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Thracian Rider Katzarov
Thracian Rider Katzarov
Among the peoples who came into immediate contact with the Mediterranean
powers the Thracians may claim more attention than is due only to their
direct effect on the main course of political history. It is true that scholars
have usually adopted a very unfavourable view of their capacity for any high
degree of cultural development. Such a judgment, founded chiefly on the
evidence of the writers of antiquity, by whom the Thracians are represented
as in many respects a primitive people, seems, however, to be too sweeping.
Although archaeological exploration of the regions inhabited by the Thracians
is still in its infancy, it is already clear that by the middle of the second
millennium B.C., the tribes there had developed a flourishing Bronze Age
civilization. The political and social life of the people at this period must have
corresponded to that of the Achaeans as represented in the Iliad. Indeed, we
find the South Thracians appearing in the Iliad with the same weapons and
methods of fighting as the Achaeans. Homer expressly mentions Thracian
swords, and it is worthy of note that two swords and a lance-head of
Mycenean form and workmanship, as well as a small bronze votive doubleaxe have been found in the district of Philippopolis in Southern Bulgaria. The
well-known tholos-tomb near Kirk-Kilisse (Lozengrad), dating from the fourth
century B.C., the gold diadems and other ornaments found in Thracian burial
mounds, furnish evidence for the survival of Mycenean influence even down
into the Classical period. In view of these facts, and of the circumstance that
the Thraco-Phrygians exercised, at any rate in religious matters, a
considerable influence upon the Greeks, Thracian civilization must have its
place in any account of the development of European culture.
Neither the scanty and often incidental statements about the civilization of
the Thracians which have come down to us in Classical authors, nor the
archaeological material, as yet incomplete, enable us to trace the historical
development of their culture. We are often obliged to combine earlier and
later sources in order to obtain at least a general picture. But we ought not to
assume that the same conditions obtained among all the Thracian tribes. The
southern races, who were early exposed to influences coming from the south
and east, stood on a higher cultural level than those of the interior, who even
at a comparatively late period were living in primitive conditions recalling
those which may be postulated of the undivided Indo-European peoples.
The greatness and the wide distribution of the Thracian people were well
known to the ancients. According to Herodotus it was the largest of all nations
after the Indians; if it had found a leader or had been united, it would have
been far the strongest. And in point of fact the Thracians were at one time in
possession of the whole of the Balkan peninsula from the Euxine to the
Adriatic; while northwards, the Dacian peoples extended as far as the middle
course of the Oder, the lower reaches of the Vistula and the rapids of the
Dnieper.
Information about the total numbers of the Thracian population has naturally
not come down to us; it is only regarding the numbers of their army that we
have some scattered notices. In 429 B.C. the Odrysian King Sitalces is
credited with an army of 150,000 men, of whom a third were cavalry and twothirds infantry. The area of the Odrysian kingdom is estimated at about
50,000 square miles; and 150,000 men capable of bearing arms would imply
a population of at least 600,000. This is not in itself impossible, but Sitalces'
army was probably magnified by rumour. In 376 B.C., 30,000 Triballi invaded
Thrace and laid waste the territory of Abdera. The Getae, north of the
Danube, put into the field to oppose Alexander an army of 4000 cavalry and
more than 10,000 infantry. The Odrysian prince Seuthes III, in the year 323
B.C., could assemble against Lysimachus an army of 20,000 foot soldiers and
8000 horsemen. The Roman general Manlius, in the year 188 B.C., was
attacked in the defile between Cypsela and the Hebrus by 10,000 Thracians,
drawn from the tribes of the Astii, Caeni, Maduateni and Corpili. According to
Strabo, writing under Augustus, Thrace south of the Danube counted 22
races, and was able, though then much exhausted, to raise an army of
15,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry. These numbers obviously are not
reached by a census but by conjecture.
shores of the Euxine, who carried on an active trade with the inhabitants of
the interior, and were well acquainted with this wealthy tribe. The Agathyrsi
were Scythians, who in the course of the migration of this people towards the
west had settled in Transylvania and had conquered the indigenous Dacian
population. They had abundance of gold ornaments, for they inhabited a rich
gold-bearing region, and indeed archaeological finds have proved that from
the latest period of the Bronze Age onwards Dacia was rich in articles of gold.
As the Agathyrsi had for a long time lived side by side with the numerically
much stronger Dacians, they had naturally adopted Thracian customs.
