- Approximate territory of the Triballi settlement.
Triballi — their ethnic origin remains debated. Some researchers consider them an Illyrian tribe, others — a powerful Thracian people, and still others — Tibareni who migrated from Colchis. They were located in Lower Moesia between the Danube and the Morava. They were considered freedom-loving and warlike. The earliest mention of the Triballi is found in Herodotus (5th century BC). This is the only Thracian people that was able to maintain its independence in the 5th-4th centuries BC from the Odrysians. In 376-375 BC, 30,000 Triballi devastated the Thracian coasts and attempted to take Abdera, but this attempt failed thanks to the support of the Athenian commander Chabrias. In 345 BC, the Macedonian king Philip II conquered the Triballi. After Philip's death, the Triballi began to think about overthrowing the Macedonian yoke, but Alexander the Great immediately undertook a campaign against them and defeated them utterly, after which they submitted and even sent an auxiliary detachment for the war against Persia. Later they were almost destroyed by the Illyrian Autariatae and from then on led a rather miserable existence.
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Triballi, Greek. Τριβαλλοι.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015