Thrace

{{short description|Geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe}} {{Redirect|Thraki|ships named Thraki|SS Arietta{{!}}SS Thraki}} {{other uses}} {{Use British English|date=February 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

[[File:Thrace region.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The region of Thrace in the modern boundaries of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey]] [[File:Thraciae-veteris-typvs.jpg|thumb|Map of Ancient Thrace made by Abraham Ortelius in 1585, stating both the names Thrace and Europe]] thumb|Thrace in the modern boundaries of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey '''Thrace''' ({{IPAc-en|θ|r|eɪ|s}}, {{respell|thrayss}})<ref>{{langx|engvar=gb|bg|Тракия|Trakiya}}; {{langx|engvar=gb|el|Θράκη|Thráki}}; {{langx|tr|Trakya}}</ref> is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, it comprises present-day southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey (East Thrace). Lands also inhabited by ancient Thracians extended in the north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into Macedonia.

==Etymology== The word ''Thrace'', from ancient Greek ''Thrake'' (Θρᾴκη),<ref name="LSJ|*qra">{{LSJ|*qra/{{!}}kh|Θρᾴκη|ref}}</ref> referred originally to the Thracians (ancient Greek ''Thrâikes'' Θρᾷκες),<ref>{{LSJ|*qra{{=}}{{!}}c|Θρᾷξ|ref}}</ref> an ancient people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name ''Europe'' (ancient Greek ''Eurṓpē'' Εὐρώπη), also at first referred to this region, before that term expanded to include its modern sense.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20970684|title=Greek goddess Europa adorns new five-euro note|work=BBC News |date=10 January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The idea of Europe: from antiquity to the European Union|last=Pagden|first=Anthony|editor1-first=Anthony|editor1-last=Pagden|date=2002|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511496813|location=Washington, DC; Cambridge; New York|language=en|chapter=Europe: Conceptualizing a Continent|chapter-url=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001025960.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001025960.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511496813}}</ref>

Sixth century geographer Stephanus of Byzantium claimed that, long before the ancient Greeks started referring to the region as ''Thrace'', it was known as Aria (''Aría'' Ἀρία) and Perke (''Pérkē'' Πέρκη).<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/241 Stephanus Of Byzantium – Ethnica], Theta 316.9</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Billerbeck |first=Margarethe |title=Stephanus von Byzanz: Stephani Byzantii Ethnica / Delta – Iota |year=2010 |isbn=978-3111738505 |pages=Theta |language=German}}</ref>

In Turkish, Thrace is commonly referred to as ''Rumeli'', meaning "Land of the Romans", which was the name traditionally given by Turkic societies to the Byzantine Empire and Orthodox Christians.

In Greek mythology, Thrace is named after the heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, and sister of Europa.

==Geography== [[File:Rhodopen Balkan topo de.jpg|thumb|The physical–geographical boundaries of Thrace: the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Rhodope Mountains (highlighted) to the southwest, the Aegean Sea to the south, the Bosporus to the southeast and the Black Sea to the east]]

===Borders=== The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by the Thracians,<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Swinburne Carr |title=The history and geography of Greece |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyandgeogr00carrgoog/page/n66 56] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyandgeogr00carrgoog |year=1838 }}</ref> a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like Macedonia and even Scythia) were added.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |first=Sir William |last=Smith |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman geography |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |location=London |year=1857 |page=1176 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SUAPAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia".<ref name="Smith" /> As the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) on the east, by northern Macedonia in the south, and by Illyria to the west.<ref name="Smith" /> This largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River.<ref>{{cite book |author=Johann Joachim Eschenburg, Nathan Welby Fiske |title=Manual of classical literature |publisher=E.C. Biddle |page= [https://archive.org/details/manualclassical03eschgoog/page/n59 20] n|url=https://archive.org/details/manualclassical03eschgoog|year=1855 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Alexander |last=Adam |title=A summary of geography and history, both ancient and modern |publisher=A. Strahan |page=[https://archive.org/details/asummarygeograp01adamgoog/page/n370 344] |url=https://archive.org/details/asummarygeograp01adamgoog|year=1802 }}</ref> This usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, (classical) Thrace referred only to the tract of land largely covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region.{{clarify|date=December 2016}} In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is East Thrace.