The Thracian people were divided into many tribes. Herodotus mentions
Throughout the whole course of their history the Thracians never succeeded
in combining into one State. The mountain tribes in particular, who lived
mainly by hunting, cattle-breeding and brigandage, maintained their
independence down to a late period. The first State of any considerable
magnitude arose in the Hebrus valley, which was early exposed to cultural
influences from the south along the Hebrus there ran at this period an
important trade-route which led northwards from Philippopolis across the
Haemus to Moesia. This State was founded shortly after 480 B.C. by the
Odrysian king Teres who extended his sovereignty as far as the Euxine and
the Hellespont. His son Sitalces subjugated the tribes of Mt. Rhodope, part of
the Paeonians, as far as the Strymon, and the Getae north of the Haemus. It
is probable that even the Greek towns on the Pontic coast were compelled to
acknowledge the overlordship of the Odrysae and to pay them tribute.
Thence-forward the king of the Odrysae called himself "King of the
Thracians".
The annual imposts which were levied in the country itself and from the
Greek towns on the coast amounted in the time of Seuthes I to about 400
talents of gold and silver; and an almost equal sum was represented by the
presents in gold and silver which were offered to the king, without taking into
account the offerings of brightly coloured stuffs, both worked and plain,
besides other presents (Thucydides). These presents were made not only to
the king but also to the lesser chiefs and to the other Odrysian nobles; no
man could effect anything at court unless he brought a gift with him. It was,
however, counted more disgraceful to refuse a request than to have a
request refused. This universal Thracian custom is pleasantly illustrated in
Xenophon's Anabasis. During the banquet given by Seuthes II in honour of
Xenophon, a Thracian appeared leading a white horse, took up a full horn,
drank to Seuthes and presented him with the horse; another brought him a
young slave; a third, garments for his queen; a fourth, a silver vessel, and so
on. From this description the inference has been drawn that there existed
among the Thracians a solemn form for the conclusion of treaties a meal
eaten in common by the contracting parties, accompanied by presents, the
acceptance of which laid the recipient under obligation to do as much or
more in return.
The Odrysian State had a quasi-feudal character, the mass of the people
being in economic dependence on the king and his nobles. In this respect it
offers analogies to the Bosporan kingdom. The royal power was unlimited;
after the death of the king his realm was divided among his sons, at any rate
when the circumstances were normal. Whether the kings at this time had a
fixed royal residence we do not know; in the fourth century Cypsela was the
capital. There was as yet no standing army.
Besides the king there were lesser tribal chiefs, usually members of the
reigning house, who, under his overlordship, administered the several
territories. Under weak sovereigns these vassal rulers grew so strong that
they could even declare their independence. Circumstances of this kind
naturally often gave occasion for the outbreak of conflicts between the
several chiefs, especially when any king took upon himself the task of
suppressing them, as did Cotys I. On the other hand, this state of things
made it always possible for the neighbouring powers, Athens or Macedon, to
keep Thrace permanently disunited by giving support now to one and now to
another of the lesser chiefs.
The union of kingship with priestly power, frequently found among primitive
peoples, existed in several of the Thracian tribes; thus, among the Cebreni
and Scaeboe the holder of the office of priest of Hera was at the same time
ruler of the people. Among the Dacians the kingly power had been separated
from that of the priests, but the High Priest of Zalmoxis, who was called a god
and dwelt in a cave in Mt. Cogaeonon, played an important part as the king's
counselor and helper. According to Herodotus the Thracian kings worshipped
Hermes above all gods, swore only by him, and claimed him for their
ancestor. This statement, which no doubt applies only to the tribes living in
the vicinity of Mt. Pangaeus, is confirmed by the silver octadrachms of the
Derroni. It is possible that the kings of these tribes belonged to a different
race from their subjects. Finally it may be mentioned that among many of the
Thracian tribes kingship did not exist.
The kingdoms which sprang up among the Getae after the fall of the Odrysian
State did not attain to any great importance, since they were too greatly
exposed to the Scythian invasions. At the beginning of the second century
B.C., there arose a Dacian kingdom, which had to wage war with the
Bastarnae, but this also was of no long duration. Later, however, the Dacians
succeeded in forming a powerful state, which drew upon itself the attention
of the Romans; this was the kingdom of Burebista.
The Thracians lived for the most part in numerous open villages (in Thracian
"para", in Dacian "dava"), which were scattered about the plains, hills and
mountains. It is probable that originally each tribe had a fortified village or
mountain fortress in which the chief resided. They preserved this agricultural
and village life down into Classical times; city life, with any considerable
trade and industry, did not develop till Roman times. Exchange of goods
between the various tribes took place at annual fairs, as is still the case
among primitive peoples.
