerskin. They were armed with javelins, slings, and small daggers" (History, VII, 75).

The Thracians wore mustaches and beards, and preferred to gather the hair on their heads at the crown.

Origin

A number of researchers identify the ancestors of the Thracians with the bearers of the Sabatinovka, Belozerka, and Bilohrudivka cultures.

According to modern genetic data, after migrating from the Carpathians to the Balkan Peninsula, the Indo-Europeans belonging to haplogroup R1a assimilated with the local Paleo-Balkan tribes of haplogroup I2a, resulting in the Thracian peoples known to us from written sources (in which haplogroup I2a dominated with a small admixture of haplogroup R1a); at the same time, the new Thracian language was formed on the basis of the language of the conquerors, that is, on an Indo-European basis, incorporating some local features.

Historical regions of the Thracians

Thrace (Bulgaria and European Turkey)
Dacia (Romania)
Bithynia (northwestern Anatolia)
Mysia (northwestern Anatolia)

The Thracian tribes (about 200 ethnonyms) were very numerous and lived on the territory of the modern Balkan Peninsula and parts of Asia Minor.

History

The formation and spread of the Thracians into Asia Minor dates to the era of the Sea Peoples' migrations. Already Homer places the Thracians on the shores of the Hellespont (Iliad, II, 845).

By the 5th century BC, the Thracians inhabited the northeastern Balkans and the lands adjacent to the west of the Black Sea. Herodotus in Book V called them the second (after the Indians) in number in the known world, and potentially the most powerful militarily — if they stopped their internal squabbles. In that era, the Thracians were divided into a large number of warring tribes; Xenophon vividly described their internal wars in his Anabasis. However, the Thracians managed to create for some time fragile states, such as the Odrysian Kingdom, the largest in Europe in the 5th century BC, and in Roman times — Dacia led by Burebista. After the invasion of Celtic tribes into Thrace, a kingdom of the Gauls was formed with its capital in the city of Tylis.

Ultimately, most Thracians adopted Greek (in the region of Thrace) and Roman cultures (Moesia, Dacia, etc.) and, in fact, became subjects of these states.

However, small groups of Thracians existed until the Slavic migration to the Balkans in the 6th century AD, so it is not excluded that some Thracians were assimilated by the Slavs.

The records of the Thracians in the Iliad mainly tell about the Hellespont and about the tribe of the Ciconians, who fought on the side of the Trojans (Iliad, Book II). From the Thracians, many mythical beings passed to their neighbors the Greeks, such as the god Dionysus, Princess Europa, and the hero Orpheus.

In his Book V, Herodotus describes the customs of the Thracian tribes:

Among the tribes living north of the Crestonaeans, there is the following custom. When someone from the tribe dies, his wives (and they all have many wives) begin a heated dispute (with the zealous participation of friends): which of them the deceased husband loved most of all. Having resolved the dispute, the men and women shower the chosen wife with praise, and the nearest relatives stab her at the grave and then bury her together with her husband. The other wives grieve greatly that the choice did not fall on them: for this is for them the greatest disgrace.

The customs of the other Thracians are as follows: they sell their children abroad. They do not guard the chastity of girls, allowing them to have relations with any man. On the contrary, the fidelity of married women is strictly observed, and they buy wives from their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing on the body is considered a sign of nobility among them. Those who do not have it are not of noble birth. A person who spends time in idleness is held in high honor among them. On the contrary, they treat the farmer with the greatest contempt. They consider the life of a warrior and a robber the most honorable. These are their most remarkable customs.

The Thracians honor only three gods: Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. And their kings (unlike the rest of the people) honor Hermes above all gods and swear only by him. According to them, they themselves descended from Hermes.

The funeral rites of the rich Thracians are as follows. The body of the deceased is displayed for three days. During this time, sacrificial animals of all kinds are slaughtered, and after funeral lamentations, a feast is held. Then the body is burned or otherwise buried, and having heaped up a mound, various competitions are held. The highest awards are given for single combat, depending on the importance of the competition. These are the funeral customs of the Thracians.

Josephus claimed that the progenitor of the Thracians was the seventh son of Japheth, Tiras. He also claimed that originally the Thracians were called Tirasians, but then the Greeks renamed them.

Famous Thracians

Burebista — king of Dacia, who subjugated a huge Thracian territory from modern Moravia in the west to the Bug River in the east, from the Carpathians in the north to Dionysopolis (modern Balchik) in the south.

Decebalus — king of Dacia, who won many battles against the Romans but was defeated by Trajan's army.

Orpheus — in ancient Greek mythology, a singer and musician who played the lyre. Played an important role in the religion of Greece and Bulgaria.

Spartacus — a Roman gladiator who led a rebellion on the Apennine Peninsula in 73-71 BC. His army, consisting mainly of escaped gladiators and slaves, defeated several Roman legions in the war known as the "Third Servile War" or "Spartacus's Revolt."

Maximinus I Thrax — Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax, Roman emperor from March 20, 235 to March 22, 238, the first "soldier emperor."


Notes:

In the list of ancient tribes of Thrace and Dacia, there are:

Apsinthii

Moesi — (Latin: Moesi, Greek: Μυσοί; also Mysians; Assyrian: Mushki) — a people (group of Thracian tribes) living in the 1st millennium BC in the territory between the Lower Danube and the Balkan Mountains. In modern geography, the area of settlement of the Moesi roughly corresponds to the Serbian Timok Valley near the Iron Gates on the Danube, Northern Bulgaria, and further the Black Sea-steppe Dobruja, with the exception of the ancient Greek colony of Tomis. It is believed that the language of the early Mysians is related to Phrygian.


Notes:

^[1] J. Wiesner. Die Thraker. Stuttgart, 1963. The term "Thracians" appears already in Homer. His information about Thrace is usually dated to the 10th-9th centuries BC, and some episodes — to the 7th century BC.
^[2] See: articles by T. D. Zlatkovskaya (On the question of the ethnogenesis of the Thracian tribes. — Soviet Ethnography, 1961, 6, pp. 82-94, Ethnic processes in Thrace in the 2nd-1st millennia BC — VII International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences. Moscow, 1964), based on linguistic works by W. Tomaschek (W. Tomaschek. Die alten Thraker. — Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Bd. CXXVIII, CXXX, CXXXI, 1893-1894), V. Georgiev (Тракийская език. Sofia, 1957), and the historical-archaeological study by I. Venedikov (Праизходът на траките. — Езиковедско-етнографски изследования в памет на акад. Ст. Романски. Sofia, 1960, pp. 525-543).


Materials:

Thracians, Cimmerians, and Scythians. A.L. Mongait 1974