===Cities=== {{main|List of cities of Thrace}} The largest cities of Thrace are: Istanbul, Plovdiv, Çorlu, Tekirdağ, Burgas, Edirne, Stara Zagora, Sliven, Yambol, Haskovo, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, and Kırklareli.

==Demographics and religion== {{main|Demographics of Bulgaria|Demographics of Greece|Demographics of Turkey}} {{see also|Thracian Bulgarians|Turks of Western Thrace}} Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Sunni Muslims. There are also communities of Muslim Pomaks and Romani, while in Western Thrace, the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northeastern Greece, there are small numbers of Greek Muslims integrated into the communities of Pomaks and Western Thrace Turks.

===Ancient Greek mythology=== Ancient Greek mythology provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor Thrax, the son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homer's ''Iliad'' as Trojan allies, led by Acamas and Peiros. Later in the ''Iliad'', Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is also given as a Thracian king.

Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east. The Catalogue of Ships mentions three separate contingents from Thrace: Thracians led by Acamas and Peiros, from Aenus; Cicones led by Euphemus, from southern Thrace, near Ismaros; and from the city of Sestus, on the Thracian (northern) side of the Hellespont, which formed part of the contingent led by Asius. Ancient Thrace was home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones, and Bistones in addition to the tribe that Homer specifically calls the "Thracians".

Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus (father of Orpheus).

Thrace is mentioned in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', in the episode of Philomela, Procne, and Tereus: Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, and cuts out her tongue. Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing her son Itys (by Tereus) and serving him to his father for dinner. At the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Tereus into a hoopoe.

The city of Dicaea in Thrace was named after the son of Poseidon, Dicaeus.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://topostext.org/work/241#D230.14|title= Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §D230}}</ref>

==History== {{see also|History of Western Thrace|History of East Thrace}} [[File:OdrysianKingdom.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Thrace in the Odrysian Kingdom showing several Thracian tribes. Sapeia was Northern Thrace and Asteia was Southern Thrace]] [[File:Odrysian.svg|thumb|Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian Kingdom under Sitalces c. 431–424 BC, showing the territories of several Thracian tribes]] === Classical period === {{Main|Thracians|Greek colonisation#Macedonia and Thrace|Odrysian kingdom}} [[File:Xerxes_I_tomb_Skudrian_soldier_circa_470_BCE_cleaned_up.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Skudrian (Thracian) soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BC. Xerxes I tomb relief.]] [[File:Kazanluk 1.jpg|thumb|Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak.]] Indigenous Thracians were divided into numerous tribes. The first Greek colonies in coastal Thrace were founded in the 8th century BC.<ref>Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary''. Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 1515. "From the 8th century BC the coast Thrace was colonised by Greeks."</ref> The first to take greater control of Thrace, in part or whole, were the Achaemenian Persians in the late 6th century BC. The region was incorporated into their empire as the Satrapy of Skudra, after the Scythian campaign of Darius the Great.<ref>Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&dq=Achaemenid+Persians+ruled+balkans&pg=PA345 "A companion to Ancient Macedonia"] John Wiley & Sons, 2011. {{ISBN|144435163X}} p 343</ref> Thracian soldiers were used in Persian armies and are depicted in carvings of the Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam. Persians' presence in Thracia lasted up until the rise of the Delian league.