The Dacian villages of the La Tene period are better known. They were small
(covering not more than five acres), the huts huddled together, surrounded
with palisades and deep ditches. The furniture found in them is poor,
consisting chiefly of pottery (native, Celtic and Greek) and various objects in
iron, bone, stone and glass, and more rarely of bronze and gold. The graves
(all cremation burials) lie close to the settlements, or under the houses, and
very little has been found in them. As in the neolithic period the houses were
really huts with a rectangular ground-plan and a saddle-roof, thatched with
straw or reeds. The walls were of wattle, plastered with a mixture of clay and
straw. In the mountainous parts they were built of planks and beams, with
foundation-walls of stone. The hearth was usually placed in a corner or near a
wall, not in the middle of the room. In the Dobrudja we hear of Troglodytes
who lived in underground dwellings, a mode of life which in the Balkan
peninsula survived down to recent times. Caves also were used as human
habitations.
In the interior of Thrace few towns are mentioned apart from the colonies
founded by Philip II and it is hard to form any definite conception of them.
Among those known are Cypsela, Doriscus, Xantheia (modern Xanthi) and
Bizye (modern Viza), the seat of the latest Odrysian royal house. A poorly
fortified town on the left bank of the Danube was taken by Alexander the
Great. In south-east Wallachia there was the town of Helis where the Getic
King Dromichaetes entertained his prisoner Lysimachus.
Some of the hill-top towns in the territory of the Dacians (e.g. Costeshti,
Graditea Muncelului) have recently been scientifically excavated. They are
placed on hill-tops which command plains and roads, and consist of a series
of concentric terraces, strengthened on the outer side with palisades on
walls. On one of the lower terraces stands the great fortification-wall (2-4
yards thick), with square towers at intervals. Its foundation is of squared
limestone blocks bonded together with wooden beams; above that, the wall is
built of sun-dried bricks. On the highest terrace stands a square tower, which
was the dwelling of the chief. Such fortified towns are especially numerous in
Transylvania, date for the most part from the late La Tene period, and were
centres of considerable industrial activity.
From the days of Peisistratus down to Roman times foreign nations repeatedly
made attempts to get a foothold in Thrace in order to exploit the natural
resources of the country. Thrace, like Macedon, was well wooded; it was
chiefly thence that the Greeks, from the fifth century B.C., drew their supplies
of timber for shipbuilding. In the neighbourhood of Dysorus (Krusha-Planina)
lay a town called Xylopolis, the name of which is an index to its trade. The
region of the lower Strymon was very rich in timber, and the loss of
Amphipolis in 424 B.C. deprived the Athenians of one of their most important
sources of shipbuilding material.
imported from the Black Sea regions was drawn from the Dobrudja. For the
storage of the products of the soil, underground chambers ("siroi") were used.
The Thracians, like the Phrygians, knew how to make a kind of barley beer
("bryton"), which as it had barleycorns floating in it, was sucked up through
straws. Hemp was grown in all parts of Thrace, and garments were made of it
which could hardly be distinguished from those of linen. In southern Thrace,
however, flax was not unknown.
As the inland Thracians, with the exception of the Dacians, had no salt, they
were obliged to buy it from the Greeks; on the lower Strymon this trade was
in the hands of the Athenians. In exchange for salt, the Thracians traded,
among other things, slaves. The Greek colonies on the shores of the Aegean
and the Euxine used to dry salt from the lagoons, e.g. in Mesembria,
The custom of tattooing and painting the body, which was highly esteemed
among the Thracians, is mentioned by Herodotus. It was in special favour
with the women, and the more nobly born they were, the richer and brighter
coloured were the designs they used. The Agathyrsi painted both their faces
and their limbs with indelible designs (distinctive tribal marks), while the
nobles also dyed their hair blue. Painting of the body was customary among
the Dacians also. It is probable that the tattooing had originally a magical
significance, as on Attic vases the Maenads are sometimes represented with
the figure of a stag tattooed upon them, i.e. with the figure of the sacred
animal which in the Dionysiac Mysteries was torn in pieces by the
Bacchantes. Men perhaps used for this purpose the mark of the ivy-leaf,
which played an important part in the Dionysus-cult. But later on the custom
of tattooing was practiced from purely ornamental motives.
In appearance the Thracians were large, powerfully built men, with fair or
even reddish hair, and a skin white, delicate and cold; and they had a
tendency to put on flesh. They are spoken of as straight-haired and with their
hair dressed in a kind of top-knot. The chin-beard of the Thracian on the
Orpheus vase from Gela is characteristic of his race, as also of the Dacians;
the cheeks are shaved, apart from short side-whiskers. It is likely that the
Thracians were not an unmixed type even at the time of their immigration
into the Balkan peninsula; it is also probable that in their new home they
were superimposed upon an earlier autochthonous population which was
perhaps of a darker complexion.
