Thrācia

, a large country of Europe, at the south of Scythia, bounded by mount Hæmus. It had the Ægean sea on the south, on the west Macedonia and the river Strymon, and on the east the Euxine sea, the Pro pont is, and the Hellespont. Its northern boundaries extended as far as the Ister, according to Pliny and others. The Thracians were looked upon as a cruel and barbarous nation; they were naturally brave and warlike, addicted to drinking and venereal pleasures, and they sacrificed without the smallest humanity their enemies on the altars of their gods. Their government was originally monarchical, and divided among a number of independent princes. Thrace is barren as to its soil. It received its name from Thrax the son of Mars, the chief deity of the country. The first inhabitants lived upon plunder, and on the milk and flesh of sheep. It forms now the province of Romania . Hero dot us , bk. 4 , ch. 99 ; bk. 5 , ch. 3 .— Strabo , bk. 1 , . — Virgil , Æneid , bk. 3 , . — Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 2 , . — Pausanias , bk. 9 , ch. 29 , . — Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 11 , li. 92 ; bk. 13 , li. 565 , . — Cornel i us Nepos , Alcibiades , ch. 11 .