Thracians recorded no collective name for themselves; terms such as ''Thrace'' and ''Thracians'' were assigned by the Greeks.<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond,{{ISBN|0-521-22717-8}},1992, page 597: "We have no way of knowing what the Thracians called themselves and if indeed they had a common name...Thus the name of Thracians and that of their country were given by the Greeks to a group of tribes occupying the territory..."</ref> Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not form any lasting political organizations until the founding of the Odrysian state in the 4th century BC. Like Illyrians, the locally ruled Thracian tribes of the mountainous regions maintained a warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable. Recently discovered funeral mounds in Bulgaria suggest that Thracian kings did rule regions of Thrace with distinct Thracian national identity.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests, and prophets.

Sections of Thrace particularly in the south started to become hellenized before the Peloponnesian War as Athenian and Ionian colonies were set up in Thrace before the war. Spartan and other Doric colonists followed them after the war. The special interest of Athens to Thrace is underlined by the numerous finds of Athenian silverware in Thracian tombs.<ref>A. Sideris, [https://www.academia.edu/19830301/Theseus_in_Thrace._The_Silver_Lining_on_the_Clouds_of_the_Athenian-Thracian_Relations_in_the_5th_century_BC ''Theseus in Thrace. The Silver Lining on the Clouds of the Athenian-Thracian Relations in the 5th Century BC''] (Sofia 2015), pp. 13–14, 79–82.</ref>

In the 4th century BC most of Thrace was conquered by Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Notably, Thracian troops are known to have accompanied Alexander when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Achaemenid Empire.

===Hellenistic and Roman period=== {{Further|Lysimachus|Sapaean kingdom|Thracia|Diocese of Thrace}}

It then passed to Lysimachus when Alexander's empire was divided between his generals. Lysimachus ruled as king up until his defeat from Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC at the battle of Corupedium. In 171-168 BC, at the Third Macedonian War the Odryssian king Cotys IV allied to Perseus of Macedon and following the subjugation of Macedon to the Romans, Thrace also lost its independence and became a tributary to Rome.

Towards the end of the 1st century BC Thrace lost its status as a client kingdom as the Romans began to directly appoint their kings.<ref>D. C. Samsaris, Le royaume client thrace aux temps de Tibere et la tutelle romaine de Trebellenus Rufus (Le stade transitif de la clientele a la provincialisation de la Thrace), Dodona 17 (1), 1988, p. 159-168</ref> Probably soon after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Roman leader Augustus sought to implement indirect rule over Thrace through a large, Hellenized client kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lozanov |first=Ivaylo|chapter=Roman Thrace |editor=Valeva, Julia |editor2=Nankov, Emil |editor3=Graninger, Danver |title=A Companion to Ancient Thrace |year=2015 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell | isbn=978-1444351040 |pages=75–90 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300760018 }}</ref> The Romans removed the Odrysian-Astaean royal family from power, and put the entire kingdom under Sapaean rule with Bizye acting as the initial center of this reorganized polity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Delev |first=Peter |year=2016b |chapter=Cotys Son of Rhascuporis |pages=119–129 |title=Monuments and Texts in Antiquity and Beyond. Essays for the Centenary of Georgi Mihailov (1915–1991) |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/26655872 |isbn=978-954-07-4103-1 |publisher=St. Kliment Ohridski University }}</ref> This situation lasted until 46 AD, when the Romans finally turned Thrace into a Roman province (Romana provincia Thracia).<ref>[http://olympias.lib.uoi.gr/jspui/handle/123456789/27369] D. C. Samsaris, The Hellenization of Thrace during the Greek and Roman Antiquity (Diss. in Greek), Thessaloniki 1980, p. 26-36</ref>