The favourite occupation of the Thracians was the chase, and they even
represented their principal gods in the guise of hunters. Besides leopards,
foxes, panthers and bears, in earlier times both the lion and the aurochs were
hunted in southern Thrace; and the huge horns of the latter were exported to
Greece. The kings of the Odrysae, Paeonians and Getae, were accustomed to
use aurochs' horns, sometimes overlaid with gold and silver, as drinking
vessels. The bison ("vison") which the Thracians knew how to capture alive,
was found in the mountains of Orbelus and Messapium (the modern Svigor
and Maleshevska-Planina, on the Strymon). The stag, the boar and the hare
were widely distributed. As we know from Herodotus, the lakes and rivers
were full of fish, while the Strymon was particularly rich in eels. In the
navigation of these lakes and rivers small dug-outs were used. On the lower
part of the Danube larger boats and ships were also known, the use of which
had been learnt by the inhabitants from the Greeks, who came up the river to
trade.
The same author describes the sword dance "the Thracians danced, with
weapons in their hands, to the music of the flute, springing lightly to and fro
and brandishing their swords. At last one seemed to strike down the other,
and the stricken dancer pretended to fall dead. The other stripped him of his
arms and went off singing. Others then dragged the fallen man away, as
though he had been really dead".
We hear of other sports, which were cruel and often highly dangerous, for
example the hanging game described by Seleucus, in which the feasters drew
lots who should put his head in a noose, and cut himself down before it
tightened. And if he is not quick enough in severing the rope with his
scimitar, he is a dead man, and the others laugh and make merry at his
death. So slight was the value set on human life.
The national weapons of the Thracians were the sabre, in the form known as
"yataghan", and especially the sickle-shaped iron sword and knife; also the
six-foot pike, half of which consisted of a heavy iron double-edged blade. The
double-axe appears upon the coins of some of the Thracian kings, and also in
the hands of the Thracian Maenads; it is possible that the double-axe was a
hereditary symbol of authority in the Odrysian royal house. In addition they
used javelin and bow; and it was said that the mounted bowmen of the Getae
used to tip their arrows with poison. For defense there was a light, crescent-
Of the art of war as practiced by the Thracians we know little. Arrian reports
that the northern Thracians had learnt the wedge-shaped battle formation
from the Scythians. The Triballi were accustomed to draw up their forces in
four ranks in the first were placed the weaker, in the second the stronger
men, behind them the cavalry and, last of all, the women who if the men
wavered, rallied them with cries and taunts. When Alexander the Great forced
the passage of the Haemus the Thracians had drawn up large numbers of
wagons in front of them, intending to use them in the fight as a kind of wall,
and also, as the enemy were mounting the slopes, to roll them down upon
them, in order to break up the Macedonian phalanx. Parallel to this is the
remarkable device which the Bessi used to defend themselves against the
Roman general, M. Lucullus, in 73 B.C. wheels fastened together by their
axles and studded with short spear-points were hurled down upon the enemy
as they advanced up a steep slope (Sallust). Similar devices though in a more
developed form are also found in use among the Dacians; they may therefore
be considered to be a Thracian invention. Thucydides describes how Dian
mercenaries from Mt. Rhodope made a successful defense against the
Theban cavalry in 413 B.C. by first skirmishing in open order and then closing
their ranks again. Watch-fires were left burning in front of the camp of
Seuthes II in order that no one might be able to approach it without being
observed by the sentries. Before a battle the Thracians used to rattle their
weapons in order to strike terror into the enemy. When in flight they slung
their shields upon their backs. According to Livy, the Thracians used to return
from a victorious battle singing and bearing on the points of their lances the
severed heads of their enemies. Among the Paeonians it was the custom for
any man who had slain an enemy to bring his head to the king, and receive in
reward a golden cup.
Traces, though not very clear ones, have been found of animal-worship
among the Thracians. We may recall the representation of Dionysus in animal
form, Artemis Tauropolos, and the religious significance of the fox ("bassara")
which according to many scholars was treated as the totem of the Bessi. It is
at least clear that the Alopekis (fox skin) and the Nebris (fawn skin) had a
religious significance; the votaries clothed themselves in the skins of the
animals which they sacrificed and devoured, in order to become like the god.
And the Getic Zalmoxis was originally thought of as having the form of a bear.
