The physical-geographical boundaries
of Thrace: the Balkan Mountains, the Rhodope Mountains and the
Bosphorus.
Classical Thrace and environs, from
Alexander G.
Findlay's Classical Atlas to Illustrate Ancient
Geography, New York, 1849.
The Byzantine thema of Thrace.
Thraciae veteris typvs.
Thrace ( , , ) is a historical and geographic area
in southeast
Europe.
As a geographical
concept, Thrace designates a region bounded on the north by the
Balkan
Mountains
, on the
south by the Rhodope Mountains and
the Aegean
Sea
and on the east by the Black Sea
and the Sea of Marmara
. The region comprises areas in southeastern
Bulgaria
(Northern Thrace
), northeastern Greece
(Western Thrace), and the whole of the
European part of Turkey
(Eastern Thrace). In Turkey, it is also
called
Rumeli. The name comes from the
Thracians, an ancient
Indo-European people inhabiting Central,
Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Geography
Borders
The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. Noteworthy is the
fact that, at an early date, the Ancient Greeks employed the term
"Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Greece
(of
Thessaly) inhabited by the Thracians, a
region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other
regions (like
Macedonia
and even
Scythia) were added. In one ancient
Greek source, the very
Earth is divided into
"Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia". As the knowledge of world
geography of the Greeks broadened, the term came to be more
restricted in its application: Thrace designated the lands bordered
by the
Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea
(Black Sea) on the east, by northern
Macedonia in the south and by
the
Illyrian lands (i.e.
Illyria) to the west. This largely coincided with
the Thracian
Odrysian kingdom,
whose borders varied in time.
During this time, specifically after the
Macedonian conquest, the region's old border with Macedonia was
shifted from the Struma
River
to the Mesta River
. 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. 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 of the six small
provinces which constituted the
Diocese of Thrace. The medieval
Byzantine theme of
Thrace contained only what today is
Eastern Thrace.
Cities of Thrace
Bulgaria:
Greece:
- Alexandroupoli
(Bulgarian: Дедеагач / Dedeagach; Turkish:
Dedeağaç)
- Abdera
- Didymoteicho
(Bulgarian: Димотика / Dimotika; Turkish:
Dimetoka)
- Komotini
(Turkish: Gümülcine, Bulgarian: Гюмюрджина
/ Gyumyurdzhina)
- Lavara
((Turkish:
Saltıköy)
- Pythio
(Turkish:
Kuleliburgaz)
- Maronia
- Nea
Orestiada
(Turkish:
Kumçiftliği)
- Samothrace
(Turkish: Semadirek or
Semendirek; Bulgarian: Самотраки /
Samotraki)
- Sapes
(Turkish:
Şapçı; Bulgarian: Шапчи)
- Xanthi
(Bulgarian: Ксанти / Ksanti or Скеча / Skecha;
Turkish: İskeçe)
Turkey:
- Çerkezköy
- Çorlu
(Greek:
Τυρολόη / Tyroloi; Bulgarian: Чорлу /
Chorlu)
- Demirköy
(Bulgarian: Малък Самоков / Malak
Samokov)
- Edirne
(Greek:
Αδριανούπολις / Adrianoupolis (= city of Hadrian);
Bulgarian: Одрин / Odrin) refounded by Hadrian
- Uzunköprü
(Greek: Μακρά Γέφυρα / Makra Gefyra (=
long bridge); Bulgarian: Узункьопрю /
Uzunkyopryu)
- Gelibolu
(Greek: Καλλίπολις / Κallipolis (=
beautiful city); Bulgarian: Галиполи /
Galipoli)
- Keşan
(Greek:
Κεσσάνη / Kessani; Bulgarian: Кешан /
Keshan)
- Lüleburgaz
(Greek: Αρκαδιόπολις / Arkadiopolis (=
city of Arcadian); Bulgarian: Люлебургас /
Lyuleburgas)
- Kırklareli
(Bulgarian: Лозенград / Lozengrad; Greek:
Σαράντα Εκκλησιές , Saranta Ekklisyes(= Forty
churches))
- Tekirdağ
(Greek: Ραιδεστός / Raedestos; Bulgarian:
Родосто / Rodosto)
- Istanbul
(European side) (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις /
Konstantinoupolis (= city of Constantine) or Βυζάντιον /
Vizantion, the ancient Greek name, named after the founder
of the city Vyzantas; Bulgarian: Цариград /
Tsarigrad or Константинопол / Konstantinopol or
Византион / Vizantion)
- Sestos
(Greek:
Σηστός)
Demographics and Religion
Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while
most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims.