During the Roman domination, within the geographical borders of ancient Thrace, there were two separate Roman provinces, namely Thrace ("provincia Thracia") and Lower Moesia ("Moesia inferior"). Later, in the times of Diocletian, the two provinces were joined and formed the so-called "Dioecesis Thracia".<ref>D. C. Samsaris, Historical Geography of Western Thrace during the Roman Antiquity (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2005, p. 7-14</ref> The establishment of Roman colonies and mostly several Greek cities, as was Nicopolis, Topeiros, Traianoupolis, Plotinoupolis, and Hadrianoupolis resulted from the Roman Empire's urbanization. The Roman provincial policy in Thrace favored mainly not the Romanization but the Hellenization of the country, which had started as early as the Archaic period through the Greek colonisation and was completed by the end of Roman antiquity.<ref>[http://olympias.lib.uoi.gr/jspui/handle/123456789/27369] D. C. Samsaris, The Hellenization of Thrace, passim</ref> As regards the competition between the Greek and Latin language, the very high rate of Greek inscriptions in Thrace extending south of Haemus Mountains proves the complete language Hellenization of this region. The boundaries between the Greek and Latin speaking Thrace are placed just above the northern foothills of Haemus Mountains.<ref>[http://olympias.lib.uoi.gr/jspui/handle/123456789/27369] D. C. Samsaris, The Hellenization of Thrace, p. 320-330</ref>

During the imperial period many Thracians – particularly members of the local aristocracy of the cities – had been granted the right of the Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) with all its privileges. Epigraphic evidence show a large increase in such naturalizations in the times of Trajan and Hadrian, while in 212 AD the well-known decree of emperor Caracalla (constitutio Antoniniana), granted Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire.<ref>D. C. Samsaris, Surveys in the history, topography and cults of the Roman provinces of Macedonia and Thrace (in Greek), Thessaloniki 1984, p. 131-302</ref> During the same period (in the 1st–2nd century AD), a remarkable presence of Thracians is testified by the inscriptions outside the borders (extra fines) both in the Greek territory<ref>D. C. Samsaris, Les Thraces dans l' Empire romain d' Orient (Le territoire de la Grèce actuelle). Etude ethno-démographique, sociale, prosopographique et anthroponymique, Jannina (Université) 1993, pp. 372</ref> and in all the Roman provinces, especially in the provinces of Eastern Roman Empire.<ref>D. C. Samsaris, Les Thraces dans l' Empire romain d' Orient (Asie Mineure, Syrie, Palestine et Arabie). Etude ethno-démographique et sociale, VIe Symposium Internazionale di Tracologia (Firenze 11–13 maggio 1989), Roma 1992, p. 184-204 [= Dodona 19(1990), fasc. 1, p. 5-30]</ref> thumb|The Roman province of Thrace {{Circa|200 AD}} thumb|The Byzantine thema of Thrace

===Byzantine and Bulgarian period=== {{Main|Byzantine Empire|First Bulgarian Empire|Second Bulgarian Empire|Macedonia (theme)|Thrace (theme)}} By the mid-5th century, as the Western Roman Empire began to crumble, Thracia fell from the authority of Rome and into the hands of Germanic tribal rulers. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as its capital, retained control over Thrace until the 7th century when the northern half of the entire region was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian and Macedonian themes. The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, the region was changing in the hands of the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire (excluding Constantinople). In 1265, the area suffered a Mongol raid from the Golden Horde, led by Nogai Khan, and between 1305 and 1307 the area was raided by the Catalan company.<ref><span class="reference-text">''La Venjança catalana''. Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.</span></ref>

===Ottoman period=== {{Main|Adrianople vilayet|Eastern Rumelia}}

In 1352, the Ottoman Turks conducted their first incursion into the region subduing it completely within a matter of two decades and ruled it for five centuries in general peace. Edirne became the capital of the Ottoman Empire and after the fall of Byzantium in 1453, Constantinople.

===Modern history=== {{Main|Northern Thrace|Eastern Thrace|Western Thrace}} [[File:Greek flag (black cross).svg|thumb|right|Flag of rebels of Thrace during the Greek War of Independence.]] [[File:DBFP03.jpg|thumb|Proposal to cede East Thrace to Greece during World War I. This photocopy came from a larger color map.]] In 1821, several parts of Thrace, such as Lavara, Maroneia, Sozopolis, Aenos, Callipolis, and Samothraki rebelled during the Greek War of Independence.