There was also another god worshipped, to whom the Greeks gave the name
Helios. Sophocles, for example, speaks of Helios as "the eldest divinity of the
horse-loving Thracians". The Bithynians, who were of kindred race to the
Thracians, held their courts of justice in the open air, facing the sun, that the
god might look upon their judgments; here, as often elsewhere, the sun-god
has become a god of justice. The Paeonians worshipped Helios in the form of
a disc attached to a staff. The coinage, too, of the Thracian populations in
Macedonia and Paeonia before the time of the Persian War affords proof that
sun-worship was actively practiced. The Thracian Helios-cult was taken up
into Orphism, in which Helios became identified with Dionysus.
The Orphic Mysteries had their roots in the Dionysus-cult. The story of the
sufferings of Zagreus which they embody, was invented to explain the
Thracian rite of tearing animals to pieces and devouring them. It has,
moreover, been conjectured that the Titans already had a place in the
Thracian religion. Finally, it may be remarked that in his native country
Dionysus was worshipped early not only as a vegetation god, but also as a
great lord of life and of the whole of Nature. As the lord of souls he
guaranteed immortality to his votaries.
Along with Dionysus there also came into Greece the Thracian Earth-goddess
Semele, who had already in her native home been associated with the skygod. It can scarcely be doubted that the Indo-European myth of the marriage
of the sky-god with the earth and of the child who sprang from this union
(Dionysus) was also current among the Thracians.
The goddess whom Herodotus calls Artemis was doubtless the Thracian
Bendis (Mendis), to whom the Thracian and Paeonian women presented
offerings wrapped in wheat-sheaves. She was a great goddess of fruitfulness
and was also a goddess of hunting; as such she bore two lances. She was also
identified with Hecate. In the time of Pericles her cult was introduced into
Athens, and served as an object of ridicule to the Comic poets. Plato gives a
description of the first celebration of the Bendideia at the Piraeus. The
festival consisted of a procession in which the Athenian citizens, and
especially the Thracians who had settled at the Piraeus, took part, and of a
torch race on horse-back and a night celebration of an orgiastic character. A
temple of the goddess was situated in the neighbourhood of the lower Hebrus
(Maritza). In Greek bas-reliefs she is represented in Thracian costume.
Amphipolis was the seat of the worship of Artemis Tauropolos, who was
doubtless a Thracian goddess of hunting allied to Bendis. Another goddess
identified with Bendis is the Mystery-goddess Hecate (or Aphrodite), who was
worshipped in the cave of Zerynthia on the island of Samothrace and on the
opposite coast with sacrifices of dogs. She was, as it seems, goddess both of
life and death. And the enigmatic cult-names Axiokersos, Axiokersa in the
Mysteries of the Cabiri seem also to have been of Thracian origin. In an
inscription of a brotherhood found at Piraeus, the Thracian god Deloptes is
mentioned along with Bendis and he appears also as the Hero Deloptes in a
votive tablet from Samos, where he is represented after the fashion of
Asclepius, leaning upon a staff. This great Thracian goddess was worshipped
also by the Dacians, and in the Roman period is often spoken of under the
name Diana Regina. We may note that Diodorus ascribes to the Dacians the
worship of Hestia also, for there are traits in the nature of Bendis which
remind us of Hestia.
A prominent part in the Thracian pantheon was played by the god whom the
hellenized Thracians called by the name of Heros. This was the Thracian
Horseman Hero who is known to us more widely from monuments of the
Roman Empire. He is, above all, a chthonic deity and as such is also a god of
vegetation and the bestower of all the gifts of nature. He is, therefore,
represented on some second-century B.C. coins of Odessus as bearing a
cornucopia though later he appears without it; in inscriptions he is designated
by the Thracian name Derzelas.
In other towns on the Black Sea coast also (Tomi, Istros, Callatis) the Greek
god of the underworld was identified with the Thracian Hero. The latter was
also held to be the bestower of health and the guardian of the house and of
the roads against all evil. Sometimes he is represented with three heads. He
was also a god of the chase, like the Thracian king Rhesus (Rex) known to us
from the Greek mythology, who lived as a hunter-god upon Mt. Rhodope, and
upon whose altars the wild beasts offered themselves voluntarily for sacrifice.
Rhesus was likewise a chthonic divinity and protected his worshippers from
pestilence and other diseases. Traces of his cult are found at Amphipolis,
Aenus and Byzantium. The Thracian Hero and Rhesus show a certain affinity
with Dionysus, who is sometimes called a Hero, and appears as a hunter-god.
They were perhaps hypostases of this many-formed Thraco-Phrygian chief
god.
The strong religious feeling of the Thracians and their lively faith in another
life were generally recognized in antiquity. Herodotus says of the Getae that
they held themselves to be immortal; they had only one god, Zalmoxis, to
whom they believed they would go after death. The Greeks who lived on the
shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine gave the historian a rationalized
version of the legend, which brought Zalmoxis into connection with
Pythagoras.
