21 Facts About Thracians

1.

Thracians were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.

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2.

Thracians resided mainly in the Balkans but were located in Anatolia and other locations in Eastern Europe.

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3.

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 .

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4.

Thracians experienced a short period of peace after the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars.

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5.

Thracians faced conquest by the Romans in the mid second century BC under whom they faced internal strife.

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6.

Thracians were described as "warlike" and "barbarians" by the Greeks and Romans and were favored as mercenaries.

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7.

Thracians spoke the extinct Thracian language and shared a common culture.

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8.

The Thracians made cultural interaction with the people surrounding them; Greeks, Persians, Scythians, Celts and later on Turks, 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.

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9.

Origins of the Thracians remain obscure, in the absence of written historical records before they got into contact with the Greeks.

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10.

Ancient Greek and Roman historians agreed that the ancient Thracians, who were of Indo-European stock and language, were superior fighters; only their constant political fragmentation prevented them from overrunning the lands around the northeastern Mediterranean.

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11.

Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Beotia, Attica, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia.

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12.

Thracians are mentioned in Homer's Iliad, meaning that they were already present in the eighth century BC.

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13.

The Thracians kept on sending supplies to the governor of Eion when the Greeks besieged it.

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14.

Thanks to the Thracians co-operating with the Persians by sending supplies and military reinforcements down the Hebrus river route, Achaemenid authority in central Thrace lasted until around 465 BC, and the governor Mascames managed to resist many Greek attacks in Doriscus until then.

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15.

Thracians were typically not city-builders and their only polis was Seuthopolis.

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16.

In western parts of Moesia, Celts and Thracians lived alongside each other, as evident from the archaeological findings of pits and treasures, spanning from the third century BC to the first century BC.

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17.

Thracians was known to have granted assistance to both Pompey and Caesar, and later supported the Republican armies against Mark Antony and Octavian in the final days of the Republic.

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18.

Thracians were regarded by other peoples as warlike, ferocious, bloodthirsty, and barbarian.

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19.

The Thracians struck their weapons against each other before battle, "in the Thracian manner, " as Polyaneus testifies.

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20.

The further fate of the Thracians is a matter of dispute.

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21.

Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen and lightly armed skirmishers with javelins.

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