Thrace in ancient Greek mythology
Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor,
named
Thrax, 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, another Thracian king makes an
appearance, named
Rhesus.
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. Greek
mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including
Diomedes,
Tereus,
Lycurgus,
Phineus,
Tegyrius,
Eumolpus,
Polymnestor,
Poltys, and
Oeagrus (father of
Orpheus). In addition to the tribe that
Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to numerous other
tribes, such as the
Edones,
Bisaltae,
Cicones, and
Bistones.
History
Ancient history
The indigenous population of Thrace was a people called the
Thracians, divided into numerous tribal
groups.
Thracian troops were known to accompany
neighboring ruler Alexander the
Great when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, and took on the Persian Empire of the day.
The Thracians did not describe themselves as such and
Thrace and
Thracians are simply the names given
them by the Greeks.
Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form
a lasting political organization until the
Odrysian state was founded in the 4th century BC.
Like
Illyrians, the mountainous regions
were home to various wild, untamed and courageous Thracian tribes,
while the plains peoples were purportedly more peaceable.
During this period, a subculture of
celibate ascetics called
the
Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they
served as philosophers, priests and prophets.
Medieval history
By the mid 5th century, as the Roman Empire began to crumble,
Thracia fell from the authority of Rome and into the hands of
Germanic tribal rulers. With the fall of Rome, Thracia turned into
a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000
years.
The eastern successor of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, the Byzantine
Empire, retained control over Thrace until the beginning of the
9th century when most of the region was incorporated into Bulgaria. Byzantium regained Thrace in 972 only to
lose it again to the Bulgarians at the end of the 12th century.
Throughout the 13th century and the first
half of the 14th century, the region oscillated between Bulgaria and the Byzantine
Empire. In 1265 the area suffered a Mongol raid from
Golden Horde, led by
Nogai Khan. In 1352, the
Ottoman Turks
conducted their first incursion into the region subduing it
completely within a matter of two decades and occupying it for five
centuries.
Modern history
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
between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the 20th
century, following the
Balkan Wars,
World War I and the
Greco-Turkish War.
Today
Thracian is a strong regional identity in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and other neighbouring countries.
Famous Thracians and people from Thrace
- In Greek legend, Orpheus was the chief representative of the art of
song and playing the lyre, and of great
importance in the religious history of Greece.
- Democritus was a
Greek philosopher and mathematician from Abdera, Thrace (c. 460–370 BC.) His main contribution is
the atomic theory, the belief that all
matter is made up of various imperishable indivisible elements
which he called atoms.
- 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' tutors.
- Protagoras was a
Greek philosopher from Abdera, Thrace (c. 490–420 BC.) 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).
- Spartacus was a Thracian auxiliary
soldier in the Roman army who deserted
but was captured and then enslaved by the Romans. He 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.
- Maximinus Thrax, Roman emperor (AD 235–238), was born in Thrace
or Moesia to a Gothic father and an Alanic mother.
See also
Notes
- Glen Warren Bowersock, Peter Robert Lamont Brown, Oleg Grabar,
Late antiquity, Princeton Univ. Press, 1999, p.726
- Thomas Swinburne Carr, The history and geography of
Greece, p.56 [1]
- Thomas Swinburne Carr, The history and geography of
Greece, p.56 [2]
- Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman
geography, London, 1857, p. 1176
- Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman
geography, London, 1857, p. 1176
- Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman
geography, London, 1857, p. 1176
- Johann Joachim Eschenburg, Nathan Welby Fiske, Manual of
classical literature, p. 20.
- Alexander Adam, A summary of geography and history, both
ancient and modern, p.344 ( full view)
- 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 0521227178,1992,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..."
References
- Hoddinott, R.F., The Thracians, 1981.
- Ilieva, Sonya, Thracology, 2001
External links
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