The same writer tells us that every four years the Getae sent to Zalmoxis a
messenger, chosen by lot, to make known to the god their desires. The
messenger was flung into the air and caught upon the points of three spears;
if he was pierced by the spears and died, he was held to be acceptable to the
god; if not, another messenger was sent in his place. This custom is normally
explained as the offering of a human sacrifice to the god. Such sacrifices
were, it is true, customary in other tribes, but it may be that it was nothing
else than the periodical slaying of the vegetation spirit with the purpose of
increasing fruitfulness, and in this case we might conceive of Zalmoxis as a
vegetation god. No doubt the slaying would originally take place every year,
and the custom would gradually be mitigated later. It is in any case clear from
the statements which have come down to us that Zalmoxis was a divinity of
the Lower World, who was also thought of as a god who gave oracles and
revelations. Whether the epiphany of the god was celebrated in enthusiastic
festivals is not clear. Many scholars deny the existence of orgiastic cults
among the Getae and conceive of Zalmoxis as a sky-god. In any case it must
be assumed that the Getae did worship a sky-god (perhaps Gebeleizis, which
was, according to Herodotus, another name for Zalmoxis), and we may
venture on the conjecture that this sky-god had coalesced with an older
chthonic divinity and so became a god of the Lower World, as happened also
with the Greek Zeus in certain local cults. Another remarkable custom of the
Getae is that of shooting arrows against a thunderstorm in order to frighten
away the hostile power.
that is only to be explained by the need that was felt to bring Pythagoras into
connection with Thrace, because his teaching had become fused with
Orphism.
There survived among the Thracians and Getae the custom, which goes back
to remote antiquity, of slaying at the grave the dead man's favourite wife;
and it is even related that the wives disputed among themselves which had
been the favourite and that the friends of the dead took much trouble to
discover who this was. The low estimation in which human life was held,
coupled with the belief in immortality, explains other customs. When a child
was born, for instance, the relatives wailed over it, because of the evils which
awaited it in life; the dead, on the other hand, were buried amid jubilations
because they were now freed from all sufferings and living in complete
blessedness. And the Thracian tendency to suicide, of which we have ample
evidence, has its roots in the same belief.
With the exception of a short Thracian inscription in Greek letters, which has
not yet been interpreted with certainty, all we know of the Thracian language
which was still a living language in the sixth century A.D. consists of personal
and place names and a few glosses. Androtion, the Athidographer, even
declared that no one in Thrace knew how to write, and, indeed, that all the
barbarian peoples of Europe regarded the use of writing as something
disgraceful.
Music, dancing and poetry seem, however, to have flourished in Thrace. The
worship of the Muses which had its earliest seat in Pieria on Olympus seems
to have been of Thracian origin; and the names of the mythical Thracian
bards, Orpheus, Musaeus and Thamyris, are well known. But it is possible that
this relatively high musical art was derived from the earlier pre-IndoEuropean population of Thrace, which was connected with that of Asia Minor.
Even among the northern tribes the love of music was not unknown.
Theopompus mentions the Getic custom of accompanying embassies of
peace with the playing of the zither. The Agathyrsi learnt their laws by heart
in the form of songs. Certain musical instruments (e.g. the magadis and the
shepherd's pipe) were held to have been actually of Thracian invention,
though whether with justice we do not know. A song is mentioned named the
"sitalkas" which was probably sung in honour of King Sitalces; both a song
and a dance bore the name of Zalmoxis; a song accompanied by the flute
was sung over the dead. We hear also of magical chants with which the
Thracian physicians healed both body and soul. Women, too, played an
important part as sorceresses and soothsayers. Indeed, Menander makes
mock of the deep-rooted superstition of the Getic women, who were always
celebrating some festival or other and performing sacrifices with magic rites.
Popular medicine had a considerable vogue among the Dacians ; the names
of quite a number of plants which were used as medicines have come down
to us.
To this must be added the influence of Athens, for to Athens the Thracian
coastal region was one of the most important bases of her commerce and
prosperity. From Thrace she drew exports of cereals, cattle, slaves and
metals. These commercial interests explain the friendly relations which
Athens maintained with the Odrysian kingdom. The Odrysian kings even
attempted to connect the lineage of the ruling house with the famous figures
of Greek legend King Teres traced his descent to Tereus who married the
daughter of the Attic King Pandion. The fact that Thucydides took the trouble
to refute this genealogical claim, shows that it had met with some
acceptance in Athens also. Seuthes II in his conversation with Xenophon
referred to the kinship and friendship between the Thracians and the
Athenians. Even in later times these friendly relations were not broken off:
Seuthes III in the year 338 B.C. sent his son Rhebulas to Athens. It is well
known that Greeks played an important part at the Thracian court, and some
of them even took Thracian wives. Nymphodorus of Abdera, for instance, who
had married the sister of Sitalces, brought about the alliance between Thrace
and Athens. One daughter of Cotys was married to Iphicrates, another to the
mercenary leader Charidemus, who was in the service of Cersobleptes. The
latter used Greeks as envoys to Philip II and the Athenians. The mercenary
leaders, Athenodorus, Simon and Bianor, were connected by marriage with
Cersobleptes' opponents, Berisades and Amadocus.
