Thracians

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Thracians

The Thracians (<a href="/en/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English" class="wl">/ˈθreɪʃənz/</a>; <a href="/en/Ancient_Greek_language" title="Ancient Greek language" class="mw-redirect wl">Ancient Greek</a>: Θρᾷκες Thrāikes; <a href="/en/Latin_language" title="Latin language" class="mw-redirect wl">Latin</a>: Thraci) were an <a href="/en/Indo-European_languages" title="Indo-European languages" class="wl">Indo-European speaking people</a> who inhabited large parts of <a href="/en/Southeast_Europe" title="Southeast Europe" class="wl">Southeast Europe</a> in <a href="/en/Ancient_history" title="Ancient history" class="wl">ancient history</a>.<a href="#cite_note-Webber_Definition-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a><a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a> Thracians resided mainly in the <a href="/en/Balkans" title="Balkans" class="wl">Balkans</a> (mostly <a href="/en/Present_(time)" title="Present (time)" class="mw-redirect wl">modern day</a> <a href="/en/Bulgaria" title="Bulgaria" class="wl">Bulgaria</a>, <a href="/en/Romania" title="Romania" class="wl">Romania</a>, <a href="/en/Turkey" title="Turkey" class="wl">Turkey</a> and <a href="/en/Greece" title="Greece" class="wl">Greece</a>) but were also located in <a href="/en/Anatolia" title="Anatolia" class="wl">Anatolia (Asia Minor)</a> and other locations in the southeast of Europe.

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Ancient Indo-Europeans in eastern Europe</div>
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<figure class="mw-default-size wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanlâk_0771a.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanlâk_0771a.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg/220px-SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="1312" data-file-height="1792" data-file-type="bitmap" height="300" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg/330px-SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg/440px-SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg 2x" alt="SeuthesIII_tumba_Kazanl%C3%A2k_0771a.jpg"></a><figcaption>Bronze head of <a href="/en/Seuthes_III" title="Seuthes III" class="wl">Seuthes III</a> from <a href="/en/Tomb_of_Seuthes_III" title="Tomb of Seuthes III" class="wl">his tomb</a>.</figcaption></figure>

Writing in the sixth century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired".<a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a>

The exact origin of Thracians is unknown, but it is believed that proto-Thracians descended from a purported mixture of <a href="/en/Proto-Indo-Europeans" title="Proto-Indo-Europeans" class="wl">Proto-Indo-Europeans</a> and <a href="/en/Early_European_Farmers" title="Early European Farmers" class="wl">Early European Farmers</a>, arriving from the rest of <a href="/en/Asia" title="Asia" class="wl">Asia</a> and <a href="/en/Africa" title="Africa" class="wl">Africa</a> through the Asia Minor (Anatolia).<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEModiNeshevaSarnoVai2019-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;">[4]</a> The proto-Thracian culture developed into the <a href="/en/Dacians" title="Dacians" class="wl">Dacian</a>, <a href="/en/Getae" title="Getae" class="wl">Getae</a>, and several other smaller Thracian cultures.

Thracian culture was described as <a href="/en/Tribe" title="Tribe" class="wl">tribal</a> by the <a href="/en/Ancient_Greece" title="Ancient Greece" class="wl">Greeks</a> and <a href="/en/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" class="wl">Romans</a>. They remained largely disunited, with their first permanent state being the <a href="/en/Odrysian_kingdom" title="Odrysian kingdom" class="wl">Odrysian kingdom</a> in the fifth century <a href="/en/Before_Christ" title="Before Christ" class="mw-redirect wl">BC</a>. They faced subjugation by the <a href="/en/Achaemenid_Empire" title="Achaemenid Empire" class="wl">Achaemenid Empire</a> around the same time. Thracians experienced a short period of peace after the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the <a href="/en/Persian_Wars" title="Persian Wars" class="mw-redirect wl">Persian Wars</a>. The Odrysian kingdom lost independence to <a href="/en/Macedonia_(ancient_kingdom)" title="Macedonia (ancient kingdom)" class="wl">Macedonia</a> in the late 4th century BC, and never regained total independence following <a href="/en/Alexander_the_Great" title="Alexander the Great" class="wl">Alexander the Great</a>'s death.

The Thracians faced conquest by the <a href="/en/Roman_Republic" title="Roman Republic" class="wl">Romans</a> in the mid second century BC under whom they faced internal strife. They composed major parts of rebellions against the Romans along with the Macedonians until the <a href="/en/Third_Macedonian_War" title="Third Macedonian War" class="wl">Third Macedonian War</a>. The last reported use of a Thracian language was by <a href="/en/Monk" title="Monk" class="wl">monks</a> in the sixth century AD.

Thracians were described as "<a href="/en/Warlike_races" title="Warlike races" class="mw-redirect wl">warlike</a>" and "<a href="/en/Barbarian" title="Barbarian" class="wl">barbarians</a>" by the Greeks and Romans and were favored as mercenaries. Ancient descriptions of a vicious people are disputed[<a href="/en/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" class="wl">citation needed</a>] and <a href="/en/Archaeology" title="Archaeology" class="wl">archaeology</a> has been used since the mid-twentieth century in southern <a href="/en/Bulgaria" title="Bulgaria" class="wl">Bulgaria</a> to identify more about them. Both Romans and Greeks called them barbarians since they were neither Romans nor Greeks, and to the perceived backwardness of their culture. The perceived primitiveness may be related to their living simple lives in open villages. Some authors noted that even after the introduction of Latin they still kept their "barbarous" ways.<a href="#cite_note-duruy-5" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 5;">[5]</a> While the Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by their contemporaries, they reportedly "had in fact a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music."<a href="#cite_note-britannica-Thrace-6" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 6;">[6]</a> 

Thracians spoke the <a href="/en/Extinct_language" title="Extinct language" class="wl">extinct</a> <a href="/en/Thracian_language" title="Thracian language" class="wl">Thracian language</a> and shared a common culture.<a href="#cite_note-Webber_Definition-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a> The Thracians made cultural interaction with the people surrounding them: <a href="/en/Greeks" title="Greeks" class="wl">Greeks</a>, <a href="/en/Persians" title="Persians" class="wl">Persians</a>, <a href="/en/Scythians" title="Scythians" class="wl">Scythians</a>, <a href="/en/Celts" title="Celts" class="wl">Celts</a> and later on <a href="/en/Turks_of_Western_Thrace" title="Turks of Western Thrace" class="wl">Turks</a>, but although they were indeed influenced by each of these cultures, this influence affected only the circles of the aristocratic elite, not Thracian culture as a whole.<a href="#cite_note-shchuk-7" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 7;">[7]</a> Among their customs was <a href="/en/Tattoo" title="Tattoo" class="wl">tattooing</a>, common among both males and females.<a href="#cite_note-8" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 8;">[8]</a> They followed a <a href="/en/Polytheism" title="Polytheism" class="wl">polytheistic religion</a>. The study of the Thracians is known as <a href="/en/Thracology" title="Thracology" class="wl">Thracology</a>.

The Thracians were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history. Thracians resided mainly in the Balkans but were also located in Anatolia and other locations in the southeast of Europe. Writing in the sixth century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired". The exact origin of Thracians is unknown, but it is believed that proto-Thracians descended from a purported mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers, arriving from the rest of Asia and Africa through the Asia Minor . The proto-Thracian culture developed into the Dacian, Getae, and several other smaller Thracian cultures. 