July 29, 2014
The Thracians The ancient Greeks used the names Traike (Thraike), Treike (Threike), Trek or Threke to refer to the areas northeast of their own lands on the Balkan Peninsula. The Thracians themselves were originally Indo-European tribes. There are different theories for their origin. Some say that they arrived from the northeast around 1,500 BC and mingled with the existing population in our lands. Others think that the Thracians were always a local people. Herodotus wrote that “[the] Thracians are the second largest ethnos – the first one is India. In different areas the Thracian community is named in various ways. However, the manners and customs of the whole nation are the same everywhere.” At first, the Thracians existed in separate tribes. They did not form real states until the end of the second and the beginning of the first millennium BC. These small states were also mostly tribal at first. Some tribal leaders gathered more power than others and then handed it down their line. The first Thracian state that […]