The coinage of the Thracian kings affords striking testimony to the lively
commercial and political relations existing between the Greek colonies and
the Thracians. The majority of the coins are of a Greek type, and are stamped
with Greek legends. The coins of Sparadocus, the brother of Shakes, are of
Olynthian type, and were probably struck in Olynthus. On the other hand the
coins of Seuthes I bear a distinct national Thracian emblem, the figure of a
horseman, which also appears on the coins of Cotys I and Seuthes III. The
coins of Amadocus I, Amadocus II, and Teres III are modeled upon those of the
town of Maronea, where they were struck. Not less popular were the types of
Thasos, which are found on the coins of Eminacus (fifth century B.C.),
Saratocus (c. 400 B.C.), Bergaeus (fifth century B.C.) and Cetriporis (c. 356
B.C.). Imitations of the coins of Abdera are less frequent, though there are
some to be found, e.g. on the coins of the otherwise unknown Spoces (c. 360
B.C.). In the first half of the fourth century Cypsela was the seat of the
Thracian mint, and Hebryzelmis, Cotys I, Cersobleptes and Philetas had coins
struck there. Orsoaltius, not known in literary sources, in the time of
Lysimachus struck coins of Alexandrian type. Seuthes III actually used coins
of Philip, Lysimachus, Alexander the Great and Cassander, over-striking them
with his own types. After the diadem had been introduced as the symbol of
royalty in Macedonia it was probably adopted also by the Thracian kings; but
evidence for this is only found later, viz. on the coins of Mostis (c. 200 B.C.),
Cotys III, Sadalas, etc.
a barbarized Ionian style. Especially notable was a small silver plate (an
ornament for a horse's forehead) of native work with mythological scenes and
figures (such as Hercules and Cerberus, Griffins, Siren), though the
interpretation is uncertain.
The story of the commercial relations of Thrace with Macedonia and the
Greek coast-towns is clearly told by the numismatic evidence. In what is now
Bulgaria are found great numbers of bronze, silver and gold coins of Philip II,
Alexander the Great and Lysimachus, and silver coins of Abdera and the
towns of the Thracian Chersonese; most frequent of all are the silver tetradrachms of Thasos, while only a few examples of Athenian tetra-drachms
appear. On the other hand imitations of the coins of Philip II, Alexander and
Lysimachus, as well as of Thasian coins, are found in great numbers.
Farther north in the Daco-Getic territory Greek influence was less powerful
though the colony of Istros played a notable part. Tomi did not acquire
importance until the third century B.C., while Callatis was more of an
agricultural colony and its trading was chiefly in corn. Istros, on the other
The appearance of the Celts in the region of the lower Danube, and in
Southern Thrace where they founded the kingdom of Tylis, threw racial
relations into confusion. Although the economic connections of the Greek
colonies with the interior were not broken off they fell into great distress, for
there was no longer any dominant power in Thrace, and so these towns were
exposed to incursions from the neighbouring tribes, which plundered their
territory and exacted an annual tribute from them.
Celtic influence in Dacia, especially in the second and first centuries B.C., left
deep traces behind it. Alongside the native hand-made pottery, which
preserves the older forms (of the Neolithic and Bronze ages), there can be
found importations or imitations of Celtic pottery as well as various iron tools
of Celtic form (ploughshares, scythes, sickles, etc.). The iron weapons, on the
other hand, are of Dacian form, though the fibulae whether iron, bronze or
silver are of Celtic type. Among ornaments, arm-rings and neck-rings with
serpent-heads of geometrical pattern are characteristic of Dacia. In Thrace,
alongside the native curved sabres, long swords and lances of Celtic type,
also fibulae, bridles, spurs, and so on are found.
Finally we may mention a find of the second or first century which shows
evidence of Sarmatian influence on Thrace. In the neighbourhood of Galiche
In what precedes various cultural elements which the Greeks borrowed from
the Thracians have been pointed out; it is also, as we have seen, possible to
produce evidence of numerous points of contact between the two peoples,
especially in the realm of cultus and myth. There can be no doubt that, with
the progress of the archaeological exploration of Thrace, their mutual
influence will become still more clearly manifest.
