Trallians (tribe)

The Trallians, Tralles or Tralli (Greek: Τράλλεις, Tralleis) were a Thracian tribe that served Hellenistic kings.^[1] They were barbarians, employed as mercenaries, executioners and torturers in Asia.^[2] Strabo (64 BC–24 AD) in Geographica attributed the foundation of the ancient city of Tralles, in the valley of the Maeander River in Asia Minor to Trallians and Argives. This tradition has been deemed fictitious and coincidental.^[1] W. M. Ramsay (1851–1939) believed that the Trallians, a warrior tribe, had crossed the Hellespont and settled Mysia, Lydia, Phrygia, Caria and Lycia,^[3] in what is today western Turkey. Livy (59 BC–17 AD) called them Illyrians,^[4] because a branch of the tribe migrated to Illyria.^[5]

References

1. David Magie (2015) [1950]. Roman Rule in Asia Minor. Princeton University Press. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-1-4008-4979-6.
2. Plutarch (2007). Plutarch's Lives. Vol. 3. BiblioBazaar. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-4264-7592-4. ... have been connected with diem. Liddell and Scott speak of "Trallians" as "Thracian barbarians employed in Asia as mercenaries, torturers, and executioners. ...
3. W. M. Ramsay (2010). The Historical Geography of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-1-108-01453-3.
4. Livy; George Baker (1836). Livy: Book XXXI-XXXVIII. Harper & brothers. p. 40. ...Trallians, who are a tribe of the Illyrians, as we have said in another place..
5. Erwin Rohde (2006). Psyche, 2 Volumes: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-59752-466-7. Τραλλεῖς. They were a South Thracian tribe: Plu., Ages. 16; Ap. Lac. 42; Str. 649 (where read Τραλλέων) ; Tralli Thraeces, Liv. 38, 21, 2, who elsewhere calls them Illyriorum genus, 27, 32, 4; 31, 35, 1. It appears that a branch of the Thracian tribe of the Tralles reached Illyria in their wanderings ; there Theopompos, too, knew them : Steph. Byz. Τραλλία; cf. also s.vv. Bijyis, Βόλουρος (cf. Tomaschek, Sitzb. Wien. Ak., 128, iv, p. 56 f.).