With the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Northern Thrace was incorporated into the semi-autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which united with Bulgaria in 1885. The rest of Thrace was divided among Turkey and Greece at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Balkan Wars, World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. In Summer 1934, up to 10,000 Jews<ref>see [http://www.bpb.de/internationales/europa/tuerkei/181867/vertreibung-der-tuerkischen-juden footnote 4]</ref> were maltreated, bereaved,{{clarify|date=February 2022}} and then forced to quit the region (see 1934 Thrace pogroms). From Bulgaria and Romania between 1934 and 1938 a large wave of Muslim immigrants called ''Göçmenler'' went to East Thrace.<ref>https://www.historystudies.net/trakyanin-yeni-sakinleri -gocmenler-1934-1938_1634</ref>

Today, ''Thracian'' is a geographical term used in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece.

==Notable people== {{See also|List of Thracian Greeks}} *Orpheus was, in Ancient Greek mythology, the chief representative of the art of song and playing the lyre. *Protagoras (c. 490–420 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Abdera, Thrace. An expert in rhetorics and subjects connected to virtue and political life, often regarded as the first sophist. He is known primarily for three claims: (1) that man is the measure of all things, often interpreted as a sort of moral relativism, (2) that he could make the "worse (or weaker) argument appear the better (or stronger)" (see Sophism), and (3) that one could not tell if the gods existed or not (see Agnosticism). *Herodicus was a Greek physician of the fifth century BC who is considered the founder of sports medicine. He is believed to have been one of Hippocrates's tutors. *Democritus (c. 460–370 BC) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician from Abdera, Thrace. His main contribution is the atomic theory, the belief that all matter is made up of various imperishable indivisible elements which he called atoms. *Eumenes was a Greek general, satrap, and Successor of Alexander the Great. *Spartacus was a Thracian who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy in 73–71 BC. His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War. *A number of Roman emperors of the 3rd–5th century were of Thraco-Roman backgrounds (Maximinus Thrax, Licinius, Galerius, Aureolus, Leo the Thracian, etc.). These emperors were elevated via a military career (hence the resultant nickname for them, Barracks Emperor), from the condition of common soldiers in one of the Roman legions to the foremost positions of political power. *A number of Byzantine emperors, like Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, John III Doukas Vatatzes and John V Palaiologos were born in Byzantine Thrace. Also Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, who was the first fully documented ancestor of the Komnenos dynasty.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *Hoddinott, R. F., ''The Thracians'', 1981. *Ilieva, Sonya, ''Thracology'', 2001

==External links== {{Wikivoyage}} {{commons|Ancient Thrace and Ancient Thracians}} *[http://www.emthrace.org Ethnological Museum of Thrace], comprehensive website on Thracian history and culture. *[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com Archaeology in Bulgaria. and Beyond - Archaeology, History & Nature: the Human - Earth Connection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510084528/http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/ |date=10 May 2021 }} Bulgaria's most famous Thracian Treasure – The Panagyurishte Gold Treasure to return home after two years lapse *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100104153554/http://www.omda.bg/engl/history/bulgarias_thracian_heritage.htm Bulgaria's Thracian Heritage.] including images of the comprehensive art collection of Thracian gold found on the territory of contemporary Bulgaria. *[http://www.thracian.info Information on Ancient Thrace] *The People of the God-Sun Ar and Areia (modern Thrace) [https://www.academia.edu/11805222/The_People_of_the_God-Sun_Ar_and_Areia_Modern_Thrace_ The People of the God-Sun Ar and Areia (Modern Thrace)] *[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com Possible Orphic Lyre rock engraving discovered in Bulgaria's Eastern Rhodope Mountains] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510084528/http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/ |date=10 May 2021 }}

Category:Thrace Category:Geography of ancient Greece Category:Historical regions in Greece Category:History of Thrace Category:Thracians Category:Geography of Turkey Category:Historical regions in Bulgaria Category:Historical regions in Turkey