***
Scattered notices in various authors: Appian (Bell. Civ.), Arrian (Perip. Pont.
Eux.), Ephorus (fragments in F.G.H.), Hecataeus of Miletus (fragments in
F.G.H.), Herodotus, Pindar (Pap. Oxy.), Pliny (fragments in N.H.), Pomponius
Mela (Chorographia), Ps. Scylax (Periplus), Ps. Scymnus (Periegesis),
Stephanus of Byzantium, Strabo, Theophrastus (Hist. Plant.), Theopompus
(Philippica), Thucydides, Xenophon (Anab.) and others.
Detschew, D. Die thrakische Inschrift auf dem Goldring von Ezerovo. Glotta,
1916.
Detschew, D. Die dakischen Pflanxennamen. Ann. Univ. de Sofia, Fac. Hist.Phil., 1928.
Filow, B. Neue Funde aus dem Hugelgrab bei Duvanli. Bull. Inst. Arch. Bulg.,
1926-27.
Filow, B. Goldener Ring mit thrakischer Inschrift. Bull. Soc. Arch. Bulg.,191213.
Filow, B. Die archaische Nekropole von Trebenischte. Berlin and Leipzig, 1927.
Seure, G. Etudes sur quelques types curieux du cavalier thrace. Rev. E.A.,
1912.
***
Addendum: Let us consider the article on ancient Thrace and Thracology from
"Danov, H. Brief History of the Thracians. Sofia, 1979" presented in the
booklist. I have read numerous articles and monographs from contemporary
authors on the subject but couldn't find nowhere a good review on
institutional history and academic development of the discipline. The jump
from the Dark Ages seems straightforward viz., from the early narratives
on geography and mythology derived out of classical sources and up to the
groundbreaking work of F. Cary (1757) and W. Tomaschek (1893). There
follows a blank period for at least 70 years where no authorities are
mentioned, neither bulgarian nor foreign, and finally comes year 1972 when
Institute of Thracology has been found which stemmed hitherto a whole
cohort of talented historians and archaeologists on Thrace. So far and so
good, but we wish here to expand a bit on that missing period of some twothirds from the XX century. We shall provisionally call these times primary and
secondary stages in disciplinary Thracology.
We get back to the main theme of our presentation. This concerns the work of
the foremost bulgarian Thracologist, Prof. G. Katzarov (1874-1958). He
studied in his young age as pro-sector to the Czech scholar Vaclav Dobruski
at the first National Museum (1893). He got stipend for Germany and there
graduated Classical Philology in Leipzig. His dissertation "De foederis
Phocensium institutis" (1899) was written under the supervisory guidance of
Prof. Paul Kretschmer. While back in Bulgaria, Gavril Katzarov got
appointment as private Docent at Sofia University, Department of History. He
travelled extensively abroad to gather materials and published (co-authorship
with D. Detchev) the first edition of "Sources on ancient history of Thrace and
Macedonia" (1915). The second edition, revised and enlarged, came out in
1949. Meanwhile, Prof. Katzarov compiled an impressive workload of articles
and monographs on the antiquities in Bulgaria. The total volume is estimated
to between 3000-4000 pages. Here we should concern only publications in
German language (i.e., his main working language) and principally two works.
Commendably, the article "Thrace" was written for the "Cambridge Medieval
History, VIII, 1930" in English language.
"Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte der Thraker. Sarajevo, 1916" The book has
141 pages, with 38 photos and drawings. The golden age of the Thracians
was the last step from the archaeology of the Balkans. Prerequisite for these
had already been established as 1) Scythian influence from South Russia
and Dnieper region, consisting of isolated finds from Panagyurishte, Brezovo,
Bednyakovo and Radyuvene /1897-1903/, and representing a barbarized
Ionian style from 8th c. B.C.; 2) Persian influence from the invasions of Darius
and Xerxes in the 5th c. B.C. The Odrysian kingdom of the united Thracians
accepted much organizational discipline from Persia and architectural
impetus for tholoi-tomb building. The imposing brick-layered style at KirkKilisse (Lozengrad) from year 1910 was later reaffirmed on Bulgarian lands;
3) Greek influence from Mycenae and Troy. Amazingly enough Schliemann's
archaeology found supporters in Bulgaria as exemplified by the fighting skills
of the Achaeans and their weapons, bronze sword and double-axe, found in
the district of Philippopolis /1897-1903/. Thus an exhausted picture of
Thracian archaeology existed until years 1912-13, when two simultaneous
finds came into site at Duvanli (Philippopolis district, today at Plovdiv's